alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders
Tobias Schlottke - alphalist CTO Podcast
130 episodes
3 weeks ago
This podcast features interviews of CTOs and other technical leadership figures and topics range from technology (AI, blockchain, cyber, DevOps, Web Architecture, etc.) to management (e.g. scaling, structuring teams, mentoring, technical recruiting, product etc.).
Guests from leading tech companies share their best practices and knowledge.
The goal is to support other CTOs on their journey through tech and engineering, inspire and allow a sneak-peek into other successful companies to understand how they think and act. Get awesome insights into the worldβs top tech companies, personalities with this podcast brought to you by Tobias Schlottke.
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This podcast features interviews of CTOs and other technical leadership figures and topics range from technology (AI, blockchain, cyber, DevOps, Web Architecture, etc.) to management (e.g. scaling, structuring teams, mentoring, technical recruiting, product etc.).
Guests from leading tech companies share their best practices and knowledge.
The goal is to support other CTOs on their journey through tech and engineering, inspire and allow a sneak-peek into other successful companies to understand how they think and act. Get awesome insights into the worldβs top tech companies, personalities with this podcast brought to you by Tobias Schlottke.
#121 - Canva's Playbook: Scaling Teams, Tech, and AI with Adam Schuck // Senior Engineering Director @ Canva
alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders
1 hour 1 minute
6 months ago
#121 - Canva's Playbook: Scaling Teams, Tech, and AI with Adam Schuck // Senior Engineering Director @ Canva
In this episode, Tobi chats with Adam Schuck, Senior Engineering Director at Canva, a company that has scaled to over 5,000 employees, 2,000+ engineers, and 230 million MAUs while remaining profitable. Adam shares his journey through startups (including acquisitions by Twitter and Canva) and large tech companies like Google, leading to his current role managing 220 engineers at Canva.
They dive deep into the challenges and strategies behind Canva's hypergrowth, including:
π Scaling engineering teams from 150 to over 2000.
ποΈ Implementing a career framework (Growth & Development Framework) relatively late at 1000+ engineers, moving beyond "minimum viable structure."
π€ Canva's approach to AI: Viewing it as a tailwind, fostering experimentation ("AI Impact"), providing broad access to tools (Cursor, Copilot, LLMs), and emphasizing human responsibility ("humans as shepherds").
π» The core technology decisions enabling Canva's success, particularly the operational transformation logic for real-time concurrent editing and the strategic shift to a unified web-based mobile experience (WebX).
βοΈ Maintaining a startup culture of adaptability despite massive scale.
π Adam's personal productivity hacks for leaders, focusing on ruthless calendar management and clear goal setting.
alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders
This podcast features interviews of CTOs and other technical leadership figures and topics range from technology (AI, blockchain, cyber, DevOps, Web Architecture, etc.) to management (e.g. scaling, structuring teams, mentoring, technical recruiting, product etc.).
Guests from leading tech companies share their best practices and knowledge.
The goal is to support other CTOs on their journey through tech and engineering, inspire and allow a sneak-peek into other successful companies to understand how they think and act. Get awesome insights into the worldβs top tech companies, personalities with this podcast brought to you by Tobias Schlottke.