In this episode ofShortcu.tt Podcast, we sit down withThomas Jespersen, a tech leader with 30+ years in the industry. As a former CTO of successful startups, including Templafy, Thomas shares his insights onengineer empowerment, managing startups vs enterprises, and achieving harmony between business, product and engineering.
From leading a company that has achieved technical excellence and deploys30 times per day to production, Thomas has shared his hard-earned lessons, some of them may be unconventional, that have true impact in buildinghigh-performing engineering teams that deliver quality at scale.
Empowered engineers are essential for building successful tech products.
Silos between business, product, and engineering lead to inefficiencies.
Startups should focus on solving customer problems, not just shipping features.
Continuous Discovery Habits (by Teresa Torres) is a must-read for product teams.
DORA metrics are key indicators of engineering team performance.
Feature flags & CI/CD pipelines are crucial for scaling engineering teams.
Deadlines should be replaced with high-confidence commitments to avoid technical debt.Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction – 30+ years in tech, from startup to scale-up journey.
02:00Simplicity in Engineering – Why "simple" doesn’t mean "easy."
06:00 Breaking Silos – Why engineers should be involved in product discovery.
12:00Delivery vs. Discovery – Moving beyond a feature factory mindset.
18:00Measuring Success – DORA metrics and replacing deadlines with high-confidence commitments.
25:00Practical Engineering Practices – CI/CD, automation, and scaling teams.
32:00Next Episode Sneak Peek – What is developer experience for small teams and startups?Mentioned Resources & References:
📖Books:
Inspired byMarty Cagan – The definitive guide to building great product teams
Continuous Discovery Habits byTeresa Torres – Making discovery a weekly habit
📊Industry Metrics:
DORA Metrics – Deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery
🛠️Tools & Practices:
CI/CD pipelines, feature flags, and automated testing forscalable development
PlatformPlatform – Thomas’s open-source project for codifying engineering best practicesConnect with Us:
Thomas Jespersen-https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasjespersen/
Morten Christensen -https://www.linkedin.com/in/mortenchr/
Marilag Svennevig -https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilag/