Priya Venkataraman

I led engineering teams for eighteen years in Vancouver, including seven years running distributed groups split between Canada, Europe and South Asia. I work late in the day because that is when my clients' other time zones are awake and because that is the actual problem. Distributed teams fail in predictable ways. Decisions made in one time zone and resented in another. A team that is nominally equal but where one office is where things really happen. Managers who try to solve it with more meetings, which makes it worse for whoever is dialling in at eleven at night. I am also candid about promoting engineers into management, having done it badly. The best engineer is usually the worst first choice, and the honest conversation about whether somebody actually wants the job is one most companies skip. Bring me a real situation and I will work it with you rather than describe a framework.

Consultation languages

• 🇬🇧English
• 🇮🇳Hindi
• 🌍Tamil

Skills

• Distributed teams
• Time zone fairness
• Promoting engineers
• Technical decision making
• One to ones at distance
• Hiring senior engineers