The conversation delved into various aspects of engineering leadership, covering topics such as operational prioritization, measurement, technology choices, technical proficiency, and cross-domain leadership lessons. This blog post distills these insights and provides practical  qguidance for engineering leaders navigating similar contexts.

## Operational Excellence: A Culture of Ownership and Customer-Centric Metrics
To achieve operational excellence, Jeremy Rishel emphasizes the importance of instilling a culture of ownership and aligning operational activities with customer satisfaction. This means that operational excellence is not the sole responsibility of specific teams but should be a shared commitment across the entire organization.
Rishel suggests that teams should focus on metrics that directly reflect the user experience, such as reliability and availability. By measuring the impact of operational issues on end users, teams can prioritize resilience and allocate resources effectively. For example, understanding the implications of service interruptions or quality of service challenges helps teams quantify the impact on user behavior and outcomes. This data-driven approach enables engineering leaders to make informed decisions and direct their efforts towards improving customer satisfaction.
By fostering a culture of ownership, where every team member understands the importance of operational excellence in delivering a reliable and compliant customer experience, organizations can create an environment that promotes collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
## Strategic Technology Choices and Maintaining Technical Proficiency
Selecting the right technologies is a critical decision for engineering leaders in high trust, high regulation environments. According to Rishel, it is crucial to prioritize engineering time and focus on activities that differentiate the organization. In the build vs. buy debate, he advises leveraging third-party technologies whenever possible, allowing internal engineering efforts to concentrate on areas that provide unique value.
To ensure technical proficiency, Rishel recommends continuous learning and engagement with the evolving technical landscape. While time constraints may limit hands-on coding for engineering leaders, he suggests reading technical material and code to stay abreast of industry trends and best practices. This proactive approach helps leaders make informed decisions, communicate effectively with their teams, and fosters a deeper understanding of the engineering challenges faced by their organizations.
By staying technically proficient, engineering leaders can effectively navigate technological complexities, make informed strategic decisions, and provide guidance and support to their teams in achieving operational excellence.
## Learning Leadership Lessons from Diverse Fields
Rishel highlights the importance of seeking leadership lessons from diverse fields and drawing parallels between high uncertainty environments and the tech industry. He shares his experiences from the Marine Corps, where he learned valuable strategies applicable to fostering operational excellence in the technology sector.
In high trust, high regulation environments, where stakes are high and resources are constrained, leaders must adapt to changing circumstances, make critical decisions, and inspire their teams to achieve excellence. The lessons learned in the military, such as problem-solving techniques, resilience, and resource optimization, can be applied to overcome challenges and foster operational excellence.
Rishel encourages engineering leaders to expand their leadership knowledge beyond traditional business and technology resources. By exploring literature and works that offer unique perspectives on leadership, leaders can gain fresh insights and innovative approaches to managing teams, driving operational excellence, and achieving sustainable success.
By learning from diverse fields and applying cross-domain leadership lessons, engineering leaders can develop a well-rounded skill set, enhance their decision-making capabilities, and effectively navigate the complexities of high trust, high regulation environments.

By applying these insights and fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement, organizations can build robust systems, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and thrive in high trust, high regulation environments.

In a recent Engineering Q&A session, Jeremy Rishel, CTO at SoFi, shared valuable insights on how to achieve operational excellence within high trust, high regulation environments.

Operational Excellence, with SoFi's CTO

Jeremy Rishel

Japjit is the Chief Technology Officer at Matterport, bringing his substantial knowledge and expertise to the fore. Known for his insights into the evolution of the technology landscape, Tulsi's perspectives on the transformative role of AI, particularly in the engineering field, are both compelling and thought-provoking.

## Unleashing AI's Potential
Tulsi initiated the discussion with a keen emphasis on the influential role of AI in reshaping the technological landscape. He illustrated the significance of AI models, especially powerful ones like GPT-3, in facilitating transformation across numerous industries. Tulsi was unequivocal in his assertion that AI will be at the core of most if not all, interactions in the future, radically improving efficiency and outcomes.
He also highlighted the need for a balanced perspective. Integrating AI into systems shouldn't be seen as a complete replacement for older, reliable tools. It should be viewed as an augmentation, integrating AI capabilities with existing methods and technologies. A prime example is Google's use of the knowledge graph to enhance search results.
Despite the promising trajectory of AI, Tulsi reminded attendees of the early stage of its evolution. Present-day AI, although impressive, is fundamentally data processors. They are yet to possess a genuine "theory of mind" and instead base their decisions on analyzing vast amounts of data.
## The Fusion of AI and Human Expertise
A significant highlight of Tulsi's dialogue was his advocacy for hybrid systems, where AI and human expertise coexist and complement each other. He expressed a strong belief in the power of AI to supercharge problem-solving while underscoring the irreplaceable value of human intervention and understanding in deriving valuable insights.
Elaborating further, Tulsi discussed the potential of AI in the education sector. While AI can revolutionize the way we learn, making education more engaging and effective, it doesn't negate the role of teachers. Instead, AI should be viewed as an additional tool teachers can leverage to enrich their teaching methods.
Concerning the impact of AI on engineering roles, Tulsi argued that AI could significantly streamline workflows and improve outcomes. However, it's unlikely to replace jobs completely. He predicted a slower hiring rate as AI-enhanced efficiencies rise, pushing the workforce to evolve their skills to stay relevant.
## The Vibrant Landscape of AI Models
Tulsi's discussion also ventured into the realm of AI models. He emphasized the importance of transparency and understanding the origins of these models' learning capabilities. It's a notable point, considering that these models often build on top of each other.
In the world of AI models, Tulsi envisioned a future where diversity thrives. He hoped that not just one model would dominate but various models would be employed according to the situation. This concept, once again, resonated with his belief in hybrid systems that leverage different capabilities for optimal results.
## Gearing Up for an AI-Driven Future
Towards the end, the conversation shifted toward the future and how we should prepare for an AI-dominated era. Tulsi had a clear message: invest your time understanding and learning about AI.
Whether writing code, pursuing side projects, or exploring new AI trends, Tulsi underscored the importance of continuous learning. The goal isn't monetary gain but personal growth and relevance in a rapidly changing tech landscape. With technology evolving at lightning speed, particularly AI, it's imperative to stay updated, he urged.

Our conversation with Japjit Tulsi provided an enlightening exploration of AI's potential and impending impact on our world. His emphasis on continuous learning, the potency of hybrid systems, and the need for transparency in AI models were key takeaways from the session. As we delve deeper into AI's vast expanse, Tulsi's insights act as guiding principles, reminding us never to stop learning, remain inquisitive, and above all, cherish the irreplaceable worth of human expertise. As we navigate towards a future increasingly dominated by AI, Tulsi's vision encourages us to use AI to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them.

We at Plato recently hosted an Engineering Q&A with Japjit Tulsi, a seasoned technology leader with extensive experience in multiple tech giants, including Google, eBay, and Carta.

Navigating the AI Shift, with Matterport's CTO

Japjit Tulsi

Today, I am pleased to announce a significant evolution of our platform. After five years of learning, listening, and iterating, we at Plato are launching a completely redesigned version of our service. The changes we have implemented are designed to better serve you, our valued community of mentors and mentees, with increased flexibility, expanded offerings, and smarter, AI-powered features.

Here's what's new:

## 1. A Fairer Revenue Model

We're fundamentally shifting our financial model to better reflect the value that our mentors bring to our platform. We recognize that without our mentors, Plato simply wouldn't be the thriving community that it is today. Starting this week, we're introducing a revenue-sharing model. This change not only increases fairness but is also intended to enhance our mentors' engagement and reliability, creating a better overall experience for all our users. More about this: https://www.platohq.com/become-a-mentor

## 2. Broader Learning Opportunities

We understand that everyone learns differently, and we want our platform to reflect this. That's why we're expanding our services to accommodate diverse learning styles and needs. Alongside our 1-1 mentorship offering, we're launching Circles — a new, cohort-based mentorship product. In these Circles, you'll be part of a supportive group that learns and grows together under the guidance of a dedicated mentor, more about Circles: https://www.platohq.com/circles

## 3. A More Flexible Usage Approach

Our commitment to flexibility doesn't stop with learning styles. We're also revolutionizing how you can use our services. Moving away from a rigid seat-based model, we're introducing Plato credits. These credits can be used by your team to register for Circles or mentorship sessions, giving you more control over your usage and costs. More about it: https://www.platohq.com/plato-for-teams

## 4. Advanced AI Features

In our relentless quest to improve user experience, we've incorporated cutting-edge AI features. This includes the addition of call summaries, offering a useful way to review your key learnings and action points post-session. We're also launching chatbots that can provide more information about our mentors, assisting you in making more informed choices about your learning journey. You can try talking to bots in the mentor profile. 

These changes are not just surface deep. We've completely rebuilt Plato from the ground up, adopting a brand-new tech stack that accelerates our iteration speed, using TypeScript, Next.JS and Chakra.UI. This change in our technological infrastructure accelerates our iteration speed, ultimately allowing us to deliver better products, faster.

At Plato, we don't stand still. We're committed to growth and innovation in service of our users. We genuinely believe that these changes will make our platform even more valuable and effective for you. However, as always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback. After all, Plato is as much your community as it is ours. So, please, let us know what you think of these new features and services. Your opinions are what drive us forward.

Here's to a bright future and a more connected, collaborative, and fulfilling learning experience for all on Plato.

Plato launches a redesigned version of its service with a fairer revenue-sharing model, expanded learning opportunities, flexible usage, and AI-powered features. The platform now includes Circles for diverse learning styles and Plato credits for controlled usage and costs.

Introducing Plato 3.0

Built this mentorship platform from scratch. Ex-Engineer and YC alum.

Quang Hoang

🎉 Exciting news from Plato Academy: in our attempt to have the community shape the future of Plato Academy, we're introducing Circle Ideas! 🎉 

We want to ensure that our mentors invest their efforts in creating content that truly resonates with you, our community. That's why we've launched Circle Ideas - a platform where YOU can help us adapt to the ever-changing needs of engineering leadership community. Link in comment! 

We launched Circles Ideas because mentors spend a LOT of time preparing for their Circles, so it's crucial to focus on topics that genuinely interest our community.

Here's a glimpse of some proposed topics:
- Defining a world-class API strategy
- Efficient team & org design for engineering directors
- Build machine learning products millions of users love
- and 50 others potential Circles

23 mentors have submitted their ideas!
- Chris Slowe (CTO @ Reddit)
- Bruce Wang (Director Of Engineering, API Systems @ Netflix)
- Oliver Heckmann (Head of Engineering @ Coda)
- Frédéric R. (CTO at Dashlane)
- Limor Bergman (Exec Coach @ LBG Consulting, Former Dir Eng @ DigitalOcean)
- Virendra Vase (Ex CTO/COO/SVP at Life360, Patreon, Salesforce, Yahoo)
- Sushma (Sue) N. (CTO at Trusted Health)
- Seth Falcon (ex VP of Engineering  @ BlaBLaCar and Chef)
- Kent Wills (Director of Engineering @ Yelp)
- Michelle Mei Ling Waldorf (Director of Engineering Productivity @ Procore)
- Avi Shai (Executive Coach & Consultant , Ex Dir Eng @ Google)
- Ei-Nyung Choi (Technical advisor, mentor, and speaker. Former Senior Staff Engineer @ Slack, startup founder, manager. 
- Abhishek Bambha (Director of Engineering / Head of ML @ Roku)
- Bavyaa Vasudevan (Head of Engineering @ Point)
- Beatriz Delgado Reimúndez (Engineering Director @ Aircall)
- Richard Sun (Sr Technical Director @ Netflix)
- Evan Hammer (Startup OKR & Product Coach, Ex-Head of Product Focusmate)
- Matthew Clower (CTO @ Treasure Financial)
- Jeremy Wight  (VP of Engineering @ CareMessage)
- Hal J Eisen  (VP of Engineering @ TrueML)
- Nicholas Clark (CTO/Co-Founder @ Divvy Homes)

and now it's your turn to let us know what you want to see live! Cast your votes and shape the future of Plato Academy. Here is how it works:

1. Vote for the Circle(s) you want us to host (we'll give 1 week to vote)
2. We'll launch Circles that reached a certain threshold of upvotes
3. If the Circle(s) you upvoted is selected, we'll notify you and you'll receive a discount code to join

Thank you for being a part of the Plato community. We are excited to continue empowering engineers to achieve their full potential.

 https://www.platohq.com/ideas

We launched Circle Ideas to ensure that our mentors invest their efforts in creating content that truly resonates with you, our community. Only circles that gathered more than 10 upvotes will be created by the mentors.

Circles Ideas - Help us shape the future of Plato Academy

TL;DR: Today, I’m proud to announce the public launch of our new product: [Plato Academy, cohort-based learning with some of our top mentors](https://www.platohq.com?utm\_source=linkedin&utm\_medium=social&utm\_campaign=Initial%20Launch-initial-announcement)

**Our story over the past 18 months:**

Like many other startups, 2022 has been a challenging year for Plato: Companies are laying off and reducing costs, deals take forever to close, and even happy customers struggle to find a budget. We had to trim down the team to increase our runway and adapt to this new world. For six years, Plato has been helping great engineers become great engineering leaders through 30,000 one-on-one mentorship calls, so we got back to our roots and started to have lots of discussions with our users (Mentees and Mentors) and asked them what we should do next.

**Those are the main things we learned:**

- L1. Nothing beats a very motivated mentee in the driver’s seat for their growth. Sometimes we were selling multiple seats to companies, assigning the seat to someone who has been voluntold to use Plato. That’s a loss-loss-loss situation: the company pays for nothing for the mentee who doesn’t feel it’s worth their time and for the mentor who spends the time with a not motivated mentee.
- L2. Matching is key: when things click between a mentor and a mentee, the impact is phenomenal, sometimes transforming people’s lives and careers - both mentees and mentors.
- L3. Mentees enjoyed something we did in the past called Circles. Circles are small cohort-based courses on a specific topic, led by a mentor with deep experience. Each cohort has 6-8 mentees who meet regularly for four virtual sessions over 1-2 months. The mentor provides personalized insights and guidance, and mentees learn from each other, creating a peer learning dimension not available in individual mentorship.
- L4. Mentors don’t want to be paid if they spend 30 minutes a week; it’s a small amount of time enough not to take the burden of paperwork and taxes. But some mentors wanted to spend more time with Plato, but they could not justify spending a few hours per week if it were not paid.
- L5. Mentors are like 99% of us; they don’t have time to run a blog consistently and often post on social media.
- L6. Plato 1-1 mentorship is highly impactful and customizable but also expensive if you’re not 100% sure of the mentor you’ll meet

So today, we’re launching a new product as an experiment, and those are the hypothesis we have:

- H1 - Group Mentorship (a.k.a Circles) is an excellent way for mentors to have a broader impact while preserving the personal aspect of mentorship (we cap at 7-8 people per circle)
- H2 - We believe that the L&D budget is the best budget to tap into, it’s usually not cut, and mentees using their L&D budget to pay for Plato are motivated because they’re real volunteers and not voluntold
- H3 - Mentors don’t want to be paid but want transparency and control over where the money goes. We share the revenue with them, and they can cash in, donate to a charity or convert their revenue to Plato credit (at 2x rate) they can use or give to someone they want to sponsor.
- H4 - After months of experimentation, we believe that with the advances of AI / Transcript / Summarization, we can analyze the transcript of mentorship calls, we can help mentors share their knowledge with more people
- H5 - To lower the risk, we decided to make the first session accessible, and you’re charged only if you stay after session 1.

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Plato Academy. Our first feature is bringing Circles back to life. Our first batch of Mentors includes:

- [Srinath Kuruvadi (Head of Cloud Security @ Netflix)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/skuruvadi): will host a circle about [Becoming a security-conscious leader](https://www.platohq.com/circles/becoming-a-great-security-conscious-leader-ia7eqcjem9s): his course equips engineering leaders with the basics of security & privacy, risks, and how to protect their companies and users. Participants gain the necessary competencies to make their engineering teams and development processes secure. Ideal for those with new security & privacy responsibilities or partnering with security & privacy teams. Srinath is a Sr Information Security Leader, Advisor, Investor, and Mentor with 10+ years of experience leading security initiatives in Cloud environments, most recently at Netflix. He has also been a Venture Advisor, Mentor, and AWS Technical Community Member. He is an inspiring mentor with extensive knowledge and experience in security engineering, enterprise open source, data security, authentication, authorization, and breach- out-of-reach solutions. He brings knowledge, experience, and passion to the table.
- [Stacie Frederick (CTO @ Osso VR)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacie-frederick/): will host a circle about [Establishing an Engineering Career Ladder](https://www.platohq.com/circles/establishing-an-engineering-career-ladder-ofb087w0x8): CTOs, VPs, Heads, and Directors of Engineering with 50-150 engineers: join this Circle to learn the fundamentals of creating a good career ladder. Four online sessions will help you establish or revise your ladder and clarify the role and career development expectations. Stacie has 30+ years of experience in large and small companies, creating the first career ladder for her last three teams and mentoring leaders. She has developed a successful model for roles, levels, and career paths and is eager to share her knowledge with Circle participants.
- [Sridhar Ramakrishnan (Director of Engineering, Developer Experience and Productivity @ Slack)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridharramakrishnan11/): will host a circle about [Improving Org Productivity for Eng Directors](https://www.platohq.com/circles/improving-org-productivity-for-eng-directors-6frtewo8sne): This Circle helps Eng Directors increase productivity with best practices and innovative solutions. Through 4 online sessions, learn how to manage teams, maintain productivity, and inspire staff. Mentor provides strategies to meet challenges. Sridhar has 6+ years of experience in engineering productivity for organs of 500+ engineers and is excited to host a Circle to share his knowledge and enthusiasm. Participants can learn from his experience and each other through interactive sessions, and he looks forward to seeing their successes and helping them on their journey.
- [Sonali Sambhus (VP/Board member @ Square)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonali-sambhus): will host a circle about [Effective Wartime Leadership: Maximizing your org’s impact in the ‘Do More with less’ economy](https://www.platohq.com/circles/maximizing-the-impact-of-your-organization-21zfaowl1k7): This Circle will help Engineering Directors/VPs/CTOs leading teams of 30+ maximize their impact and grow their leadership skills. Learn to demonstrate and quantify the impact of your team on execs, organize for success, and establish yourself as a thought leader. Four sessions included. Sonali Sambhus is a highly experienced tech exec with 20+ years of experience leading engineering and product org. As VP at Square, she saved $600M+/year and led a cross- functional org. She was recently appointed to an Independent Board of Directors for AvidXchange, bringing tech strategy oversight and transformation efforts. She coaches 100s of leaders and is an invaluable resource to lead this Circle.
- [Jacob Kessler (Staff Eng @ Google)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobkessler/): will host a circle about [Navigating promotion to Staff engineer](https://www.platohq.com/circles/navigating-promotion-to-staff-engineer-638uxuip1zu): This course teaches engineers how to transition to a Staff role and make a successful case for promotion. Jacob Kessler is a software engineer with 14 years of experience. He has mentored 10+ coworkers through their promotion processes and developed, defined, and ran the engineering leveling process at WePay. His course focuses on distilling, explaining, and putting into practice the techniques he has observed to be effective.
- [Julien Kernec'h (Head of Engineering @ Plato)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkernech): will host a circle about [Prioritization and Time Management frameworks for Technical Founders](https://www.platohq.com/circles/prioritization-and-time-management-for-technical-founders-mmhzfx1g0r): This circle helps Technical Founders (CTOs, heads of engineering, and tech leaders in startups) maximize productivity and performance in four online sessions. The last session is a live office hour for participants to bring their challenges and get real-time help from the mentor. Julien has 15 years of experience leading technology in startups and has been a mentor on the Plato platform for the past five years. He has had 100 calls on Prioritization and Time Management and is excited to mentor participants in this Circle, as he knows how vital these skills are for startup success.
- [Sridhar Ramakrishnan (Director of Engineering, Developer Experience and Productivity @ Slack)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridharramakrishnan11/): will host a circle about [Success and Learning Patterns for First Time Managers](https://www.platohq.com/circles/success-and-learning-patterns-for-first-time-managers-uoelky9mkp): This Circle helps first-time Engineering Managers (with <2yrs exp.) succeed. It consists of 4 online sessions with a mentor to introduce topics, build relationships, and discuss challenges. Sridhar, a former engineer-turned-manager, shares his experiences and lessons learned to empower participants to become better leaders through his Circle. He designed the sessions to help participants understand and apply successful learning patterns.
- [Sushma Nallapeta (CTO @ Trusted Health)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sushmanallapeta/): will host a circle about [Growing from an Engineering Leader to an Executive](https://www.platohq.com/circles/growing-from-an-engineering-leader-to-an-executive-w17i6jf3mj): Directors and above with experience managing managers and driving tech strategy come together to explore the transition from engineer to exec. Sessions cover introductions, best practices, and tips, with the last session open for participants to ask questions and get answers from a mentor. (191 characters). Sushma is an experienced engineering, product, and business leader, mentor, and teacher. She is the perfect guide to teach students how to become an executive from an engineering leader, providing the insights and tools needed to reach the executive level.
- [Pete Woodhouse (Chief Technology Officer @ Prosper)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/woodhouse/): will host a circle about [Managing Technical Debt for VPs and CTOs](https://www.platohq.com/circles/managing-technical-debt-for-vps-and-ctos-58rizltiw52): This course introduces tech leaders to managing technical debt and how to explain it to non-tech teams. Ignoring it can hurt productivity and quality, so take advantage of it! Pete has 20+ years of experience managing software teams in large and medium companies and startups. He has developed in many tech stacks, including Javascript, Java, iOS, and C++, and has successfully resolved large amounts of tech debt. At Prosper, he implemented a successful tech debt management program.

Each circle is limited to 7-8 seats. The first session is free, and you’re charged only if you stay after session 1. Plato Academy is live today, with our first 16 circles open for applications and many more planned for months ahead with CTO/VPs/Directors/Managers from Reddit, Meta, Doordash, Stripe, 1Password, and other great tech companies. The link is in the first comment below.

Please let me know in comments what do you think about my hypothesis, I’d love to learn from your experience with Plato and/or with Mentorship!


We've launched a new product called Plato Academy, offering cohort-based learning with top mentors. 
Circles, small cohort-based courses led by a mentor with deep experience, provide a peer learning dimension not available in individual mentorship.
The first session is free, and participants are charged only if they stay after session one.

Operational Excellence, with SoFi's CTO

Latest Blog Posts

Connect and Learn with the Best Eng Leaders

Navigating the AI Shift, with Matterport's CTO

Introducing Plato 3.0

Circles Ideas - Help us shape the future of Plato Academy