Engineering management acts as an intricate puzzle attempting different pieces to find a solution. Management can be viewed similarly implementing frameworks to help solve challenges leaders face. B2B Sales Professionals can accelerate time to credibility if they understand the state of the engineering leader’s team.
“Engineering management isn’t inherently a bureaucratic, mystical, or mediocre profession,” said Will Larson, responding to my question asking what he believes is the main takeaway from his book, An Elegant Puzzle. He continued, “it’s a delightful series of puzzles, and there are better and worse answers to each puzzle.”
In reflecting on his response and digesting his book’s content, I asked myself, what if there are better ways to anticipate the challenges engineering leaders are tackling?
Let’s take a step back.
A few months ago, I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed and came across a post by an engineering executive who I admire recommending engineering leaders to read “An Elegant Puzzle.”
Will Larson draws from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe in writing this book. He is currently the CTO of Calm, the #1 app for meditation and sleep, where he continues to apply and refine the principles discussed in his book.
After reading the book, I reached out to Will and asked him:
“If there is one main takeaway from An Elegant Puzzle that you want to make sure people reflect on after reading it, what would it be?“
Engineering management isn’t inherently a bureaucratic, mystical, or mediocre profession. It’s a delightful series of puzzles, and there are better and worse answers to each puzzle. I challenge folks to spend a bit more time thinking about the critical decisions they make–organizational changes, promotions, assigning key projects, etc.–and look for a better way.
Interestingly, if you remove the word “Engineering” in the first sentence of Will’s response and start with “Management,” the core message stays intact. The reason being management in any profession has one thing in common – people. Just as a puzzle has individual pieces, individuals make a group of people.
Although pieces of a puzzle may have similar dimensions, placing a piece in the wrong spot would lead to the wrong answer. To correctly solve a puzzle, you’d need to set individual parts in the right area.
Whether you’re a people manager or individual contributor, this book has something for you.
As an individual contributor, I read the book through the lens of a Business to Business (B2B) Account Executive, and in doing so, one key concept inspired me to think differently on how I connect with engineering leaders.
Engineering leaders have a repository of frameworks to tackle process and people challenges.
The challenges engineering leaders face are similar to an extent, so frameworks are a common theme in this book. Will offers various frameworks that allow him to shorten the time it takes to arrive at a viable solution.
For example, one of the frameworks that resonated with me as a B2B account executive selling to engineering leaders is how to help these leaders build teams that are continuously innovating.
Will breaks down the four states of engineering teams framework:
A team is falling behind if each week their backlog is longer than it was the week before. Typically, people are working extremely hard but not making much progress, morale is low, and users of the application are vocally dissatisfied.
A team is treading water if they can get their critical work done but cannot pay down technical debt or begin major new projects.
A team is repaying debt when they can start paying down technical debt and are beginning to benefit from the debt repayment snowball.
A team is innovating when their technical debt is sustainably low, morale is high, and most work is satisfying new user needs.
As a B2B account executive looking to advise engineering leaders, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. The advise I offer an engineering leader whose team is falling behind will be different than an engineering leader whose team is repaying debt.
Will offers a framework for engineering leaders responsible for fixing each state of the team described above:
To fix a team falling behind, hire new people and increase capacity.
To fix a team treading water, consolidate team efforts to finish more things, and reduce concurrent work until able to begin repaying debt.
To fix a team repaying debt, add time to pay the debt.
To maintain a team innovating, add slack in your team’s schedule so that the team can build quality into their work.
The four states of a team and how to fix each state framework are an invitation to step into an engineering leader’s mind and anticipate the outcomes he or she is seeking.
Also, the framework elevates our conversation’s content because it guides my curiosity to areas that are most relevant for engineering leaders. This means I can build authentic credibility and be viewed as a true partner rather than someone just trying to make a sale.
Michael is a passionate entrepreneur focused on leaving a legacy that is filled with inspiration and courage. With the realization that “life is rented”, Michael approaches his mission to feed millions of people in a sustainable way with great enthusiasm and urgency. Although Jikoro as a company is still in its infancy (about 1 year old), the idea for the company has been gestating for years. Michael is putting to work his training as a scientist to build a company whose mission is to leverage technology to create products from palm oil that are less harmful to the environment and people. Essentially, creating a better product for tomorrow, today. The Agriscience industry in Africa is ripe for disruption as it is dominated by companies with antiquated technologies that also lack leadership when it comes to dealing with the realities of climate change.
Jikoro’s plans include leveraging technology to bring hydroponic farming to Nigeria and partnering with Universities to innovate on seed genomics. In addition to building a company that outlasts him, Michael wants to create millions of jobs for talented youth in Africa who are yearning for the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. Michael and his team at Jikoro have many exciting plans and their version of the future is filled with hope, determination, and courage.
Jikoro recently took first place in a business pitch competition organized by Umu Igbo Unite, at their 2019 annual conference in Minneapolis. I learned about Jikoro through the pitch competition and invited him to take part in the FIVE Questions series. I hope you are inspired and compelled to cheer on the team at Jikoro!
1. What is your unfair advantage as an entrepreneur and why should people want to do business with you?
I find this to be an interesting question because it illustrates in one aspect your fit and the other, characteristics of an entrepreneur. To appreciate my unique abilities, you would have to personally interact or shadow me for a day. You would quickly find out that I equally represent the Naija (Nigerian) hustle and accomplish my goals with a strategic mechanism. Nigeria is a unique country in dire need of multilateral solutions for all including men, women, and the youth. It’s estimated there are nearly 80 million youth ready to learn and work throughout impoverished regions of Nigeria. Throughout West Africa, a few small organizations are doing the best they can to be the change agents. However, to make the real impact it takes a collective of people and organizations. Jikoro LLC is ready to make the difference one-step-at-a-time, as our innovative strategies focus to eliminate the burdening hunger crisis and eliminate the technological barriers to entry. We are crafting a vision and creating opportunities for tomorrow, now. Our motto “Sustainable Agriscience for A Better Tomorrow”, today defines our innate hunger and desire to succeed. We should not lament and willow in stagnation; rather, let us be our own change agents. Our collective actions will be our unfair advantage.
2. What role has mentorship played in your journey as an entrepreneur and what’s your advice on how to seek out and foster relationships with mentors?
Either it’s this question or perhaps it’s the answer that goes on in life to be undervalued in its various forms. I’d have to say my journey as an entrepreneur is unique in experiences and achievement. Each day you wake up to face and overcome adversities through each stage and after each accomplishment. Mentorship is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, “guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution.” The reality is that not everyone has a mentor to speak freely or directly to. Similar to myself, you may become indirectly motivated to take the first steps. Virtual platforms such as YouTube and findings on the internet are great tools for those seeking inspiration. However, I should caution everyone not to pay for free advice and stay focused exclusively on stories and interviews without the glam. Watching and learning from women who essentially created their career positions were my first exposure to entrepreneurship. While in college I started my path towards entrepreneurship with a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, which allowed me to expose myself to as many unknowns as possible. Prior to starting Jikoro, I was presented with the opportunity to meet a few CEOs in the field of biotechnology and other industries. If you are given a similar opportunity, write down a few questions you are going to ask the individual in a notebook or diary. Your goal is to learn about your future mentors’ critical thinking process, focus, and their past experiences (e.g., successes and failures).
3. Why is the cause you are pursuing or problem you are solving the most important for this generation and how can people support /help you move your cause forward?
Well around the world the average age of a farmer is 60 plus years, and in the continent of Africa 60% of the population are under the age of 25. Let’s focus on Nigeria, the most populous country with the largest economic factor (e.g., GDP) in Africa. Without the need of a microscope, youth unemployment and data representing the quality of life is dismal. Primarily such concern for poor health is due to unemployment, hunger, and inaccessibility to resources. While Jikoro is only an agricultural sciences and farming company, the potential of a robust agriculture industry should bring excitement, as the number of improved lives may be exponential. Our vision is to develop the next generation of farming technologies and food crops to feed a nation through science and development of a stable supply chain. Moreover, we are focused on eliminating the biotechnology barrier and innovating to produce bio-engineered oil seeds and specialty crops for advanced technologies (e.g., biofuels and affordable medications). When you do the math, innovation plus product, multiplied by scalability equals profitability in the business world. A profitable agriculture industry translates into new forms of income, resulting in affordability of key services (e.g., healthcare) and investments in infrastructure, such as roads and water systems. There’s a saying, “those who fail to plan, plan to fail” and so far, no one has been able to disprove planning. In all realness, hopefully, individuals with additional resources will pick up where we left off and learn from our mistakes. To succeed, we are utilizing the grassroots community business funding model, so donations, investments, and partnerships are welcome, as well as feedback and advice. If you really want to help, first check out Jikoro’s website (https://www.jikoro.international), then if you feel compelled, contact us by email. Remember, it takes a village.
4. Reflect on all of the key milestones or sacrifices you’ve had so far in building Jikoro to what it is today, which of these milestones or sacrifices would you say is the most pivotal and why?
Too many milestones but selling my car and investing the money into the business was the most pivotal sacrificial milestone. I woke up and said today is the day, now each day I remember moving forward is the only way to go. Today, I’ve obtained all the necessary permits and formed a few collaborations. Tomorrow, big data will be flowing in, new products will launch, and a new research team will be built from the ground up. All these milestones excite me and I look forward to achieving each one. You can stay up to date with our movements by following us on Instagram — @jikorollc
5. What is the best piece of actionable advice you’ve received that continues to be a source of inspiration in good times and challenging times?
Great question! Idioms and quotes are equally inspirational, from Mahatma Gandhi’s “Be the change you want to see in the world” to Maya Angelou being attributed with “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” During challenging times, I find myself going back to the advice I received as a kid and throughout college. If you are frustrated, go for a walk. Feeling disappointed? Remember the hundreds, if not millions, facing a tougher decision than you are. And most of all, communication is key. Stay in touch with family and friends; and remain focused on your vision. As for when all is well, be humble.
I’m excited to launch the “Find Insights Via Engaging™ (F.I.V.E) Questions with an Executive” series. This will complement the F.I.V.E Questions with an Entrepreneur series. Same as the original series, it will feature answers to five unique questions posed to an Executive. Their answers will enable every reader to learn how they advanced in their career, discover how they honed their unfair advantage, and gain from any piece of actionable advice that has continued to deliver dividends. It will be fun, insightful, and inspiring. The goal is that you are able to take away an actionable insight that you can apply to your career, business, or venture and get immediate results.
John Aisien, Photo credit: BlueCedar.com
To launch this new series, I’m excited to introduce you to John Aisien. John is an experienced and result-oriented technology executive, with a track record of leading go-to-market functions or entities within high-growth software businesses. I connected with John a few years ago while I was at Oracle. At the time, John was a VP of Product Management for Oracle Fusion Middleware. After many successful years at Oracle, John left in 2014 to join Mocana, a venture-backed San Francisco based company with a focus on embedded systems & app security, as their President and COO. John is now the CEO of Blue Cedar Networks, which was spun out of Mocana in March 2016.
John’s trajectory is impressive. He continues to rise despite the numerous headlines about the lack of African Americans in leadership positions at tech companies in Silicon Valley. To put this into perspective, a USA Today article in 2014 reported that leading technology companies based in Silicon Valley vastly under-employ African Americans and Hispanics. These groups make up 5% of the companies’ workforce, compared to 14% nationally. The figures are even more alarming when you consider the even smaller percentage of African Americans in leadership positions. Those that achieve this milestone are often seen as superhuman. So it wasn’t a surprise last year when we were all intrigued by the public exit of the only black Twitter engineer in a leadership position. I remember thumbing frantically through my timeline to follow the discussion. #DiversityIsGoodForBusiness
This conversation with John is designed to provide actionable insights; it’s also designed to celebrate him as he paves the way and sets a great example of the art of the possible.
1. Provide a brief overview of what you do. What are some of the most exciting aspects of your role?
I am Co-Founder & CEO of Blue Cedar Networks. We are a new company, a new legal entity, but we are running a long standing business, because Blue Cedar is a spinout from an existing venture funded company called Mocana. For two years, I was essentially running the business that eventually spun out of Mocana into Blue Cedar. I originally became aware of the Mocana opportunity through a mentor and former boss, with whom I had long-standing personal & professional ties. We had worked closely with each other in the past and we successfully built and sold an enterprise security company to Oracle, during the middle part of the last decade. What excites me about what I’m doing right now? Well, three big things. One is the opportunity to not only sell into a market but help to also create that market and then sell into it. That to me is unique and exciting. Market creators generally generate unique returns and experiences. Two, it’s an opportunity at this stage of my career to work with a group of people that I have effectively cherry picked, because we spun out of Mocana together and I hired a good number of them. This brings a tremendous amount of trust and longstanding history between us. One of them & I actually co-wrote a blog about this. The third thing that excites me about what I am doing is that for the first time in my career, I own the ultimate responsibility for generating enterprise value for a company. I’ve been in leadership roles in small and large companies for over 16 years, but this is the first time that as the leader of a company, I’m ultimately responsible for creating enterprise value for the company. So, that’s exciting, and brings with it uniquely different dimensions of responsibility, compared to my previous experiences. One specific example is the experience of running a Board of Directors, with savvy & highly experienced board members.
2. Flash back and then fast forward to the present. What has surprised you the most about advancing in your career and what advice do you have for others looking to take a similar path?
Generally, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the degree of willingness that the vast majority of people have to help. Seriously, you read stories about office political machinations and people not always having one’s best interests at heart. Conventional wisdom creates an image of a very cutthroat, unforgiving corporate world. To be clear, I’m a realist and suspect that there could be some truth in this. And it’s highly likely that I’ve been an oblivious recipient of such bad experiences. But what I have consciously experienced is that the number of times I’ve asked for help from investors (even those who are not investing in my company), from customers, from partners, even sometimes from competitors, and others, and have received that help, has been way greater than my expectations, or conventional wisdom. I would say my biggest takeaway is – ask a lot more regularly than perhaps logic will suggest, because in more cases than not, you are likely to get a positive response from your ask. In terms of advice, I’ve focused on things I know I do well and I’ve been very honest and dispassionate about things I know I don’t do so well. And I’ve optimized my execution towards the things I do well because it has allowed me to stand out in every role I’ve had. Reflecting on it all, I would say that this is the positive side of the ledger, and is perhaps something I wish I had done a bit more quickly in my career. Looking back though, I think I could have achieved this milestone that I have achieved now if I had simply asked for or created the opportunity a bit earlier. I don’t feel ten times more ready today than I was ten years ago. So my recommendation for anybody looking to tread a similar path is – when you get the sense that you’re close to being reasonably ready, you probably are. And then at that point all you have to do is ask, or create the opportunity for yourself.
3. What is your unfair advantage and what would your colleagues or clients say are the main reasons that make working with you rewarding?
I’ve actually thought about this a lot. One has to be dispassionate about answering a question like this. My unfair advantage is probably not what I would prefer it to be. I like to regard myself as a deep intellectual thinker who really understands in very great detail whatever topic or concept I’m required to understand. I still think that there is some truth in this, but others perceive me as primarily a very good communicator, both in written and in verbal form. This is the dimension across which most people would rank me higher than the mean. So it may not be how I would like to see myself, but it’s how others see me. I’ve learned to accept this over time and play towards this unfair advantage. As an example, over the course of the last three months, one of the big things we had to do to spin out and create this new business was intensively reach out, communicate with, and secure commitments from the entity’s founding investors. For this exercise, I played the role of primary communicator, but accepted that there was somebody better than me at representing the underlying concepts behind our technology. So I made sure I paired myself up with our CTO, Kevin Fox, and this combination ended up being way more powerful than me by myself, or my CTO by himself. So the takeaways are: understand your unfair advantage, accept this unfair advantage, and complement yourself with others who have other unfair advantages, to enable you to achieve your objectives.
4. Reflect on all of the key sacrifices and trade-offs you’ve had to make to get to where you are today. Which of these would you say was the most pivotal and why?
There are actually many that as I reflect fall under this category but if I had to select one, I would say it’s the number of times I’ve physically moved in my life, and specifically, in my career. Since 1991, I’ve moved 11 times. Nine of these times with my wife. I moved from the UK to Nigeria as a kid, and then back to the UK, and so on. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to go through all 11 moves in detail! I would say this, each of these moves have been increasingly difficult, particularly as one has gotten older and as one’s family has expanded in size and scope. The last move in particular from the UK to Silicon Valley five years ago obviously ended up being pivotal. If you want to achieve your potential as a baseball player, you want to play in the major leagues. If you want to achieve your potential as a chess player, you want to become a grandmaster. And ultimately for me, having a big objective and aspiration to become a leading technology executive, the best place to flex these muscles and achieve the art of the possible is in the Bay Area, here in Silicon Valley. So the number of times I’ve moved has been a burden on my personal life, but without these moves, it would have been difficult to achieve all that I have to this day. I’m in awe of the depth of family support I’ve enjoyed, and continue to enjoy.
5. What is the best piece of actionable advice that you’ve received that continues to be source of inspiration and further development?
It’s really difficult to select one so I’m going to cheat a bit and maybe select a couple.
A partner of mine at Blue Cedar told me this:
“Every day, you have to feed all three dimensions – physical, intellectual, and spiritual, of yourself as a human being.”
This may sound a bit metaphysical, but I practice this daily and it really works. Every day, you have to feed your physical dimension through some form of exercise. You also have to feed your intellectual dimension by acquiring some net new knowledge that you otherwise didn’t have, or enhance existing knowledge that you did have. Lastly, you have to feed your spiritual dimension. And this doesn’t mean some form of organized religion. It may not even mean religion. So every day I look back on what I’ve done and use these three axes as a compass to judge whether I’m living a balanced life and I can categorically say for me at least, it works. I always find some deficiency across one of these axes, daily, and this daily calendar entry serves as a compass to help me get conscious about the deficiency, and correct it before I go to bed.
Another actionable piece of advice is from my father, a man full of African wisdom. I come from Benin, Edo State (Benin City is capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria). The Benin people have this strong ethos towards the nurturing and establishment of self-confidence. And I’ve begun to practice this a lot more in my life. I’ve been a recipient of this gift from my parents. And now I’m beginning to impart this to my kids, as I’m increasingly aware of its impact on my life. I would say in summary, of all the innate attributes that one can have, I believe one of the most valuable long term is self-confidence. If you’re aware of this and you proactively nurture your self-confidence to maximize its benefits, while ensuring that it doesn’t spill over into conceit or unnecessary bravado, I think you maximize your chances of achieving the most in your personal and professional life.
“A focus on self-confidence, particularly in a crazy world where values evolve very quickly, is a very good way to maximize one’s own inherent value and the value of those around you that you love.”
John Aisien Biography
John graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from the University of Benin, Nigeria. He is a chartered member of the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Early in his professional career, he performed a wide range of management training, strategy and IT consulting roles across numerous firms in the UK, including British Aerospace, Anglia Trains, Gemini Consulting and others. He then went on to earn his MBA, with a focus on Finance and Entrepreneurship, from Stern School of Business at New York University. Post Business School, he joined Thor Technologies, which ultimately became a leading enterprise identity and security management software company. At Thor, he ran marketing, product management, business development and strategic partnerships. He led Thor’s re-branding and market positioning efforts. Thor was acquired by Oracle in 2005. After 8 years at Oracle, John joined Mocana, eventually rising to the role of President and COO. He is now the Co-Founder & CEO of Blue Cedar Networks, which spun out from Mocana in March this year.
When John is not leading board meetings and running business operations for Blue Cedar, he is reading for pleasure, or leading the offense for his coed, over 40s soccer team. He is married with two children.
Blue Cedar Network is active on social media. Connect with them on:
