Episode
Understanding Engineers' Needs 🧬 — with Lara Hogan
- Podcast
- Refactoring Podcast
- Published
- Jun 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3481
- Processing state
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Summary
Today's guest is Lara Hogan , an author, public speaker and coach for managers and leaders across the whole tech industry. And she's had a long career as VP of engineering at FLY, Kickstarter, Director Etsy and more. So with Lara we talked about her journey in tech, which started with a philosophy degree. And then, taking from her work as a coach, we talked more about how successful teams are adopting AI and what you can do to make engineers feel safe about it. And finally, we explored the Biceps framework and how you can better understand people's needs at work. (00:00) Episode start (01:25) Introduction (02:59) Why nuanced AI takes matter more than slogans (04:25) Sponsor break (08:54) From philosophy major to engineering director (15:09) Becoming a manager (18:54) Do humanities give you an edge in the AI era? (22:04) Teams thriving with AI vs teams struggling (28:03) Setting clear expectations without creating fear (35:52) The AHA meetings: sharing learnings, not just wins (41:40) The BICEPS framework (47:18) When frustration isn't curiosity (52:58) Reflect back what you hear — Today's episode is brought to you by Unblocked. Unblocked is the context layer for modern engineering teams. Get a free three-week trial at getunblocked.com/refactoring — You can also find this at: • 📬 Newsletter: https://refactoring.fm • 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Luds9dmzZDoDC8Q7EMbSw • 📱 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/refactoring-podcast/id1719137305 — For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, or appearing as a guest, email: [email protected]