How Shopify builds a high-intensity culture | Farhan Thawar (VP and Head of Eng) | Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career (private feed for websong16@gmail.com) | Podwise
This episode explores the strategies employed by Shopify's VP and Head of Engineering, Farhan Thawar, to maintain intensity and urgency within a large, fully remote engineering team. Against this backdrop of rapid growth and a fully remote workforce, Thawar emphasizes the importance of choosing the "harder path," arguing that it leads to greater learning and stronger working relationships. More significantly, he champions pair programming as a powerful tool for increasing intensity and code quality, even if it initially seems counterintuitive. For instance, he recounts how Shopify engineers sometimes delete code and start over to achieve elegant solutions. The discussion pivots to Thawar's unique hiring philosophy, which prioritizes practical work trials over traditional interviews, exemplified by Shopify's massive internship program. He also shares his approach to meetings, advocating for frequent, focused check-ins to maintain momentum and quickly address roadblocks. Ultimately, Thawar's insights highlight the importance of a culture that values continuous learning, risk-taking, and a relentless focus on delivering value to customers, even if it means embracing a degree of controlled chaos.
