Today's guest is Pat Kua.
Pat is an engineering and leadership coach with more than 20 years of experience in tech. He was CTO of N26, Principal consultant at Thoughtworks, he is an accomplished speaker, and writes an awesome newsletter for tech leaders called Level up.
With Pat we talked about his journey in tech, from Australia to London to Berlin, the future of engineering management and technical leadership, and the controversial “Founder Mode”.
🎙️ Episode
You can watch the full episode on Youtube:
Or listen to it on Spotify, Apple, Overcast, or your podcast app of choice.
🥇 Interview Summary
If you are a 🔒 paid subscriber 🔒 you will find my own summary of the interview below.
It’s the 10-minute, handcrafted takeaways of what we talked about, with timestamps to the relevant video moments, for those who don’t have time to sit through the 1-hour chat.
Here is the agenda for today:
🛠️ Pat's Journey in Tech (02:54)
🌐 Evolution of Engineering Management (12:17)
🧠 AI's Impact on Software Development (14:45)
👥 Balancing Technical and People Management (28:16)
🚀 Thoughts on "Founder Mode" (37:18)
Let’s dive in 👇
1) 🛠️ Pat's Journey in Tech (02:54)
Pat Kua's tech journey began in Australia with a traditional entry into the field. He studied Information Processing Technology in high school, which sparked his interest in programming.
"I wasn't one of those people, I do have memories of playing around with a friend's like Commodore 64, but it wasn't one of those things where it really got me totally into tech."
At university, Pat studied both business and technology but found himself more drawn to the tech side. His career took a significant turn when he joined ThoughtWorks, a consulting company known for extreme programming and agile software development.
Key points in Pat's journey:
📚 Educational background — combination of business and technology studies.
🌏 Global experience — moved from Australia to London through ThoughtWorks' internal transfer program.
🚀 Quick career progression — from consultant to CTO of N26, now a professional engineering and leadership coach.
Pat's experience in consulting played a crucial role in his growth, exposing him to various organizations, teams, and cultures, which prepared him for leadership roles.
2) 🌐 Evolution of Engineering Management (12:17)
Pat discusses how engineering management is evolving in the current industry climate:
