Creating a Successful Labs Program with RC Johnson

Incubator or labs programs tend to come with various issues. How do you navigate failure? How do you source engineers? RC Johnson has helped create an innovative incubator program at Indeed. This week on CTO Connection, RC is discussing the challenges and lessons he’s learned in creating a successful labs program.

RC talks about why he decided to model the program on the venture capital world and how a cross-functional team has fostered innovation. Listen in for RC’s tips on how to best run an incubator.

[00:20] - Learning to program on the TRS-80[01:38] - Army wargames[02:53] - RC's entry into professional software development[05:53] - Transitioning to management at Bazaarvoice[08:51] - Starting from scratch in New York[10:38] - Managing managers at WP Engine and Lawnstarter[12:23] - Making an impact with the labs team at Indeed[14:20] - Measured bets in the incubator program[17:09] - Tackling deep tech problems[23:37] - Legal support at enterprise scale[28:22] - Testing engineers for flexibility and resilience[32:21] - Decoupling failure from failure

CTO Connection is where you can learn from the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast-growth tech startups. Whether you want to learn more about hiring, motivating or managing an engineering team, if you're technical and manage engineers, the CTO Connection podcast is a great resource for learning from your peers!

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Podcast episode production by Dante32.