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Geetika Goel, Head of Technology, Hero Vired is in a challenging role in her organisation. Here, she talks about her work to us.
What are the challenges in your role? How do you resolve them?
Geetika Goel - Some of the challenges that most tech leaders face nowadays are -
Hiring - Though there is the availability of great talent, the delays in joining and no-shows are formidable hurdles. Somehow, the environment in technology seems like an auction site! We are trying to create a robust product roadmap, where people have a good opportunity to learn and grow. I truly believe that people are happy if they enjoy work they do and have a good work-life balance. It is essential for the team to have a sense of achievement that comes with good involvement in solving a problem and, of course, working hard to get there.
Work prioritisation conflicts - Most teams expect perfect technology solutions to their day to day issues in very short timelines. We solve this issue by continuously engaging with the non-technical teams to help them understand why understanding priorities is important. We have a product team in place that talks to our business stakeholders on a day- to-day basis, and helps them translate raw requirements into product-level requirements. We also follow agile methodology so that teams are able to view early results and quickly correct the course if needed.
How do you keep up with the evolving technologies?
Geetika Goel - In my view, the only way to keep abreast of evolving technologies is to first read about it, the reason why it was created and then assess if that use case applies to us. If it is useful to us, then we need to actually go ahead and use it. I always encourage my technical team members to try new technologies to really understand them in depth. Currently, we use PHP, Java and Node.js for backend development, React, HTML, CSSss and Javascript for frontend and Flutter for mobile app development. We have used an open-source learning framework, Moodle, as our based LMS, and that is based on PHP. In addition, DevOps, QA automation and product management form part of our tech journey.
We are creating a learning plan for our team members so that they are constantly upgrading their skills.
My hiring strategy is a mix of focussed technological hiring and generic high ability hiring. What I mean is that, based on the need of our products, we tailor our technical assessments to the precise needs of the job. We select this talent based on the degree of competency they demonstrate with respect to technical, functional and behavioural skills.
On the other hand, there are times when we assess people based on their high analytical skills, IQ and high learnability. They could be experts in any tech stack. We then invest and nurture these new hires through a rigorous training program designed to enhance their skills suited to our tech stack over time.
I try to spend time with all my team members. I have observed that the younger generation, including even freshers, are extremely tech-savvy and often surprise us with their depth of knowledge. At Hero Vired, we always look for opportunities to learn from each other, be it from our seniors or juniors. It keeps us on our feet and helps us keep each other motivated to learn.
What are the new plans you're making for the next 2 years?
Geetika Goel - I work directly with Akshay Munjal, Founder and CEO, to realise our company’s vision and goals for the next couple of years. We are using modern and experiential pedagogical methods to inspire holistic learning and produce measurable transformation. Our goal is to prepare our learners to become the reliable first choice in a rapidly transforming digital economy. Serving as a technological and business specialist, I plan to integrate business objectives and strategy into technology vision and requirements, manage a world-class team of engineers, encourage them, and instill a strong engineering culture inside the firm. In addition, I will also be investigating, comparing, selecting and deploying technology solutions to meet the current and future industry needs.