The art of letting go as a manager | Transcend’s Minh Nguyen

What"s the hardest habit for a top engineer to unlearn in a leadership role?  For Minh Nguyen, VP of Engineering at Transcend, it was breaking the "I"ll do it myself" mentality. In this episode, she shares her impressive journey from individual contributor to VP at the same high-growth startup, offering a rare and honest look at this challenging transition. Drawing on her background in philosophy, Minh details the hard-won lessons of reorienting from hands-on coding to high-impact leadership, from learning to delegate to setting a clear, communicable strategy. The conversation then shifts from personal growth to organizational design. Minh dives into the practicalities of scaling, revealing why Transcend structures teams around customer problems instead of technical stacks. She candidly discusses her experience pivoting away from a "catchall" platform team to a more effective, product-focused model. This episode is a deep dive for any leader on building a resilient, high-fidelity engineering culture that thrives under pressure, packed with invaluable insights for navigating the challenges of growth. Check out:The DevEx guide to AI-driven software developmentDownload: The 6 trends shaping the future of AI-driven development  Follow the hosts:Follow BenFollow Andrew Follow today"s guest(s):Connect with Minh Nguyen on LinkedInLearn more about Transcend: Transcend.ioConnect with Jennifer Riggins on LinkedIn Referenced in today"s show:This Start-Up’s $20 Billion Sale Died. It Came Fighting Back.Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directivesIf you"re remote, rambleAI promised efficiency. Instead, it’s making us work harder.Writing code was never the bottleneck! Support the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever