Minimum Viable Management – Details, episodes & analysis

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Minimum Viable Management

Neha Batra and Mike McQuaid

Business

Technology

Frequency: 1 episode/13d. Total Eps: 9

Minimum Viable Management is a podcast where Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra talk about the messy, human side of engineering leadership. From one-on-ones and feedback to servant leadership, product–engineering arguments and career growth, they share hard-won lessons from GitHub, open source and startups. Pragmatic, sweary and focused on what actually works, not performative management theatre.

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Data updated on 14/07/2026

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Score global : 48%

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Getting Shit Done in Institutions

Season 1 · Episode 9

Saturday, January 24, 2026 • Duration 33:11

David Yee, VP of Engineering at The New York Times and head of its new AI platforms and products mission, joins Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra for a candid, behind-the-scenes conversation about why institutions are built to resist change and what to do about it. They dig into hidden norms, choosing the right battles, translating “how things really work” and creating stability for teams while you deliberately destabilize the system just enough to move it forward.

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Performance Reviews, Done Right

Season 1 · Episode 8

Friday, January 9, 2026 • Duration 26:57

Performance reviews have a reputation for being stressful, confusing and often disconnected from reality. Too often they surface feedback that should have been shared months earlier or reduce a year of work into a single rating. In this episode, Mike and Neha unpack why reviews fail and how managers can turn them into a useful summary instead of a shock.

They explore what companies expect from performance reviews, what managers struggle with and what employees actually want to hear. The conversation covers documenting early signals, balancing positive and critical feedback, avoiding ruinous empathy and ensuring no one walks into a review surprised by the outcome. They also discuss practical ways to give feedback throughout the life of a project, align on growth goals and handle mismatches between perception and reality. A grounded, experience-based discussion for anyone responsible for giving or receiving feedback.

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Politics at Work Without Losing Your Soul

Season 1 · Episode 7

Monday, December 29, 2025 • Duration 32:38

In this episode, Mike and Neha are joined by Denise, an engineering leader and former colleague from GitHub and Pivotal, to unpack the reality of workplace politics and why ignoring them is not a neutral choice. Drawing on Denise’s LeadDev talk and hard-earned lessons from management and senior IC roles, the conversation explores political capital, information asymmetry, allyship and the idea of “table flips” as a finite currency.

Together they discuss when to spend influence, when to hold it back and how privilege shapes who gets heard. From advocating for promotions to using power responsibly on the way out of an organisation, this is a practical and candid look at how to navigate work under capitalism without burning out or selling yourself short.

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Beyond Engineering: Healthy Tension

Season 1 · Episode 6

Friday, December 19, 2025 • Duration 28:21

Product, design and engineering rarely agree and that’s a good thing. In this episode, Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra break down what healthy tension actually looks like, why alignment is overrated and how leaders can turn disagreement into better outcomes.

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When Things Go Wrong: How Leaders Rebuild Trust

Season 1 · Episode 5

Friday, November 14, 2025 • Duration 30:33

Mike and Neha explore how leaders can recognise when things are going wrong, why admitting mistakes builds trust, how to spot low psychological safety, and the value of written plans, accountability and steady course correction when guiding teams through tough moments.

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Creating and Keeping Momentum

Episode 4

Friday, October 31, 2025 • Duration 39:23

Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra break down how leaders spark momentum and keep it steady. They start with clarity of mission, ruthless scope cuts, and visible wins in weeks not years. They cover simple not easy systems that reduce drag, like milestone slices, anti-goals, handoffs that follow the sun, and temporary process as guardrails you later remove. They show why constraints breed creativity, how to automate recurring pain, and why teams should target low volatility over peak velocity. They close with saying no, letting the right fires burn, and building a candid culture through trust and social capital.

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Psychological Safety vs. Telling the Truth

Episode 3

Thursday, October 23, 2025 • Duration 37:01

How can teams feel safe to speak up while still hearing hard truths? In this episode of Minimum Viable Management, Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra explore what it really means to balance psychological safety with direct, honest communication. They discuss the practical work of rebuilding trust in teams, the role of consistency and humility in leadership, and how to make openness a habit, even when conversations are uncomfortable.

They also touch on remote work, written communication, and when individual contributors should share their opinions in decision-making. A candid look at how safety and honesty can, and must, coexist for teams to thrive.

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Leadership Is a Series of Decisions (and Compromises)

Episode 2

Tuesday, October 14, 2025 • Duration 35:50

In this episode of Minimum Viable Management, Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra dive deep into the messy art of decision-making. When should you seek input and build consensus and when should you just make the call? They swap stories about frameworks for faster, clearer decisions, how to handle reversibility (“one-way vs two-way doors”), and how to communicate so people understand not just what you decided, but why.

They also discuss how leaders can empower others to show leadership at any level, the real cost of over-meeting, and what it means to take ownership when things go wrong.

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Building Trust and Having Better Fights

Episode 1

Thursday, October 9, 2025 • Duration 33:30

In the first episode of Minimum Viable Management, Mike McQuaid and Neha Batra reunite to talk about what “minimum viable management” really means: how to lead effectively without drowning in meetings or bureaucracy. They cover one-on-ones that actually work, giving and receiving feedback, establishing connections, servant leadership without martyrdom, and what good arguments look like between managers, engineers, and product.

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Minimum Viable Management – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Minimum Viable Management – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify