David Ben-Basat | Fireblocks | How Do You Build Winning Teams?

Description

David Ben-Basat started as a QA engineer in 2002, went through Dell, Quest and Fanbox, and today leads platform engineering at Fireblocks, a company that secures digital assets for thousands of customers. Talking with Eyal David, he explains why he sees product and R&D as a single entity, why developers own their code even after it ships to production, and how he interviews candidates with one question: what impact did you create? David details how to choose a team lead (a passion for growing people, plus a three-month trial period), how to build a senior team before hiring juniors, how to give every squad a measurable strategy instead of a shopping list, and how the weekly one-on-one becomes the main coaching tool. He closes with the skills he looks for in a product manager: continuous visibility, strategic thinking, non-functional requirements, planning, and exposing the team to the business.

Key moments

1. 00:50 · From QA to development: a holistic view and owning code in production
2. 03:38 · Product and R&D as one entity
3. 04:57 · The one interview question: what impact did you create?
4. 07:44 · What Fireblocks does and its scale challenges
5. 10:58 · A VP Engineering's day-to-day
6. 14:26 · Choosing a team lead: a passion for growing people and a trial period
7. 21:13 · Team structure: seniority first, juniors in measured doses
8. 23:39 · A measurable strategy for every squad instead of a shopping list
9. 28:48 · One-on-ones, the big rock and leaving the comfort zone
10. 38:03 · The most important product manager skills
11. 43:04 · Infra teams, incidents and 'production is a reflection'