Gary Poster
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garyposter.bsky.social
Gary Poster
@garyposter.bsky.social
R&D leader passionate about people, product, and engineering excellence. VP Product & Engineering at Kard (https://www.getkard.com/). Experience at Snyk, Manifold (acquired by Snyk), Heroku/Salesforce, Canonical, and more. Former professional singer.
Hi Bluesky! I've blogged several times since I last posted here. Here's my most recent one. blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/organizing...
Organizing R&D Teams
Tactical Approaches for Long-Term Impact
blog.leadinginnovation.co
May 7, 2025 at 12:49 AM
I skipped announcing a few blog posts here, but I think this one might be particularly interesting to folks. blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/curious-pe...
Curious People Build the Future
What LLMs can’t do—and why your next engineering hire still needs to think differently.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
April 7, 2025 at 1:24 PM
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen cross-team collaborations go wrong. One memorable time, a central platform team owned so much of the core product functionality that they brought dependent teams to a virtual halt for more than half a year.... blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/making-cro...
Making Cross-Team Collaboration Work
Streamline cross-team collaboration with five practical principles to reduce bottlenecks, enhance autonomy, and accelerate delivery as your organization scales.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
February 24, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I’ve trained myself to be skeptical whenever I use the word “balance.” Do we “balance” pain and joy, or are they inseparable over time? Do we “balance” work and life, or is work an integral part of our lives?

blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/integratio...
Integration and Balance
I’ve trained myself to be skeptical whenever I use the word “balance.”
blog.leadinginnovation.co
February 17, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Starting R&D projects with a defined business appetite—clear time and cost constraints—enhances collaboration, aligns solutions with business goals, and improves project outcomes.

New post:
blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/bring-your...
Bring Your Business Appetite to the Planning Table
Starting R&D projects with a defined business appetite—clear time and cost constraints—enhances collaboration, aligns solutions with business goals, and improves project outcomes.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
February 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
“Disagree and commit” has been a cornerstone of leadership advice for decades. But a few years ago, I hit a wall with “disagree and commit” and had to rethink.

blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/understand...
Understand, Disagree, and Commit
Empathy is crucial for authentic commitment; without it, dissent lacks impact and commitment becomes insincere.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
February 10, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Three times in my career, I’ve seen teams fall into the same trap. They set ambitious goals, started delivering, and then…progress stalled. Trust eroded. Why?

Read more in my new blog post!
blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/face-the-r...
Face the Risks First
Three times in my career, I’ve seen teams fall into the same trap.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
January 27, 2025 at 2:45 PM
New blog post on Leading Innovation: Delivering Business-Valuable Innovation. Defaulting to "fixed time, variable scope" with a business mindset has led to the best delivery outcomes in my career. blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/delivering...
Delivering Business-Valuable Innovation
Explore how fixed time, variable scope, and vertical slices can help R&D deliver consistent value.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
January 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
blog.leadinginnovation.co/p/business-a... New blog post! Business-aligned autonomy is one of the top three principles I coach. I empower my teams by asking everyone to focus on the business first. It's a big ask, but I think it ultimately leads to the best outcomes. Here's how I think about it.
Business-Aligned Autonomy
Empower your teams without losing alignment by focusing everyone on the business.
blog.leadinginnovation.co
January 6, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Hey, I'm blogging! Check it out. I'll ship a post every two weeks. First one is there now: "Why You Shouldn't Listen to Me (But Maybe Do Anyway)" blog.leadinginnovation.co?r=2b74go&utm...
Leading Innovation | Gary Poster | Substack
Leading Innovation is a publication for leaders and aspiring leaders in R&D, offering insights, tools, and reflections on navigating the complexities of innovation, product creation, and transformatio...
blog.leadinginnovation.co
December 23, 2024 at 5:31 PM