1. How do you work with uncertainty? Please elaborate and give examples.

Uncertainty is part of life, and it is very difficult to plan for it. To safeguard against uncertainty
and surprises, I typically build a buffer. For example, in my current role as a VP of Engineering, I
typically hire a couple of engineers and 3-4 interns who are generalists. In case of few
engineers quitting unexpectedly during development of an important project, I can reassign
these generalists to that project so that the development won't be impeded.

2. What is an ideal day looks like to you?

An ideal work day is where I can help my team accomplish something. It can be either
unblocking a certain project by discussing and brainstorming with all stakeholders or it can be
ensuring that the deployment of our current project goes smoothly.

3. Why do you like the role?

The role, similar to my current role, allows me to create value for the company from the
engineering side. It comprises hiring and training new team members to manage tech projects,
preparing the budget of the team, and brainstorming to innovate and solve technical problems.

4. If you are given the freedom to work on any project you like, what is it?

I’m not sure if I understand the question correctly. In the context of my current job, I’ve sufficient
freedom to work on any project I like, the constraint usually is the priority of the company.
Assuming I’ve the freedom to prioritize the projects as well in my company, I would like to work
on restructuring the existing talenta monolithic web service to smaller microservice

5. Who is your inspiration? and why?

I’ve drawn inspiration from many intelligent and hardworking men and women. Dr. Raghuram
Rajan is one of the figures who continue to inspire me. He is not just a well known economist
who correctly predicted the 2008 global recession due to pent up leverage in housing markets
but also uses his knowledge and experience to improve the financial health of the world, esp.
poor emerging economies.

6. What do you do for fun?

Long distance running is fun for me. Earlier it used to be a struggle, but now I enjoy running on
treadmill or long stretches of road for an hour or so.

7. What do you think a good team member should have?

Personally, a good team for me is someone who is not just competent technically but can also
work with the rest of the team. Most of the software engineers are required to deal with
machines, computers etc. but to do their job effectively, they have to be able to collaborate with
the team. I typically look out for these 5 holistic values to describe a good team member:

1. Conceptual knowledge
2. Problem solving skills
3. Communication skills
4. Clear Aspiration
5. Ability to learn quickly

8. What motivates you the most?

Hard work, dedication and ability to innovate a solution even for a toughest problem motivates
me.

9. What is your approach in a team project? How do you prioritize things?

Personally, prioritization of a team project is not a unilateral decision. I usually sit with all the
stakeholders to discuss a project on these 3 parameters:

1. Team effort required

2. Impact to our customers
3. Duration of the project (long term/short term)

And based on these three parameters, we prioritize the one project with least effort, highest
impact and shortest project duration first.

10. Why should we hire and ask you to be part of IDN Media? What makes you
special?

Being an ex-cofounder of a startup which did reasonably well, I’m in a unique position where I
can quickly join a company, use my technical and managerial skills to grow the team,
create/scale up a project and solve the toughest challenges encountered in technology.
 11. What are some areas or skills that you want to improve and to learn more?

Although being in Jakarta for two years, I can speak in Bahasa for day-today
communication with engineers and other team members, I think there is a massive
scope of improvement for me in this area. Especially in written form of the language
(formal as well as informal).

12. How do you want IDN (or me) to support your personal goal?

I am most productive in an environment where I’ve freedom to brainstorm ideas, discuss

projects, cross-collaborate with heads of various departments and build a team for particular
projects.

13. If you are given the role, please explain your 3-month plan.

It largely depends on what the company has envisioned for the next year. Personally, my
immediate goal is to learn as much as possible about all the company products, about
company processes and the team members to be able to function well. My priority will be
to identify areas where we can save cost on infrastructure by improving engineering,
upgrade the services by anticipating the scale, and streamlining processes to enable us
to deliver quickly.