Kevin Goldsmith

@kmg
620 Followers
328 Following
1.7K Posts
CTO @ DistroKid, Principal @ Nimble Autonomy. Former Spotify, Adobe, Microsoft, Anaconda, Avvo, and Silicon Graphics. 
Building tomorrow's legacy systems... Today!
https://kevingoldsmith.comhttp://pronoun.is/he
Websitehttps://kevingoldsmith.com

Tech debt isn’t the enemy. Unexamined tech debt is.

Some debt is deliberate and healthy.
Some is benign.

Some constrains real business outcomes.
Some is a signal of broken incentives or structure.

Understanding why the debt exists matters more than fixing it.

https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/tech-debt-is-a-signal-not-a-sin

A lot of the fear around board meetings comes from not knowing what they are. They’re direct, consequential, and heavily focused on judgment, not cleverness or technical depth. I dug into what actually happens, why it matters, and how leaders can show up well.

https://open.substack.com/pub/kevingoldsmith/p/what-really-happens-in-a-board-meeting
##TechLeadership

Board meetings aren’t mysterious—they’re high-stakes performance reviews for the whole company. In this episode, I explain how they work, who’s in the room, and why they shape so many strategic decisions.

https://itdependspod.com/episodes/demystifying-board-meetings-a-ctos-perspective/

Demystifying Board Meetings: A CTO's Perspective - It Depends Podcast

In this episode, Kevin breaks down what really happens inside a company board meeting: why they exist, what gets discussed, and why they carry so much weight for an executive team. Drawing from a deca...

I’ve been thinking about how often engineering teams struggle simply because the strategy was never clearly written down.

So I tried to break down what a practical, grounded technical strategy actually looks like and how you know it’s working.

If your team is asking for more clarity lately, you’re not alone.

https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/crafting-a-technical-strategy-that

Crafting a Technical Strategy That Actually Works

Moving from disconnected decisions to a unified technical direction

It Depends: Lessons in Technology Leadership

A technical strategy isn’t a roadmap; it’s how you align your team to face the future together.

In this episode of It Depends, I discuss what makes a good strategy, how to document it effectively, and how to keep it alive as your company evolves.

https://pod.link/1724860326/episode/aXRkZXBlbmRzLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tLzFiODY3ZDk4LTNhMTYtMzdjNy1iM2U4LWNlZmIxOTlmODJlNA

New newsletter: The Hidden Architecture of Engineering
https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/the-hidden-architecture-of-engineering

🎙️ Latest podcast episode: The technical and business details of self-publishing "It Depends"

Covers the full stack: WordPress → Word → Amazon KDP + Ingram Spark, using ChatGPT for indexing, home audiobook recording setup, and the real economics.

Why self-publish vs traditional? What tools actually work? How much do you really make?

A case study in DIY business building that applies beyond books.

https://pod.link/1724860326

#TechLeadership #SelfPublishing #Indie #BookWriting

It Depends: Lessons in Technology Leadership

Kevin Goldsmith brings you lessons and advice from decades in the technology industry.

New newsletter: Why performance reviews kill collaboration, how to implement guilds that actually work, and advocating for accessibility as an IC. Real solutions for systemic problems.

https://open.substack.com/pub/kevingoldsmith/p/answers-that-depend-tech-leadership-6ec?r=1tjr31&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

New newsletter issue! Answers That Depend: Tech Leadership Q&A, pt 2

More of your questions from the newsletter and podcast...
In this issue:
* Fostering Learning Without Big Resources
* Building Your Personal Retrospective Process
* When Change Management Gets Stuck
* Balancing Urgent Fixes and Long-term Architecture
* Starting Out as the First Data Engineer
* When Product and Engineering Have Separate Roadmaps

https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/answers-that-depend-tech-leadership-678

Answers That Depend: Tech Leadership Q&A, pt 2

More of your questions from the newsletter and podcast

It Depends: Technology Leadership Lessons

New Q&A episode of It Depends: Lessons in Technology Leadership is live! 🎧

Tackled six listener questions covering everything from building a learning culture on a shoestring budget to the hard realities of organizational change.

https://pod.link/1724860326