Cutting through the Noise in Tech: Sarah Milstein's Advice for Leaders Who Want to Keep People Focused on Value Creation
Thu Dec 04 2025
In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with executive coach and engineering leader Sarah Milstein about how to keep teams focused on value creation by putting people at the center of work design.
My conversation with Sarah explores:
How to create cultures of respect as a leader
How companies can simplify job roles, salaries, and raises to focus employees on high-value work
Sarah’s advice for how engineering and product leaders can successfully navigate this moment in tech, including the trends that will pass and the trends that will stick
How to work with teams of engineers to create the conditions for continuous learning
How to support people well so that teams build strong, sustainable lean product and process development systems
About Sarah Milstein
Sarah Milstein coaches executive and emerging leaders in tech. Previously, she held executive roles at a number of tech startups and in the federal government. She was also CEO and co-founder of Lean Startup Productions. Earlier, she was a freelance journalist writing regularly for The New York Times. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. https://sarahmilstein.com
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In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we speak with executive coach and engineering leader Sarah Milstein about how to keep teams focused on value creation by putting people at the center of work design. My conversation with Sarah explores: How to create cultures of respect as a leader How companies can simplify job roles, salaries, and raises to focus employees on high-value work Sarah’s advice for how engineering and product leaders can successfully navigate this moment in tech, including the trends that will pass and the trends that will stick How to work with teams of engineers to create the conditions for continuous learning How to support people well so that teams build strong, sustainable lean product and process development systems About Sarah Milstein Sarah Milstein coaches executive and emerging leaders in tech. Previously, she held executive roles at a number of tech startups and in the federal government. She was also CEO and co-founder of Lean Startup Productions. Earlier, she was a freelance journalist writing regularly for The New York Times. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. https://sarahmilstein.com