Field notes from our engagements, essays on AI maturity and delivery discipline, and chapters from the published frameworks. Written by Himanshu Niranjani.
Lead Happy, Work Techie Leadership Insights From Himanshu Niranjani 🧠 From Fermented Food to Future Teams: Leading with Evolution in Mind Created on 2025-04-21 04:02 Published on 2025-04-21 04:21 Every Saturday morning, I carve out an hour for something that’s become a sacred…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minMay 10, 2025The world around us is fast-paced, data-heavy, and emotionally charged. In this world, decision-making is not just a skill—it's a defining trait of leadership. Whether you're in the middle of a high-stakes business negotiation or managing a personal crossroads, how you make…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minMay 20, 2025Why true innovation begins where your organization often forgets to look If you've ever worked inside a fast-growing company—or worse, one that’s just trying to grow—you’ve probably seen the same meetings play out: a dozen senior leaders huddled around a table or video call…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minMay 31, 2025Change sounds noble in theory. In practice, it’s messy, exhausting, and often lonely—especially when you're the one driving it. As a leader, when you're not just managing what exists but actively challenging the status quo , you sign up for a different journey altogether. You're…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 2 minJun 25, 2025There comes a time in every leader’s journey when the applause fades, the spotlight moves on, and recognition is scarce—especially when you're knee-deep in solving real, unglamorous problems. I’ve been there. I’ve felt underappreciated, sidelined even—when the politics around me…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 2 minJul 06, 2025In recent months, DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) has slid from corporate priority to afterthought across many U.S. tech and Fortune 500 companies. Mentions of “DEI” in S&P 500 filings dropped by nearly two-thirds in 2024, reaching their lowest level since 2020. Giants like…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 3 minJul 21, 2025On my recent visit to Italy, I discovered this new fragrance, and I love reading about how people build complex fragrances. So I researched about it and was fascinated by the history of it. Originally crafted in 1916 in a small perfumer’s lab in Parma, Italy, Acqua di Parma…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 3 minJul 27, 2025What a 500-year-old palace in Rajasthan and a single malt from the Scottish Highlands taught me about timeless leadership Recently, while traveling through India, I found myself in Udaipur , Rajasthan—often called the City of Lakes, but more deeply, the city of heritage and soul…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 3 minAug 03, 2025It's widely reported that Mark Zuckerberg, in the quest for AI dominance, have started an unprecedented talent war – wooing top researchers with eye-popping compensation. This article is my advice to him (and other leaders) to avoid mistake he made when he went after the…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 7 minAug 17, 2025When people talk about building great platforms, the conversation too often drifts toward scale, market cap, or user growth. These are important outcomes, but they are not the essence. True greatness doesn’t come from quarterly numbers or stock market dominance — it comes from…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minAug 23, 2025Over the past two years at Property Finder, I’ve often reflected on how my journey here stacks up against my time at big tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, and others. The contrast has been both refreshing and eye-opening—and for engineers and leaders considering…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 2 minSep 11, 2025When I first started out in leadership, I was like many others—drawn to dashboards. Charts, KPIs, productivity scores, engagement stats — they gave me a sense of control. I believed that if I just tracked the right metrics, progress would follow. But over time, I’ve realized…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 3 minOct 04, 2025Someone recently commented on one of my LinkedIn posts and asked: “What’s one thing you wish every new hire already understood about building scalable systems?” That question made me reflect deeply—not just on the technical nuances of scale, but on what I’ve learned through…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minOct 26, 2025In a recent mentoring conversation, someone asked me why certain people with similar backgrounds, mentors, or even roles in big companies like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, LinkedIn—or even brands like Harley-Davidson or Visible—go on to thrive, while others plateau or stagnate. It’s…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 2 minDec 04, 2025We all know the story. You land a job in Big Tech. Heads down, vest stock, climb the ladder—Senior Engineer to Director to VP. Build a solid nest egg. Ride into the sunset. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s stable. It works. But after 25 years building products across five…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 3 minDec 24, 2025By Himanshu Niranjani I’ve spent the last few weeks walking familiar trails—both literally, on my morning hikes, and metaphorically, as I transition from the structured chaos of the C-Suite back to the raw uncertainty of a founder’s seat. Leaving a role as a CTO or CPTO, where…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minJan 19, 2026If you are working in tech right now, the noise level is deafening. Between the headlines about AI rewriting our roadmaps, the shifting geopolitical plates affecting global markets, and the anxiety of "doing more with less," it feels like we are constantly debugging a system…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 4 minMar 02, 2026Lead Happy, Work Techie Leadership Insights From Himanshu Niranjani Interstellar Leadership: 24 Billion Kilometers from Home Created on 2026-03-02 15:47 Published on 2026-03-02 15:53 Reflections on the Golden Record, the Immigrant Experience, and the Art of the "Run" Right now,…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 3 minMar 27, 2026Lead Happy, Work Techie Leadership Insights From Himanshu Niranjani The Silent Architect of Resilient Culture: Leading From the Back Created on 2026-03-27 01:55 Published on 2026-03-27 02:06 The Silent Architect: Leading From the Back In over 25 years of navigating engineering…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 6 minApr 07, 2026Recently, a World Bank report highlighted a sobering reality about our physical infrastructure: we have reached our 2030 global waste projections years ahead of schedule. In 2022 alone, the world produced a staggering 2.56 billion tons of municipal solid waste, and we are on a…
Lead Happy, Work Techie · 2 minReal engagement learnings, not generic AI thought leadership. We publish when there's something worth saying — and stay quiet when there isn't.