Learn To Trust Yourself in Life and Business: An Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto

At Nebulaworks, we believe in challenging the status quo through DevOps, Cloud and Open Source adoption. We know no single toolset will solve all technical challenges because digitally innovating includes people and processes. Companies like Google and Amazon understand this well and are moving at a fast speed, but what about the non-Googles or non-Amazons? As a Marketing Specialist at Nebulaworks, I thought, who would be better to discuss business transformation, the importance of building workflows that are technology agnostic, how solutions do not always start with business leaders, and much more other than Mitchell Hashimoto.

For those who may not be aware, Mitchell Hashimoto is a Co-founder and CTO at HashiCorp where he directs the company’s vision, values, product design, and culture. Mitchell and his team have created several popular open source tools that have helped engineering teams automate their deployment process. He is best known for Vagrant, Consul, Packer, and Vault. Hashimoto majored in Computer Science at the University of Washington and is a recent newlywed.

During his time at UW, he started his first popular open source project: Vagrant, that led him to cofound HashiCorp with his partner, Armon Dadgar. Mitchell and Armon are committed to delivering software tools to support next-generation technologies that will empower companies worldwide to re-engineer their workflows.

Key Questions I Ask:

• When did the love for computer programming start and how did you develop the mindset to want to automate things? (6:30)
• Do you use a similar process (referring to Vagrant) when iterating on your current tools with your current VP of product and engineering team? (20:19)
• Provide me an example of how a HashiCorp tool such as Terraform can be integrated into the engineering team’s existing workflow. (27:40)
• If you were to take a development team within the company that is experiencing unneeded inefficiency with current tools and practices, what would you say they need to do to adopt modern tools to help them move more quickly? (31:39)
• Where would you start a customer on their business transformation? (38:45)
• What do you think of IBM’s new acquisition of Red Hat? (49:38)
• What habits do you have in place for your business to keep HashiCorp on the desirable path? (52:05)
• What are you struggling right now with continuous improvement? (56:24)

“You have to take some risks and it’s hard. You got to find the right people that want to do that.” - Mitchell Hashimoto

Mitchell’s Approach:

• You don’t need to be an expert to build something great (15:23)
• Believe in your work even if the results are not measuring up yet (16:38)
• You can build a workflow that is technology agnostic (30:00)
• The two axes for teams to evaluate when adopting modern tools and practices to move faster (31:36)
• Areas to identify to initiate business transformation (38:45)
• How solutions now have switched to practitioners first (41:54)
• The mindset that has changed around the Cloud Operating Model (47:12)
• You need to have people who are champions in what you believe in (53:00)
• How to find your superpower and cultivate it (59:04)

Plus much more

Connect with Mitchell:

Twitter LinkedIn Mitchell’s Website

HashiCorp:

HashiCorp Website HashiCorp Youtube Channel HashiCorp Twitter HashiCorp LinkedIn

Also mentioned in this chat:

The New King Makers HashiCorp’s Learn Platform Official HashiCorp Training by Nebulaworks Mitchell Hashimoto Talks About His Superpower and Why You Should Find Yours (interview)