This talk was delivered in Turkish.
Presented at the Devnot Tech Leaders Summit in Istanbul, this session traced a personal leadership journey across three decades and four organisations — from a startup in 2003 to leading Platform Engineering at TomTom — to extract practical lessons for engineering leaders taking over new teams.
The career arc as context
The talk opened with a timeline: from Mathematical Engineering in 2001, to founding a mobile games company, to senior engineering management at VeriPark, Booking.com, and TomTom. Each transition required learning how to enter an organisation with momentum, not just a mandate.
Core framework
Decision making. Moving from indecisiveness to accountability is the first and most critical shift for any new engineering leader. Teams need to see their leader make calls — not endlessly deliberate.
The “Why” as a coaching tool. Questioning how things are done — without dismissing them — uncovers hidden constraints and builds psychological safety with the team.
Organisation design. The “Human Equation” is the multiplier: the structure and mandate matter less than the trust, alignment, and energy of the people inside it.
From operational to strategic. The path from firefighting to genuine leadership runs through tactical credibility. New leaders need to earn the right to be strategic by demonstrating they understand the operational reality first.
Who this was for
Engineering managers and senior engineers in the Turkish tech community taking on new leadership responsibilities or navigating their first large-scale organisational mandate.