Rajaraman Arumugam

What drives me is the dig. Getting past the surface, past the brief, past what everyone assumes is the issue, and finding the actual root cause. That's the part I love.

The ambiguity at the start of every project, where nothing is clear and everything could go in ten directions. Most people find that uncomfortable. I find it full of opportunities.

My process starts with listening. Not to what stakeholders say they need, but to what users actually do. I look at how teams work together, where handoffs break, what gets lost between product and engineering. Then I build: the team first, then the system, then the product.

When I build teams, I think about the balance between hunters and farmers. You need people who can explore uncharted territory and people who can cultivate what's already working. Getting that ratio right matters. But what matters more is seeing what someone is genuinely good at and putting them in a position to do more of it. I'd rather find someone's strength and amplify it than hand them a gap analysis.

I'm a father. My son creates his own comics, sketches characters, builds little worlds on paper. I don't teach him design. I just make sure he has the space, the tools, and the encouragement to keep creating. That's not very different from how I lead a team.

Outside of work, I pick up a camera and shoot cityscapes at night. Long exposures, light trails, skylines after dark. I explore new things constantly. I find out how things work because I can't not.

Eighteen years. 0→1 and 1→10. Startups to Fortune 2000. Still curious.