71. Neil Hendin, Chromebook Hardware Engineering Manager

Show Notes:

Neil Hendin, a graduate of Harvard, has a diverse career history, including being an undergrad, grad student, teaching assistant, teaching fellow, and staff member. Neil has worked in various engineering departments, including physics, electronics, and computer systems. He has also been involved in campus radio and radio engineering. Neil also completed his master's degree at Harvard. His first job as an engineer was at Maxim Integrated Products, a semiconductor company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. He moved to Hewlett Packard, where he worked in radio engineering. He has been in Silicon Valley since working at Maxim and has also worked at HP, Nvidia, Palm, and Google. Neil currently leads the ChromeOS hardware team at Google and has moved up the engineering management ladder over the past 12 years. 

Neil started his career at WHRB after helping a woman set up a stereo for her college. He joined the radio station as a technical staff member and later became chief engineer. He was responsible for maintaining the hardware, including transmitter repair and maintenance. Neil's interest in radio engineering was sparked by the analog nature of circuit building and the ability to analyze and simulate the engineering tools available today. He believes that the field of radio engineering is considered one of the "black magic" fields in electronics, as it requires a lot of skill and experimentation.

Radio Engineering Explained

Radio engineering is the process of transmitting signals over long distances using electromagnetic radiation, such as electromagnetic waves or Morse code. It involves modulation, which involves sending data that is decoded to transmit multiple messages. Radio engineers deal with high frequency circuits, typically ranging from 100 megahertz to 70 gigahertz. The frequency range of these signals depends on the language and technology evolution, with the term "micro" being higher than UHF. Antenna engineering is another subspecialty, involving the antennas that launch signals into free space. Modern smartphones have at least six or eight antennas, which can be divided into lower, mid-range, and high bands. Some phones combine these bands, while others have a pair of antennas for each set of bands. Bluetooth is often combined with Wi-Fi, as they are in the same frequency range and are often done by the same chip in the phone. Radio engineers often gravitate towards the cell phone business due to the challenges of fitting all of this in their pocket and the challenges of running the phone off of batteries. They also worry about the potential interference with aircraft sensors and the plane's avionics. While there were initial fears of interference, radio engineers do not turn off their phones during takeoff or landing to ensure aircraft safety..

From Palm OS Architecture to Chromebooks

Neil talks about the birth of the modern smartphone as a significant milestone in the history of technology. Palm and handspring invented the Palm OS, which was popular among 30 million people. They spun off from Palm and started cellular phones, adding cellular modems into the Palm Pilot type architecture. The Palm Pilot was the first modern smartphone with an app store, replacing paper calendars and address books. Neil talks about the evolution of the Palm Free and how it led to the accelerated development of the iPhone. Neil left Palm and joined the Chrome team, where they piloted a test of Chromebooks. 

Managing a Group of Engineers at Google

Neil transitioned from being an individual contributor to managing a group of engineers. He realized that team dynamics, collaboration, communication quality, and trust were crucial for everyone's individual abilities. He realized that having a diverse mix of backgrounds and experience levels made teams more productive.

 At Google he noticed how well-run teams were, even if not everyone was equally experienced. He decided to manage a small team of engineers, allowing him to have more impact. He asked people if they wanted to try new roles and gave them organizational flexibility. He managed a group of 75 engineers, which is currently in the low 40s due to a recent layoff. Managing a group of engineers is different depending on the type of roles they have in their organization. His current team size is around 44 engineers. Neil shares stories of engineering challenges that may bubble up to managers, such as the down economy and the decline in the personal computer market. 

The Process of Designing and Interacting with Manufacturers

Neil discusses the process of designing and interacting with manufacturers, such as OEMs like Dells, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, and LG. These OEMs, often based in Taiwan, have access to China's resources for high-volume manufacturing and have factories in various parts of China. Neil has a team of around 28 to 22 people, based in the Taipei office and two engineers in Sydney, Australia. They work with manufacturing companies (ODMs) to design a reference design and tweak it to ensure it stays agile and cost-effective in the current landscape. The team works closely with OEMs to build prototypes, and a lead OEM, such as Dell or HP or Lenovo, implements a lead product on one at the same ODM. The learnings from this build are then shared with another OEM.

Influential Courses and Professors at Harvard

Neil shares his experiences at Harvard, mentioning two professors who have influenced his career, his electrical engineering professor, Al Pandiscio, was a mentor, friend, and instructor, while Victor Jones, a professor of electromagnetics, taught the electromagnetics class and cellular communications.

Timestamps:

07:57 How Neil got into radio engineering

25:16 Leaving Palm and joining ChromeBook

27:30 Testing ChromeBook

27:52 Transition from individual contributor to managing a small team

35:10 Managing as an engineer

39:28 Managing a team of new managers

45:51 How Neil works with manufacturers? 

CONTACT:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nhendin

Email: [email protected]