Hypergrowth, B2B vs B2C, and welcoming the rest of the world to AI with Heidi Williams from Grammarly

Heidi is Director of Engineering at Grammarly, leading Grammarly Business, their B2B offering for teams and organizations.

In this episode, she shares stories of hypergrowth, the challenges of working on a product that has both business and consumer users, and transitioning a team from startup mode to long-term stability.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/heidi-williams-grammarly-hypergrowth

Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (00:32) Heidi’s journey at Grammarly so far (01:45) Culture at Grammarly (05:43) B2C vs B2B (13:21) Heidi’s short stint in product (14:33) Cross-functional work between engineering, product, and design (16:22) Managing relationships with stakeholders (19:02) The role of an engineering director at Grammarly (20:36) Balancing technical debt with new development (23:18) Centralized vs. decentralized architecture (26:22) The role of platform teams (28:52) Welcoming everyone else to the AI party

Where to find Heidi • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwilliams1/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/Heidivt73

Where to find Rebecca • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey

Links and mentions • Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/ • Grammarly Business: https://www.grammarly.com/business • Innovator’s Dilemma: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244 • Product for Internal Platforms: https://skamille.medium.com/product-for-internal-platforms-9205c3a08142