Building an AI-Ready Team Through Shared Learning and Weekly Shipping—with Alfonso Quijano, Lean Solutions Group
About the episode
What if your biggest AI advantage isn’t a model—it's how fast your team can learn together?
In this episode of Futureproof, Prakash Chandran sits down with Alfonso Quijano, CTO of Lean Solutions Group, to explore how Lean is becoming AI-ready by turning learning into a team sport. Alfonso explains how they create space for engineers to test new tools, teach each other what works, and build a culture where mentorship and experimentation fuel weekly shipping. Together, they unpack why speed comes from clarity and collaboration—not just new technology—and how leaders can design habits that help teams adopt AI confidently while staying grounded in real outcomes.
Topics covered include:
- Shared learning loops: How Lean creates internal sessions where engineers teach each other new tools and workflows.
- Weekly shipping as culture: Why fast MVP cycles and rapid iteration compound learning across teams.
- Hands-on leadership: How Alfonso builds trust by working alongside engineers and reinforcing experimentation.
- Tool experimentation with discipline: How Lean tests new vendors quickly while making deliberate long-term platform choices.
- Clarity over tooling: Why product thinking and communication—not shiny tech—ultimately determine velocity.
Chapters
00:00
From Colombia to CTO
Alfonso shares his background and explains how his early exposure to different cultures shaped his approach to technology leadership.
04:23
What Lean Really Does
Alfonso breaks down Lean’s origin story in logistics services and how the company evolved by layering product and technology into a traditionally service-led model.
07:26
“Don’t Rename The Company Lean AI”
He describes resisting trend-chasing and instead building durable products where AI is foundational—not decorative.
10:43
Speed as a Weekly Habit
Alfonso explains the weekly-iteration mandate and how Lean operationalized fast MVP cycles without losing the thread on outcomes.
12:11
Leading by Getting in the Trenches
He shares why hands-on leadership mattered early, and how low-code/no-code lowered friction for shipping while keeping leadership close to execution.
16:27
Small Teams, Big Impact
Alfonso connects Lean’s do-more-with-less approach to lessons from OpenAI and explains how the mindset matured into major internal platforms.
19:36
What Great Engineers Do Now
He reframes the modern engineer as customer-facing, articulate, non-defensive, and enabled by tools rather than limited by individual skill alone.
23:59
Teaching Each Other the Tooling Edge
Alfonso describes Lean’s internal learning cadence where teams demo what they’ve learned and share practical playbooks that spread across the org.
25:58
Build vs. Buy in the AI Era
He explains why Lean treats the front-end as increasingly commoditized while keeping more deliberate control over backend systems for long-term reliability.
29:58
The Real Bottleneck Is Clarity
Alfonso argues that speed breaks down when the problem isn’t well-defined, and he outlines how complementary personality styles and truth-telling culture keep teams balanced.
36:20
Simplicity, Real Benchmarks, And Where To Start
He shares why he’s shifted from complexity to simplicity, warns against trusting external benchmarks blindly, and gives practical advice for leaders starting AI adoption.
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