SMLP Podcast: Franco Edah Interviews Ian Lotinsky

by Franco Edah

Mr. Lotinsky is the CTO and the Head Platform of LearnZillion, a major online educative solutions provider in the U.S. Mr. Lotinsky has a bachelor’s in computer science from the University of Maryland and a masters degree in Human-Computer interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before his leadership position at LearnZillion, he had worked in various organizations, non-profit and for-profit, and even co-founded his own business, SandwishBoard.

Talking with Mr. Lotinsky was quite insightful. I learned that for a business to run smoothly, a leader should worry about providing a working environment suit to performance, feedback (positive or negative), and at some extent vulnerability. Mr. Lotinsky has a humanistic vision of the business. Throughout his career, he improved both his technical and interpersonal skills. Mr. Lotinsky told me that it is important to communicate the objectives of a project and whether some clients’ requests are possible or not. He avoids straining his team members to meet unrealistic goals. I learned that to keep his organization competitive he pays close attention to the market’s feedback and needs to seize opportunities for improvement. He also stays informed of the competition’s innovation by following tech-related forums and information channels. According to Mr. Lotinsky, being able to bring new inventions to the market is a good skill to have, but more than often, what makes a business successful are the little changes in processes or in the way certain things are done that end up boosting productivity and rentability. Overall, I gain a new understanding of the soft skills required to perform as a leader. He is a well-spoken and thoughtful person and I enjoyed interviewing him. I value the advice he gave me and hope that I will become a good leader as he is.