Debugged S4 E1: Empowering Twitch Creators with Karin Zhang
Welcome back to the fourth season of Debugged, the official Congressional App Challenge alumni-led podcast! We’re more excited than ever to be with you for a new season of the show that connects the country’s youth with technology by debugging the intricate world of computer science.
By highlighting trends in the industry, breaking down complicated ideas, and hearing from high profile guests, Debugged allows its listeners to delve into technology through an analytical yet relatable lens. Debugged is a unique podcast experience that seeks to redefine STEM education, shine a light on diverse voices, and further the narrative around a myriad of computer science topics.
To kick off the season, host Medha Gupta chats with Karin Zhang, Vice President of Engineering for Twitch’s Money team! In her role, she leads the engineering teams who develop the payment, onboarding, and payout solutions that empower creators with the tools and platforms to earn a living doing what they love. Originally inspired to work at Twitch by the opportunity to have a tangible impact on creators’ lives, she has built a proven track record of navigating a field with little diversity and female role models for over twenty years.
Beginning the interview by reflecting on challenges faced throughout her career, she discusses Twitch’s philosophy of understanding creator needs, and delivering the best experiences for them at the same time as for the company. Specifically, she discusses an example with the development of affiliate, the platform’s earliest automated monetization onboarding system that transformed a manual process spanning weeks into a self-service one that took only minutes. Working in the early days of a monolithic application, she dives deep into the architectural decisions that her team made in developing one of the platform’s first microservices, as well as how she viewed those technical challenges through the perspective of their ultimate goal: to develop the best experience for customers in the shortest amount of time possible.
Additionally, as a team leader, Karin Zhang provides insight into the efforts she makes to foster a positive, diverse environment where everyone feels comfortable bringing their ideas to the table. She does so centered around a “trust equation” that she learned from a mentor: trust = (credibility + reliability + intimacy) ÷ self-orientation. As someone who believes in leading by example, she describes how she embodies each of these four principles in her own leadership style. As she does so, another theme becomes clear as central to her broader leadership philosophy: that working backwards from a shared goal unifies people towards a purpose, and welcomes differing perspectives.
Having referenced mentors of her own throughout the interview, Karin Zhang later takes the time to reflect on mentees of her own, and what she believes makes for successful mentorship. As with her relationship with her teams, she ties this back into a central theme of trust. She shares the importance of candidacy, mentees taking ownership of their own support, and the importance of uniting over clearly defined goals.
Finally, Karin Zhang is also the head of Twitch’s Woman Plus Guild, a space where anyone can discuss and advocate for issues and initiatives pertaining to gender and tech. Through her own experience in this role and as a woman in tech, she shares her advice to young girls who know they want to do STEM, but are not exactly sure what within.
We hope you tune in to this exciting episode of Debugged to hear more about Karin Zhang’s inspiring and fascinating journey, spanning over two decades!
Debugged is a free to stream podcast available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Anchor.fm. New episodes release every Thursday at midnight ET. To stay up-to-date with the podcast and learn more about the team of alumni behind every episode, follow @cacdebugged on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter)!