10 Years, 10 Lessons: Reflections on Leadership, AI, and Tech Craftsmanship

A decade ago, Slash began as a tight-knit engineering team in Cambodia, balancing complex enterprise systems with communal lunches and after-work gaming sessions. Today, as a global AI-first digital studio, our roots remain unchanged. 

In this interview, our Managing Director, Byron, shares 10 hard-won lessons on scaling remote culture, navigating executive decision-making, and adapting to the AI shift.

The Flashback

“When you first joined Slash, what did you honestly think this place was going to be—and how far off was your initial guess?”

When I first joined I was curious as to how such a company existed. I was new to Cambodia and new to the tech industry as well. I was very surprised to find a company that was not only doing great things, but that was having fun doing it. Playing Dota and Fifa after work, having communal lunches and parties in the common area, all while building fascinating systems across various domains was captivating. I was hoping it could succeed, but I also knew that it was a competitive market. I thought it would continue as is, a tech company always having fun. So I am very happy that we still are that company, a bit bigger now and more mature, a bigger place in the market with more history, but still a fun place to be and work.

The Global & Remote Reality

“After years of working remotely across different cultures, languages, and time zones, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about making global teamwork actually work?”

Covid was a shock to us all. It forced us into a remote-only work approach. We struggled at first, trying to understand how to transition, but the benefit of having a tech-savvy team is that it was a small problem to overcome. The biggest challenge and lesson was how to create and maintain a community from a distance. Naturally people tend to not engage as much vs a computer screen, so we had to find a way to make the community experience accessible again. We have tried so many tools, techniques and approaches and we continue to do so. We know how crucial it is, and it remains a core principle of Slash. A people-first approach. And it seems all the Slashers seem to appreciate this. So the most important lesson is to maintain community at all costs. It’s what keeps people wanting to be part of something bigger and helping contribute to something together

Real Talk on AI

“Now on AI. Where do you land on AI right now? How much has it actually evolved into your daily routine and workflow?”

AI has completely changed how I execute my work, but not what I do. I now have access to tools that can learn from how I work, what I like and execute based on these things. I am able to train mini-versions of myself to execute tasks that would take me days, now in seconds. But my experience, knowledge, context etc remains the key driver. I am still the human-in-the-loop of my own work and AI has proved a tool that unlocks my velocity and experimentation.

Product Evolution

“What’s the single biggest insight you’ve gained about building products over the years—and how does building something today in 2026 compare to back in 2016?” 

The greatest insight I have is that it still takes a user to understand what works for users. It sounds straight forward, but in reality a product builder or a founder or a domain expert or even an AI, all have a perspective on how the product should be built and how it should work, but users are the ultimate authority in the end. Building products today has gotten a bit faster, the tools (like AI) help accelerate a few things, but it still takes human minds discussing to actually build a good value proposition into a useful product. So the processes remain the same, the speed is a bit improved but otherwise, there has been no great revolution as there has been in coding with AI just yet.

When You Stop Building and Start Deciding

 “Moving from Product Owner to Head of Product, you went from defining what gets built to deciding what’s worth building at all. What’s the hardest thing you had to unlearn when you made that shift, and what did you realise nobody had prepared you for?”

The solution-oriented mindset is the hardest part to change. You see a problem and you want to fix it. Rather than thinking, why does that problem even exist, what can I change to avoid causing this problem, is there another change that would make this no longer a problem? That’s the mindset shift you need to achieve. What I didn’t expect is how open clients can be to being challenged about their preconceptions and assumptions. Coming from a product perspective, you see this as strengthening the product and value proposition, whereas clients see it as doubt and risk, rather than de-risking. Trying to communicate why this is important and not scary was a key learning.

The Loneliness of the Top Seat

 “As Managing Director, the decisions get bigger but the people you can openly talk through them with get fewer. How have you learned to make high-stakes calls without the safety net you had earlier in your career, and what does that pressure teach you about yourself that nothing else can?”

It’s rare that such high stakes calls are made completely without other people’s opinion on the matter. This authoritarianism is not the way I like to approach being a managing director. Collaboratively making decisions has always served me best, even if that doesn’t make the decisions any less impactful or scary. However, the key learning is as serious a decision is, making it without stalling too much is key. Otherwise you are just making a painful process more protracted. It’s best to make the decision and plan for the outcomes in order to make sure that decision has the best impact to the most people and leave the company stronger in the long term.

What a Product Can’t Tell You About a Business

“You’ve spent years obsessing over products: user needs, roadmaps, metrics, delivery. But stepping into a Managing Director role forces you to see the whole business, not just the product. What’s the most important thing you now understand about running a company that your product brain completely missed?” 

Making big decisions is harder than it looks because your emotional investment in people, the company, your work etc always plays a big role. Being objective is an active process that requires you to always doubt your thoughts and motivations, making sure what you do is best for the company.

The Hard Lessons

“Some of the best lessons and insights come from things going sideways. Is there a specific moment where something went badly wrong, and what did you learn from picking up the pieces? How do you do that?”

This is where the product owner mindset can be the most dangerous. When something goes wrong, it’s an instinct to run in and use any tool you have to put out the fire, all while ignoring that the smoke is killing you. Sometimes you have to cut back, take a bigger hit, but you know it will allow you to return later to improve and change. It’s a hard thing to do, and practice is the only way. I had to be guided through it by more experienced people the first time, and I will do the same when someone else needs it.

The Slash Secret

“After all this time, what do you think genuinely sets Slash apart from every other tech company out there?”

The people. We have the best people I have ever worked with. They care about each other, they care about Slash, they care about their work and always want to grow. It’s a fantastic environment to work in and the fact that nearly everyone stays for many years, shows that they like the environment also.

The One-Liner

“Ten years in, summarized in a single sentence: What is Slash to you?”

Slash is where passionate people get to grow and build