People of Pluralsight: Meet Chethana Shastry

Welcome to the next edition of the People of Pluralsight series. This series spotlights our team members—the people who make the difference—and showcases their diverse talents, experiences, and stories.

In this edition, we’re excited to introduce you to Chethana Shastry, Senior Engineering Manager. 

Chethana Shastry is all about growth—not just the growth that happens during big moments when everyone is watching, but also the quiet growth that happens behind the scenes every day. Chethana has been at Pluralsight for one and a half years, and her team focuses on rewriting existing code to improve the performance of Pluralsight’s products. Her team’s work isn’t always in the spotlight, but she often reminds her team that innovation doesn’t have to be groundbreaking to be impactful:

“Innovation can be a simple change that actually makes something work or look better.”

Chethana has been growing and learning since day one at Pluralsight. Her team of eight not only come from different technical backgrounds but also different cultural backgrounds. This diversity of thought brings a lot of value to their team collaboration, and Chethana has gained a robust understanding of the technical work at Pluralsight from managing her team.

One of the most significant and impactful experiences that helped her team bond and work together was a project that actually never went into production. The team had not yet worked together at the start of the project, and there was a lot to deliver in a short amount of time. Although the project never deployed, the experience of working on the project helped her and her team grow their technical skills, learn how to collaborate and build trust with each other, and gain confidence that they can deliver anything. 

As a leader, Chethana champions open communication, continuous learning, and autonomy. She asks her team members to set a goal each quarter to learn something new, and she consistently encourages them to look for ways to make things better. To encourage autonomy, she’s intentional about not interfering in and not always joining team discussions—she gives her team space to collaborate and make decisions on their own. Her one request? If they’re making a big design decision, she asks them to present their recommendations and get opinions from the full team to ensure everyone’s aligned. 

Given Chethana’s focus on continuous growth personally and with her team, we’re giving her the title Continuous Improvement Coach. 

Chethana is based near Pluralsight’s India office in Bengaluru. In her free time, she loves being active and enjoys playing badminton, chess, and throwball. She also loves to travel and be outdoors. Her favorite travel destination in India is Chikkamagaluru, nestled in the Western Ghats, because of the beautiful scenery and weather. Her favorite destination outside of India was her trip to Shanghai.

Here are some other fun facts about Chethana:

Favorite thing about working at Pluralsight:

• The culture. People respect each other and the culture is very inclusive. 

What she’s most proud of accomplishing at Pluralsight:

• Instead of one project, she’s very proud of accomplishing several smaller initiatives, like taking ownership of the ACG mobile app, initiating the back-end rewriting for mobile apps, and delivering on specific mobile app features, like search by clip and MFA.

Her favorite culture pillar:

• Direct & Respectful. It may not sound like the most impactful pillar, but feeling respected helps people feel valued. People who feel valued bring their best selves and do their best work.

The person who has made the difference for her at Pluralsight:

• Ravindra H S . Every time she speaks with Ravi, she feels inspired. He gives great advice but also champions autonomy by leaving decisions up to her.

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