469- Not Just the Break-Fix Guy w/Desi Rodriguez

GUEST BIO

Desi Rodriguez was eight years old, on a field trip to a sewage plant, when he got fixated on the bank of monitors in its NOC. From there he went through a Cisco Systems Network Academy pilot program in high school, an internship at AMD, a two-year degree from ITT Tech, State of Texas agencies and IBM, where he became a Citrix SME and spent six months in Bangalore training Citrix technicians. Then he answered a post for a systems administrator at Tilson Homes, a custom home builder in Texas, where he is now Director of Information Technology. It'll be 15 years in December.

He has advised the company to hold its breath on AI until there are business justifications, from the executive committee or department by department. The requests he hears are very vague, and they take him back to SharePoint at the state: his bosses asked what it does, he asked what they wanted it to do, and nobody had a clear answer. On spend, he works from a daily dollar figure the accounting team and the C-suite worked out, what the company loses when it isn't running, and he puts tech debt into hours of downtime for the CFO.

Respect is one of his top relational needs, and for him it means nobody keeps IT from knowing about an initiative and then expects his team to fix it when it doesn't work. His one lesson for other IT leaders is to learn how the other departments work and build relationships before you need them, down to talking trucks with a drafter at Home Depot. He closes with what he'd tell his younger self: be humble, and learn to say no respectfully and to the right people.

Episode Show Notes

Navigate through key moments in this episode with timestamped highlights, from initial introductions to deep dives into real-world use cases and implementation strategies.

[00:00] Cold open

[00:37] Meet Desi Rodriguez: from a NOC on a field trip to Tilson Homes

[06:57] A resilient network for a seven-day-a-week shop

[16:38] AI requests and the SharePoint loop

[19:20] Cash flow, job costs and a first AI use case

[27:51] Growing into new markets with a homegrown CRM

[31:50] Relational values and "That's disrespectful"

[40:17] Hiring for a passion for the industry

[44:42] One talk for IT: learn how the business works

[48:14] Getting past the fear: grace and a pink keyboard

[51:14] Tech debt for a CFO: hours of downtime

[54:33] Advice to his younger self: be humble, learn to say no

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Learn how the other departments work before you change anything in them. You'll make smarter decisions about IT spend and direction, and ruffle fewer feathers.

Build relationships before you need them, then ask the decision makers to help you pilot what's coming. You get more buy-in that way.

When an AI request is vague, ask what they want it to do, and ask for business justifications before anyone buys licenses.

Put tech debt into hours of downtime, so the business can turn it into money with its own daily figure.

Tell other leaders, respectfully, that IT needs to know about an initiative before it's pushed through.

Assume people may just not know. Give your team the reasons behind the rules, so they can say no with a clean, concise answer.

469- Not Just the Break-Fix Guy w/Desi Rodriguez