Leelavathi
Kumili
Engineer Lead at Starbucks
"Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership"
"Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership"
Wed May 13 - 4:10 PM EDT/New York (See in local time)
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05/13/2026 4:10 PM
05/13/2026 04:30 PM
America/New_York
#WTGC2026
"Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership"
#WTGC2026
"Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership"
https://www.womentech.net/ringcentral
https://www.womentech.net/ringcentral
"Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership"
"Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership"
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Session: Model Context Protocol for Humans: Applying AI System Design to Team Leadership
Every AI model has a protocol, a system that delivers the right context, tools, and mission so it can perform at its best. When did we last design the same for our teams?MCP(Model Context Protocol) is the open standard that connects an AI model to the real-world data and tools it needs. In this talk, I'll show how the same architecture applies to engineering leadership. Your team is the model. You are the MCP Server. And your job is not to direct, it's to connect.
Drawing on real examples from Starbucks, we'll explore how three primitives- Resources, Tools, and Prompts to eliminate bottlenecks, give teams the context they need to self-direct, and create environments where performance emerges naturally. If your protocol is right, collaboration doesn't have to be managed. It emerges.
Key Takeaways
- Understand the MCP framework: Resources, Tools, and Prompts, and what each one means as a concrete leadership responsibility
- Shift from directing to context-providing: your team's biggest blocker is usually missing information, not missing talent
- Learn how to test leadership changes safely, try it small, watch the signals, expand what works
- Identify the moments where your team is working without the full picture and fix the information gap before it becomes a performance gap
- Walk away with one concrete action: audit one meeting this week and ask am I sharing context, or am I the bottleneck?
Bio
I’m Leela Kumili, Lead Engineer at Starbucks specializing in distributed systems, microservices, and cloud architecture. I write the LinkedIn newsletter The Engineer’s Path about engineering leadership, AI adoption, and career growth, and I also serve as a news editor for InfoQ, covering architecture and distributed systems. My work helps engineers bridge technical excellence with system-level leadership.