- Staff engineering is ambiguous; companies are still trying to figure out the role
- Levels below are for growing autonomy
- Levels above are for growing impact and responsibility
- “humaning” skills
- Titles signal the quality of the person you are working with
- Pillars
- Big picture thinking
- Project execution
- Leveling up the org
- Avoid “local maximum” to ensure paths are best for the whole org
- TPMs focus on high-level coordination
- https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Microsoft,Amazon,Expedia&track=Software%20Engineer
- “Leadership” is not a distraction from the job, it is the job
- Management is different from leadership
- https://kind.engineering/
- Make sure to understand [and clarify if necessary] your scope
- “You don’t stay in your lane”
- Question: Depth or breadth first
- Things needed
- Skills
- Project management
- Product management
- People management
- “Everything you do has a high-opportunity cost”
- “You don’t plant grass in your only barrel”
- Ask, “What do I do here?” then document it; review with your manager
- Maps
- “You are here”
- Topographical
- Treasure maps
- “Respect what came before”
- (There is a fine balance between respecting what came before and pushing to new successes)
- Solve the problem, not just through code
- Team and company culture
- How much autonomy will I have
- How hard will it be to make progress
- Do I need to mind myself
- Open or secret
- Oral or written culture
- Formal or backdoor
- Allocated or available resources
- Crystalized (promotions come in turn) or liquid
- Power, rules, or mission
- Being out of the loop means you do not know how decisions are made
- Make sure your contributions fit into a larger narrative
- Focus on improvement, not revolution
- Eagerly give support to those trying to make improvements even if you disagree with their approach
- Align goal with sponsors
- Look for “objectives that are always true” (like covering costs or maintaining systems)
- Make sure people feel okay to disagree
- Ask, “Can anyone not live with this choice?” instead of, “Is everyone okay with this?”
- Make sure everyone knows that things will get hard
- Fish around for ulterior motives
- Make sure to connect concepts so people understand the context
- Add more nouns to be explicit on what is needed where
- Beware of “bike shedding”
- “Watermelon project” (all green on the outside but all red on the inside)
- “Wrong gets corrected, vague sticks around”
- Blockage
- Understand
- Explain
- Find a work around
- Three bullets and a call to action
- “There is no such thing as a ‘temporary’ solution”
- You do not need to be the world’s best
- Own your skills and mistakes
- “Radiate intent” so no one is surprised by your movements
- Beware of junior engineers doing administrative work
- Optimize for maintenance, not creation
- Design to be decommissioned
- Every system needs to be replaced some day
- Success is when other people want to work with you
- It is difficult to improve both management and technical skills
- It is okay to swing between technical and manager roles
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.