The Staff Engineer's Path
Introduction
- three main pillars of staff engineers: big-picture thinking, execution of projects, and leveling up the engineers you work with.
- This book is broken into 3 main parts: The Big Picture, Execution, and Leveling Up
Part I: The Big Picture
What Would You Say You Do Here?
- Good decisions need context. Experienced engineers know that the answer to most technology choices is “it depends.
- Staff engineers are expected to understand bigger picture views - solution A might be easier for the team but create headaches for other part of the org. Solution B might be harder to setup but has more value for the org over time
- Staff engineering is a leadership role - you are one of the "grown-ups" in the room
- To be a good influence, you need to have high standards for what excellent engineering looks like and model them when you build something.
- what matters is that the problems get solved, not how
So you know you’re supposed to be working on things that are impactful and valuable. But where do you find this magic backlog of high-impact work that you should be doing? You create it!
- The four disciplines that are needed in any job in the world (from Yonatan Zunger):
- Core technical skills: Coding, litigation, producing content, cooking—whatever a typical practitioner of the role works on
- Product management: Figuring out what needs to be done and why, and maintaining a narrative about that work
- Project management: The practicalities of achieving the goal, removing chaos, tracking the tasks, noticing what’s blocked, and making sure it gets unblocked
- People management: Turning a group of people into a team, building their skills and careers, mentoring, and dealing with their problems
- Staff Archetypes article
- at the Staff level, your work must be important. When you're an individual contributor, doing great work on something that becomes irrelevant is okay because you don't typically pick your work - at the Staff level, you don't have that luxury.
- Task / Homework: write out my understanding of my job and share it with your manager
Three Maps
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The "Three Maps" are:
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Locator Map: your place in the org
Your locator map can help you make sure the teams you work with really understand their purpose in the organization, who their customers are, and how their work affects other people.
- Topological Map: knowing the terrain
Your topographical map can help highlight the friction and gaps between teams and open up the paths of communication.
- Treasure Map: destination and some points on how to get there
Your treasure map can help you make sure everyone knows exactly what they’re trying to achieve and why.
- Do you understand how decisions are made in your organization?
Recap
- Practice the skills of intentionally looking for a bigger picture and seeing what’s happening.
- Understand your work in context: know your customers, talk with peers outside your group, understand your success metrics, and be clear on what’s actually important.
- Know how your organization works and how decisions get made within it.
- Build or discover paths to allow information you need to come to you.
- Be clear about what goals everyone is aiming for.
- Think about your own work and what your journey is.