So as a staff eng you will have projects that you are leading but have cross team/org dependencies.
You have to get alignment with those teams and get projects on their roadmap/sprints so you can get unblocked.
But a lot of engineers think they can just ask cross-functional teams fit with but get surprised when things don’t happen. And that’s because other team is busy and not idling.
As a staff engineer you have to figure out how you can contribute to cross-team such that they agree to the problem, let you contribute to their code base, and help them unlock you.
Its a lot of championing and relationships building that is expected at staff level.
Notice how none of this is engineering as such. Which is not to say this work is not useful, of course it is. But it’s political, coordinative, managerial in nature.
This is, shall we say, not always a good fit for someone who is good at engineering.
As someone looking to end up in one of these roles over the next few years, this is very helpful!
Does something similar to this exist for engineering management or other similar high-level roles in other career fields? I'd be curious to see things like schedules for them.
Edit: also, maybe it's me, but at some point every link on every page turned purple. A little irritating; hard to tell what I have or haven't opened.
I read their book. It's awesome; it's essentially the only book out there I've encountered so far that actually tries to both define what the role is and teach you how to succeed.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 30.0 ms ] thread"Often abruptly, you're now expected to align the pieces around you for your own success"
I am curious to hear how people have gone about achieving this.
You have to get alignment with those teams and get projects on their roadmap/sprints so you can get unblocked.
But a lot of engineers think they can just ask cross-functional teams fit with but get surprised when things don’t happen. And that’s because other team is busy and not idling.
As a staff engineer you have to figure out how you can contribute to cross-team such that they agree to the problem, let you contribute to their code base, and help them unlock you.
Its a lot of championing and relationships building that is expected at staff level.
I hope that is useful
This is, shall we say, not always a good fit for someone who is good at engineering.
Does something similar to this exist for engineering management or other similar high-level roles in other career fields? I'd be curious to see things like schedules for them.
Edit: also, maybe it's me, but at some point every link on every page turned purple. A little irritating; hard to tell what I have or haven't opened.
- His book on engineering management, An Elegant Puzzle: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Puzzle-Systems-Engineering-Ma...
- His blog also discusses management: https://lethain.com/