Things I'm Working On Volume 1

June 2024

These are the top things I'm currently working on as an engineer. This list is specifically oriented towards the new role I'm starting in a month.

This list is structured similar to OKRs: each top-line item represents an overall trait or behavior I would like to have and sub-bullets are concrete ways to accomplish them.

• Be more strategic with engineering resources, including myself. I tend to fall into projects which seem interesting or under-owned. It's served me well thus far but as I move into more leadership-shaped IC work I need to be more careful with what I support and how I support it.

  • Spend 50% of my time on tasks directly attributable to top-level company goals.

  • Spend at least 30% of my time weekly on important but not urgent (i.e. foundation) work.

  • Choose up to three things and beat the drum on those things incessantly. Examples could be test flakiness, deployment speed, MTTR, new hire ramp-up. I'll know I'm succeeding if people come to me about those things and start the conversation with, "I think I already know what you're going to say, but..."

• Stop waiting for permission. When I see problems with a project, team, or org, my default response is to find an "adult" in the room and make noise at them about it. This worked well when I was a junior engineer ("proactively giving feedback") and it worked okay when I was a senior engineer; now that I'm a staff engineer it absolutely won't cut it.

  • Weekly: write down work which needs to happen but nobody is doing. Cull the list to problems which I can solve and are worth solving. Talk to my manager and peers about the list.

  • For each problem on the list, ask, "What could I do to help alleviate this?" Instead of finding reasons why I'm not the right person.

• Push back on project scope -- focus on incremental wins. This is related to the first bullet point. People outside of a specific problem domain tend to underestimate work within that domain. This directly causes those (very smart and well-meaning!) people to ask for pie-in-the-sky projects. I want to be better about setting realistic expectations and timelines.

  • De-risk new large efforts by writing down all the work I see; turn unknown unknowns into known unknowns. Socialize the roadmap to get everyone on the same page about the project.

  • Find ways to deliver incremental wins which fit the broader narrative. In other words, find digestible pieces of the grand vision which matter now and focus on those.

• Invest in my continued growth and education. I've never fully used conference or education budgets. I want to keep learning and growing as an engineer; spending time with other ICs working on similar problems will be hugely helpful.

  • Go to at least one conference per year, ideally two.

  • Use my entire education budget at whatever cadence it refreshes.

  • Spend at least 2 work hours per week consuming work-related media: papers, talks, blog posts, etc.