The Staff Engineer's Path
This book by Tanya Reilly came out at the end. 2022 The theme of Staff+ Engineers is well-researched in Vil Larson’s “Staff Engineer,” which I described in two parts: 1 and 2. Tanya's book consists of the following parts:
Introduction - it all begins with an introduction, in which the author talks about the three foundations of the role of a staff engineer: the ability to think in the concept of big-picture, the ability to perform complex projects, the ability to influence the environment so that it becomes better. Further, each base is examined in more detail in its part: I. The Big Picture
- What Would You Say You Do Here? - Here you can find out the expectation of the role and why you need staff engineers, as well as what the job looks like.
- Three Maps – Discuss how to do zoom in and zoom out to understand context and what it takes for an organization
- Creating the Big Picture – How to write high-level documents such as technical strategy or vision II. Execution
- Finite Time – here are the techniques that allow you to spend limited time most efficiently by choosing the right projects.
- Leading Big Projects – How to lead large cross-team projects to success)
- Why Have We Stopped? – How to Overcome Obstacles III. Leveling Up
- You're a Role Model Now (Sorry) Staff+ engineers are a role model for other engineers and this should be taken into account if you have grown to the level of staff +
- Good Influence at Scale: Learning, Coaching, Design Review and Cultural Change
- What's Next? - This chapter tells you how to develop yourself, how to think about developing your career and moving forward
P.S. I would like to recommend this book to tech leaders, as I have often found myself using many approaches as a CTO:) So these tips can be useful not only for staff + engineers, but also for technical managers of different levels.
#Staff #SoftwareDevelopment #Software #SelfDevelopment