Build more. Create more. Produce more.
That’s how you used to become more valuable as a junior or senior engineer.
And when you focus too much on metrics, when you become truly data-driven instead of just data-informed, that feeling may continue even when you move up the technical career ladder.
But doing more and going faster starts to lose its value as you grow. Even if you never become a manager with direct reports, even in the informal technical leadership roles, your most important value quickly moves from personal throughput to team and organizational success.
Sure, some of that will still involve building and creating, even if it’s more at a system level than a product or component level. And metrics may still show evidence that you’re producing some things.
But technical leadership also involves more invisible work, such as education, cross-team coordination, or even just silent time to mentally absorb the potential impact of upcoming decisions. The scope of your influence grows beyond the mere technical, so you’ll need to learn how to consider broader business impact and customer impact. And sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is to question whether certain work even needs to be done at all. And that almost certainly won’t show up on most productivity metrics.
If you’d like help expanding your thinking beyond the technical as you pursue a technical career, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.
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