This past week was hectic for me, with lots of running around wrapping up roadmaps and goals for the year and helping managers understand the scope and dependencies with external teams. Or even figuring out if there are other ways to solve a goal or if some other group has already built a solution we could improve upon.
When we talk about reaching the next level of the engineering ladder, it generally comes from doing high "leverage" activities. I understood the idea, but from time to time, I failed to choose only high-leverage tasks. That isn't good in itself. I learn from my mistakes and try again.
Recently, with losing teammates due to different circumstances, I have had to think about short-term goals with fewer people. But also about long-term sustainability and the impending fear of losing 75% of staff overnight.
Even in the face of fewer people helping with all the work we have to do, I'm always amazed by the resiliency of the people in my organization and how much it plays a part in building great products.
High-leverage activities look different as you climb the ladder, and more work requires influencing others. The activities look more like 1:1s, advice, feedback, or can you run a program from start to finish, manage uncertainty or risk in your programs, or even identify new areas of opportunity for the product or the business?