Day 21: Deciding Which Problems We Should Solve
Be Better Engineering Leader, a 30 Days Series
This is the fifth week of a series of daily lessons on how to Be a Better Engineering Leader. I recommend spending up to an hour on each lesson to gain insights into Product, Technology, and People—areas critical for every Engineering Manager.
Engineering leaders are not just executors of technical tasks; they play a crucial role in shaping the product vision and strategy.
Your team isn’t a cost center but a profit center, driving value through technology. This means understanding customer needs and aligning your tech strategy with the product goals.
Today, we’ll focus on how to effectively influence product decisions and ensure that your team is part of the product leadership.
Key Concepts
You Are a Product Leader Too
You don’t work for product leaders; as an engineering leader, you’re part of the product leadership. Shift your team mindset from delivering tasks to contributing to strategic decisions. Use your unique perspective on technology and its capabilities to guide product strategy, not just execute it.Align Engineering with Product Vision
Your company's product vision is the reason for its existence, and it’s your job to ensure that your team understands this vision. Make it clear how their technical work contributes to achieving these high-level goals. Regularly communicate how current projects and tech initiatives align with the product vision.Influence Product Decisions with Technical Insights
Engineers are often the first to know which technical solutions can address customer pain points effectively. Leverage this knowledge to influence which problems get prioritized. Structure your tech strategy to translate technical challenges into business outcomes and present them in a way that resonates with non-technical stakeholders.Focus on Outcomes, Not Just Features
Encourage your team to think beyond delivering features and focus on the outcomes those features should achieve. Implement telemetry and success metrics to validate that your work is delivering the expected results. This shift helps the team stay focused on solving real customer problems, not just building features.Increase Customer Awareness
Ensure your team is connected to customer needs. Use customer feedback and product analytics to understand what users value most and where they struggle. Involve engineers in shadowing sessions, user interviews, or even support calls to give them a first-hand view of customer pain points and potential areas for improvement.
Action Points
Reflect on Product Outcomes You Contribute To
Write down the specific product outcomes you and your team contribute to. For each recent feature or project, note how it impacts the product vision. Does it improve user satisfaction, reduce friction, or enable a new capability?Connect Tech Initiatives to Product Vision
Review your current tech initiatives. For each initiative, ask yourself: How does this support our product vision? Use this opportunity to reprioritize tasks or reframe them in a way that directly supports the product goals. Present this connection in your next team meeting.Create a Proposal to Influence Product Decisions
Choose one technical area where your team’s expertise could shape product decisions. Prepare a brief proposal on how your insights can help prioritize this area. You can use PR / FAQ document discussed on the Day 18.Engage with Customer Feedback and Analytics
Review recent customer feedback or product analytics. Discuss these insights with your team and identify one area where you could make a tangible improvement. Implement this change and monitor the impact, using it as a case study for aligning engineering work with customer value.
Implement these steps to strengthen your role in product leadership. By aligning technical work with product goals, you’ll not only enhance your team’s impact but also contribute significantly to your company’s success.
Extra Resources
Premium Article: The Role of Engineering in Product Model Transformation - Part 3 Changing the Way Decisions Are Made About Which Problems To Solve
PDF Cheat Sheet: Download Cheat Sheet
Blog Post: The Role of Engineering in Product Transformation
Book Recommendation: Empowered by Marty Cagan
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