Insights for Engineering Leadership

Navigating the first 90 days in a leadership role in tech, especially as a woman, can be a minefield. But with the right guidance, it can be a launching pad for long-term success. Through coaching, I've had the privilege of assisting countless women leaders in tech to craft personalized 90-day plans tailored to their unique challenges and goals. These plans emphasize: 1. 🤝 Strategic Networking: Determining who to connect with, and arming them with key questions for 1:1s. 2. 🌟 STARS Alignment: Identifying which phase their team or organization is in (For a refresher on the STARS framework, see yesterday’s post). 3. 🚀 Quick Wins Identification: Pinpointing opportunities to make immediate, tangible contributions. 4. 🔍 Holistic Problem-Solving: Recognizing the types of problems they naturally gravitate towards, ensuring all facets of challenges are addressed. 5. 🧭 Personal Development: Crafting a growth plan around areas they wish to enhance. 6. 🔄 Feedback Loop Creation: Structuring effective ways to give and receive feedback to all levels. One standout story is of an Engineering Manager client. Her initial hurdles included navigating the culture of the much larger company that had acquired the startup she worked for, challenges stemming from cultural differences across different geographic locations, and managing a broader engineering organization than she was previously used to. Thanks to our collaboratively developed 90-day plan, she excelled in her role by effectively navigating the different organizational cultures through influence and empathy, making impactful strategic contributions, and learning to effectively manage and hire different engineering skill sets. This foundational success set her on a trajectory that led to a promotion to Director of Engineering within just a year. The power of a well-strategized onboarding process can’t be emphasized enough. It not only ensures a successful transition but lays the foundation for future growth and promotions. #EngineeringLeadership #First90Days #CareerAcceleration #StrategicOnboarding #SuccessStories

As we are deepening our product in copilot for #Snowflake workload optimization and scaling up sales at Bluesky, I’d like to share 3 leadership lessons. 1. Decouple WHAT and HOW in product planning and messaging Focusing on WHAT we solve is to focus on the problem domain. For example, At Bluesky our key value props are: a) Improve data cloud ROI by finding and eliminating usage inefficiencies. This is a key focus for many Snowflake users in 2023. An example success story in workload optimization is reported by Instacart in their S1. b) We save data platform eng team time and efforts in educating end users (e.g. data analysts/scientists in vertical teams) and enforcing Snowflake usage best practices. c) We make pipelines and dashboards go faster, and also improve analytics quality. This is the focus for customer facing messaging. When doing internal product eng planning, the language shifts to focus on HOW (the solution domain), such as optimizing WH utilization, storage and query workloads. 2. Decouple decision quality from decision outcome when starting R&D projects Startup is about taking calculated risks. When we start R&D projects, we need to have the courage to make risky bets that we believe in, as well as the discipline and skills in planning and monitoring the project progress (so that we can “fail fast” if needed). See book “Thinking in Bets” by Annie Duke for more context. It is critical to build out a “learning” based culture, so that the product and eng team feels rewarded by taking on calculated risks via strong planning and execution, and not punished by the lack of a positive outcome. This in turns requires that leadership has the (technical) insights to place/sponsor bets and differentiate quality of project planning/execution based on signals beyond the project outcome. 3. Decouple acknowledge from agreement when managing people A major focus of leadership and management is to encourage and extract diverse perspectives from their teams. However, when people disagree with me, while often times I gain new insights from understanding their perspectives and in turn further improving our decision quality, there are also times when I would experience a negative emotion (e.g. concern/fear of how lacking alignment can impact our execution). After exchanging perspectives, when I still feel confident in my thinking, over the time I have become more skillful/comfortable in acknowledging their perspectives, without coming across as agreeing with them. This is an important communication nuance to get right, in order to make them feel heard and encouraged in keeping bringing up different perspectives in the future. Building a team around a shared vision and mission, and working together to bring our experiences and insights to work, is a lot of fun. We are actively hiring for multiple positions BTW - pls check the comment section below. Also please drop comments below if you have leadership tips to share as well. Cheers.

Everyone’s chasing productivity using AI. But are we even measuring what matters? Talk to most engineering leaders right now, and you’ll hear some version of this: “We need to do more with less. Faster releases, tighter budgets, leaner teams.” But behind the dashboards and metrics, something deeper is playing out. A recent look across hundreds of engineering orgs surfaced some hard truths: •Over 60% of leaders say their teams improve both revenue and cost—but can’t tie that back to specific work •43% say at least a quarter of their developers are burned out •And nearly 25% track productivity… without any formal system at all We’re seeing the rise of metrics without meaning. And productivity theater that looks good on paper but hides inefficiencies, broken workflows, and burnout. So what actually moves the needle? Here’s what the best teams are doing right now: 1. Connecting work to business outcomes Not just measuring story points, but asking: does this reduce cost or drive growth? 2. Elevating developer experience (DevEx) 82% of leaders say DevEx is as important—or more important—than pure output. Environments that support creative flow outperform those that just chase velocity. 3. Getting serious about burnout Nearly a third of companies only detect burnout through attrition. If your metric is “who just quit,” it’s already too late. 4. Using AI where it makes sense Over 40% of orgs are experimenting with AI for code, process insights, or collaboration—yet many still don’t know how to measure its actual impact. What’s clear is this: productivity is not about squeezing teams harder. It’s about building a system where engineers can move fast without breaking themselves. And where output is tied to outcomes-not just effort. Ask your team one simple question: Does our work align with what the business actually cares about? If the answer’s unclear, that’s where the work begins. What do you think? #EngineeringLeadership #DevEx #Productivity #TechStrategy #AI #MetaShift #SoftwareDevelopment

Engineering Leadership Tip of the Day: Turn Silver Medalists into Gold Medalists 🥇 Many leaders in the software industry express a common pain point: a shortage of high-quality software engineers. The initial reflex is to scour the market for only the best talent, believing that top tier engineers (AKA “gold medalists”) are the right fit to propel a company forward. But there's another approach that gets overlooked: investing proactively in the growth of your current engineers. 💸 Every engineering leader I know understands the reality: It's incredibly challenging to find and recruit exceptional engineers. Glassdoor recently reported that the average time to hire a software engineer in the United States is about 35 days… and that’s for companies with robust hiring pipelines and resources. Every day that a role remains unfilled is a day lost in productivity and a day closer to project delays. 🏊 But what if you could reduce that burden by developing your existing talent pool? If your organization has systematic and efficient learning paths, you not only reduce time-to-hire but also open up new avenues of potential talent. In essence, you grow your silver medalists into gold medalists. 📈 An engineer's journey from being a silver medalist to a gold medalist isn’t random. It’s methodical. Effective learning tools that focus on hands-on practice, real-world projects, and assessments can provide your engineers the required skills to graduate to the next level. As we navigate the challenges of talent acquisition in a competitive and ever-changing tech landscape, it makes sense to think differently. The key to success might already be in your ranks, waiting for the right resources and opportunities to shine. It’s time to focus on turning silver into gold.

❌ "Build it and they would come" Is the most common (and incorrect) mindset I've seen people have whilst building Enterprise patterns in Platform Engineering. Focus on the "wins": When evangelizing platform engineering patterns, prioritize demonstrating tangible benefits to developers on their immediate projects. This could include: ✔ Reduced development time: Show how using the pattern cuts down on boilerplate code or repetitive tasks. ✔ Improved code quality: Explain how the pattern leads to more maintainable and scalable code. ✔ Simplified deployments: Highlight how the pattern enables smoother integrations and easier deployments. ✔ Increased developer productivity: Point out how the pattern empowers developers to focus on core features instead of infrastructure concerns. By focusing on specific, quantifiable improvements that directly impact developers' day-to-day work, you'll have a much stronger case for adopting platform engineering patterns. Remember, developers care most about tools that make their lives easier and their work more impactful. #platformengineering #cloudnative #devops #softwareengineering #patterns

The first of Platform Shift is live! ✨ Whether you're a seasoned platform leader or a newcomer to this field, I hope this exploration inspires you to think strategically about how you can enhance your role and the success of your firm. If you're leading a platform team on your own or just starting to build this function, it's critical to recognize that you cannot—and should not—try to tackle everything simultaneously. The breadth of responsibilities detailed in many Head of Platform job descriptions is vast, and attempting to address all areas without a prioritized approach is neither feasible nor effective. Building a robust platform function takes time, and it begins with strategic prioritization. Here's how you can start: 🎯 Engage with your firm’s leaders, team members, and founders to pinpoint pressing needs and opportunities. Understanding these priorities is crucial in determining where your efforts will be most impactful. 💪 Match the identified firm priorities with your personal expertise and passions. Starting with projects where you can leverage your strengths will not only lead to better outcomes but also sustain your motivation. 📈 Once you establish a solid foundation in one area, you can gradually expand your focus. This phased approach helps maintain quality and impact, ensuring that each new initiative builds on the success of the last. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and find the link to the full edition ⬇

Software systems are bound to become complex over time, sometimes to the level of demanding a complete rewrite. How do good engineers think about these migrations, their cost and sometimes years-long execution? 1. Boiling frog problem: good engineers will pay attention to and prioritize fixing tech debt as shortcuts become costlier over time. Good leaders at all levels should bring visibility to their managers -- what shortcuts were or are being taken, what fast-follow cleanups need to be done, why velocity is taking a hit because of complexity, and eventually, when it’s time to commit to a complete infra rewrite. 2. Business goes on: you can’t stop building features and investing in topline goals. If you’re a platform team, you can’t ask your clients to stop running their business either. Good leaders advance their infra goals in balance with business goals. You may need new auxiliary metrics for your organization: velocity or reliability, which you can chase with infra migrations. 3. Deliver incremental impact: bring early returns, prove the value of migration and keep morale up. Whenever possible, aim to incrementally migrate pieces that would benefit the most from migration. For example, optimize for migrating pieces with a maximum value of (“complexity” x “number of upcoming projects touching the piece”).

Recently, someone referred to me as a “Current CEO, former engineer.” The first part: spot-on. But the second I took issue with… I’ll never stop being an engineer. Years of training and education have deeply encoded it into the way I think and approach problems. Even before entering formal schooling, I think most people who become engineers are innate problem solvers. As I’ve moved out of engineering roles into business leadership positions, I’ve found I still approach a lot of the problems in my job the same way – it’s just the tools themselves that have changed. Engineering gives me a framework for logically working through problems, but now instead of calculations, I ask myself things like what kind of information or data do I need to get enough of an assumption about what direction we should take? ➡️ If I want to solve X problem or get to Y result, what do I need to know? How do I go about finding that information? How confident can I be in a chosen course of action given the data I’ve assembled? And finally, how do I communicate this process to others so they feel empowered to contribute to it? Thinking like an engineer could benefit any leader as it offers an objective lens to guide strategic direction and provide clarity to our teams. You can take the girl out of the engineering role, but you can’t take the engineer out of the girl.

💡 Leadership Insights: Navigating Software Development Challenges 💡 As the CEO of Sonatafy Technology, I've steered our ship through the dynamic waters of software development. Here are my top leadership tips to tackle common challenges in the industry: 1. Embrace Agility 💡The Tip: Stay flexible. The tech world changes rapidly; your strategies should too. 👉The Takeaway: An agile approach isn’t just a methodology, it's a leadership mindset that keeps you ready for change. 2. Invest in People 💡The Tip: Your team is your greatest asset. Invest in their growth and well-being. 👉The Takeaway: Skilled developers are crucial, but a motivated, well-supported team is unstoppable. 3. Prioritize Communication 💡The Tip: Keep lines open. Clear, concise, and constant communication prevents a multitude of development sins. 👉The Takeaway: When everyone speaks the same language, clarity leads to quality. 4. Foster Innovation 💡The Tip: Encourage creativity. Allow your team the space to experiment and fail. 👉The Takeaway: Innovation isn’t born from playing it safe; it's the offspring of calculated risks and freedom to explore. 5. Partner Strategically 💡The Tip: Choose partners who share your vision and complement your strengths. 👉The Takeaway: The right partnership, like Sonatafy's nearshore model, can amplify your capabilities and fast-track your goals. Leadership is more than guiding a team — it's about inspiring action, navigating challenges, and unlocking potential. At Sonatafy, we don’t just build software; we build leaders in tech. #Leadership #SoftwareDevelopment #Teamwork #Innovation #SonatafyTech

Friday Musings - People leadership in the age of AI : Few weeks back, I wrote what I see as a skill divergence in individual contributor roles in the age of AI. I strongly believe leaders (people leaders specifically, I believe everyone is a leader IC or Managers) have a huge a role to significantly reduce this skill divergence. First of all, leadership in this platform shift is "War-time Leadership" (opposed to Peace-time Leadership). This comes with a sense of urgency, leading from front and making space for our people to make as many mistakes as they can. This is not "Passive" and absolutely not "Hierarchical". Secondly, it is very hands-on. Every leader, if they aren't waking up with a healthy dose of "Anxiety", they probably are in denial. It has massive negative impact on their teams. You have to get hands-on and hands dirty, know your AI, as it relates to product/service/customers/roadmap and lead by purpose and example. Be the example, that your team aspires to be ! Thirdly, it is dynamic. Every process, belief, norm - if it doesn't help your teams get better (and better prepared for this platform shift), need to be relooked and iterated. That means a significant autonomy for your ICs to experiment with radical changes, and a leader to be absolutely comfortable, even if it challenges their core beliefs. "Dynamism" becomes the core to culture ! Finally, the value of "Trust", thus telling the uncomfortable truth is the highest ever. Be vulnerable and share your own fears, anxieties and challenges with this platform shift. There are no "Experts of Future", everyone is in it together. Your teams need to feel that you are real ! As leaders, we have the highest impact on our team's careers, and thus by extension their finances and mental health. It is a privilege of lifetime ! We have to be at the forefront to help our teams navigate the platform shift to AI !