Making a Bigger Impact

Presented at QCON SF Nov 13, 2017: http://qconsf.com/sf2017/presentation/making-bigger-impact-important-skills-master.

It is very common for an individual contributor to think about the next challenge in their career, whether it is the role of a tech lead, an engineering manager, or a software architect. When the transition happens, the first surprise is often in the form of the implicit nature of the new role: becoming a force multiplier and making a bigger impact to the organization. The good news is, there are few simple skills which can be mastered quickly and should catapult such a motivating individual contributor to a whole new level.

Transcript

1. Making a Bigger Impact Photo by Johannes Pleio: https://unsplash.com/photos/fmTde1Fe23A @AriyaHidayat
2. Engineering Career Path Manager Architect Tech Lead
3. Organization & Planning Articulate Communication Influence Excellence
5. Excellence Meta Photo by Sabri Tuzcu: https://unsplash.com/photos/dVhM3o9BVeg
9. "No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy." Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
10. "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson
11. Organization & Planning Photo by Dragne Marius: https://unsplash.com/photos/ennARkXrF74 1
12. Stakeholder Deliverable Scope
13. Photo by Rohan Makhecha: https://unsplash.com/photos/4JGzpIpq74w
14. Photo by Jon Flobrant: https://unsplash.com/photos/Cg9QlLuX120
15. “What’s the Status of X?” Done. Buggy?! GA WORKSFORME What’s that? Seriously? Beta. It sucks!
16. Photo by 2Photo Pots: https://unsplash.com/photos/W8DhWtAed5U Emotional Ownership
17. Let me tell you somethin', son: A driver don't pick the car, the car picks the driver.
18. Centralized Dashboard
19. Define the Milestones
20. Capability Maturity Model
21. Welcome aboard! Here is your new laptop. How do I set it up? Figure it out! Chaotic How do I set it up? Follow this wiki! Repeatable
22. Planned Feature Complete Code Freeze Release Candidate GA
23. It’s finally GA! Generally Alpha? Garbage Allocated?
24. ✓ A release branch MUST be active in the Git repository. ✓ There MUST NOT be any more P1 defects. ✓ The code coverage MUST not regress. ✓ The list of third-party dependencies MUST be updated. ✓ The test plan MUST be completed.
26. Articulate Communication Photo by Olivia Basile: https://unsplash.com/photos/RcciIaxiNus 2
28. Photo by Tim Carey: https://unsplash.com/photos/888gA0cV0nc
31. TELL ME, DO YOU EVEN ….
32. Four A’s Assemble Align Apply Assign Granville Toogood, “The New Articulate Executive”
33. Team, Check out this cool stuff: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140730172610-9679881- pizza-as-a-service/ Best regards,
34. Team, If you are not familiar with IaaS vs PaaS vs Saas, please study this article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140730172610-9679881-pizza-as-a- service/ Important highlight: 1. You can make a pizza at home where you’re responsible for buying all of the ingredients including making the dough. 2. You can purchase some of the ingredients and buy pre-packaged dough. 3 You can have pizza delivered to your home. 4. You can simply load up the family and head out for pizza at your local dining establishment. We will discuss this briefly at our next weekly team discussion. Please be prepared. Action Preview Deadline
36. They found that the router was not configured properly. Joe gave me a call, but at that time I was busy with our team troubleshooting another customer. Fortunately, Jack was online. Later, they summarized the finding and sent it to me. We don't know exactly how this happened, but he assured us that they are working on that.
37. Michelle (Ops team, ACME) found that the router was not configured properly. Joe (PM, ACME) gave me a call, but at that time I was busy with Diana troubleshooting another customer (XYZ Corp). Fortunately, Jack was online. Later, Joe summarized the finding and sent it to me. Diana and I don't know exactly how this happened, but Jack assured the executive team that Joe and Michelle are working on that.
39. Punch One Theme Window Ear Retention Granville Toogood, “The New Articulate Executive”
40. "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." Mark Twain
41. 30-minute 4-minute 11-second
42. Idea Elaboration Summary Refinement
43. “Don’t be afraid to rewrite your text. Rewriting is the essence of writing well." William Zinsser
44. Improve eye contact skills Maintain a solid posture … Avoid filler words
45. Team meetings Company all-hands Brown bag lunches Local meetups
46. Dec 1, 2017 Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scott, Sulu Do we need to migrate USS Enterprise to the new Java 9? • No need, let’s stick with what works (Kirk) • Let’s consult Oracle (Uhura) • I can rewrite everything in C# (Spock) Timestamp Attendees Summary
47. “I have an obsession with knowing the answers to things. When I don't know what happened, it just bothers me, gets under my skin, and I need to write about it." Taylor Swift
49. Influence Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev: https://unsplash.com/photos/w3yNoSfVya0 3
50. Reactant Catalyst
52. Director Manager A Manager B Manager C Engineer 1 Engineer 2 Manager D Lead Engineer 4 Engineer 5 Engineer 6 Architect
54. After I thought about it …… Tell me more! You want X, right? Have you thought about doing Y?
56. “One can do a great deal of good in this world if one does not care who gets the credit for it.” William Strickland
57. Power Affiliation Achievement Linda Sommer, “Beyond Office Politics”
58. Assertive Accommodator Analytical Chris Voss, “Never Split the Difference”
60. ✓ Mandatory code review ✓ Continuous integration ✓ Full code coverage ✓ Cross-browser integration tests ✓ Continuous deployment ✓ Vulnerability assessment
61. Static analysis Unit tests Continuous integration Code review
62. WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
63. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Winston Churchill
64. YES. Isn’t …. our value? So what do you think about doing…
66. Summary Photo by Iswanto Arif: https://unsplash.com/photos/0HWloO4oPnU
68. Thank You shapesecurity.com Some artworks are from unsplash.com/ and openclipart.org. speakerdeck.com/ariya @ariyahidayat
69. End of Presentation