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
   

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2. Engineering Career Path
   Manager
   Architect
   Tech Lead
   

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3. Organization &
   Planning
   Articulate
   Communication
   Influence
   Excellence
   

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5. Excellence
   Meta
   Photo by Sabri Tuzcu: https://unsplash.com/photos/dVhM3o9BVeg
   

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9. "No battle plan ever survives
   first contact with the enemy."
   Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
   

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10. "Everyone has a plan
    'till they get punched in the mouth."
    Mike Tyson
    

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11. Organization &
    Planning
    Photo by Dragne Marius: https://unsplash.com/photos/ennARkXrF74
    1
    

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12. Stakeholder Deliverable Scope
    

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13. Photo by Rohan Makhecha: https://unsplash.com/photos/4JGzpIpq74w
    

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14. Photo by Jon Flobrant: https://unsplash.com/photos/Cg9QlLuX120
    

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15. “What’s the Status of X?”
    Done.
    Buggy?!
    GA
    WORKSFORME
    What’s that?
    Seriously?
    Beta.
    It sucks!
    

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16. Photo by 2Photo Pots: https://unsplash.com/photos/W8DhWtAed5U
    Emotional Ownership
    

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17. Let me tell you somethin', son:
    A driver don't pick the car,
    the car picks the driver.
    

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18. Centralized Dashboard
    

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19. Define the Milestones
    

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20. Capability
    Maturity
    Model
    

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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
    

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22. Planned
    Feature
    Complete
    Code
    Freeze
    Release
    Candidate
    GA
    

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23. It’s finally GA!
    Generally
    Alpha?
    Garbage
    Allocated?
    

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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.
    

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26. Articulate
    Communication
    Photo by Olivia Basile: https://unsplash.com/photos/RcciIaxiNus
    2
    

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28. Photo by Tim Carey: https://unsplash.com/photos/888gA0cV0nc
    

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31. TELL ME, DO YOU EVEN ….
    

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32. Four A’s
    Assemble Align Apply Assign
    Granville Toogood, “The New Articulate Executive”
    

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33. Team,
    Check out this cool stuff:
    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140730172610-9679881-
    pizza-as-a-service/
    Best regards,
    

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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
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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39. Punch
    One Theme
    Window
    Ear
    Retention
    Granville Toogood, “The New Articulate Executive”
    

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40. "I didn't have time to
    write a short letter,
    so I wrote a long one instead."
    Mark Twain
    

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41. 30-minute
    4-minute
    11-second
    

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42. Idea
    Elaboration
    Summary
    Refinement
    

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43. “Don’t be afraid to rewrite your text.
    Rewriting is the essence of writing well."
    William Zinsser
    

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44. Improve eye contact skills
    Maintain a solid posture
    … Avoid filler words
    

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45. Team meetings
    Company all-hands
    Brown bag lunches
    Local meetups
    

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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
    

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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
    

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49. Influence
    Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev: https://unsplash.com/photos/w3yNoSfVya0
    3
    

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50. Reactant
    Catalyst
    

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52. Director
    Manager A Manager B Manager C
    Engineer 1
    Engineer 2
    Manager D
    Lead
    Engineer 4
    Engineer 5
    Engineer 6
    Architect
    

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54. After I thought
    about it ……
    Tell me more!
    You want X, right?
    Have you thought about
    doing Y?
    

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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
    

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57. Power Affiliation Achievement
    Linda Sommer, “Beyond Office Politics”
    

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58. Assertive Accommodator Analytical
    Chris Voss, “Never Split the Difference”
    

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60. ✓ Mandatory code review
    ✓ Continuous integration
    ✓ Full code coverage
    ✓ Cross-browser integration tests
    ✓ Continuous deployment
    ✓ Vulnerability assessment
    

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61. Static
    analysis
    Unit tests
    Continuous
    integration
    Code
    review
    

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62. WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
    

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63. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
    Winston Churchill
    

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64. YES.
    Isn’t …. our value?
    So what do you think
    about doing…
    

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66. Summary
    Photo by Iswanto Arif: https://unsplash.com/photos/0HWloO4oPnU
    

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68. Thank You
    shapesecurity.com
    Some artworks are from unsplash.com/ and openclipart.org.
    speakerdeck.com/ariya
    @ariyahidayat
    

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69. End of Presentation
    

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