[TuringFest 2018] What should we work on?

"What should we work on?" is probably the most consequential question you need to help your team and company answer. Should we focus on:

* fixing bugs that are causing many support calls
* building a strategic new feature
* implementing a tactical solution that will help bring more customers
* re-architecting systems and addressing technical debt
* interviewing new engineers
* onboarding new colleagues and improving documentation

As an engineer, you can influence that decision to ensure your team provides the best experience for your customers and the best opportunity for the business. Clearly mapping your work to the company's goals and success will give you the motivation and purpose needed to engage with and feel proud of your work. It will likely get you your next promotion too!

Let's discuss how you can make sure the work you do has the best impact by:

* learning about your customers and business key performance metrics
* better collaborating with other functions in the business
* successfully communicating priorities, risks and tradeoffs

Transcript

1. What should we work on?
   Maria Gutierrez, VP Engineering @mariagutierrez
   

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9. OOH, SHINY! BUILDING ALL THE THINGS! HOW CAN I HELP YOU BUILD ALL THE THINGS?
   2001 2004 2008 2011 2016
   

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10. Sound more familiar?
    “Don’t worry about that error, it
    happens all the time”
    “I want to build new features, not
    fix customers problems.”
    “I was playing with technology X and I
    decided to try it in this project”
    “I deployed before leaving but
    didn’t check it worked after”
    “We should rewrite this from scratch”
    “I don’t have time to write
    documentation or good git commits”
    “It’ll be done when it’s done”
    “I want to decide what I work on not
    what product wants me to do”
    “I’m wasting my time interviewing
    people all the time”
    “I don’t like meetings, they are a
    waste of time”
    

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11. RISKS
    Team availability
    Team retention
    Hiring
    Technical debt
    Security
    Reliability and Resilience
    Error noise/false alerts
    Systems scalability and integrity
    Team productivity
    

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14. UNDERSTAND
    THE BUSINESS
    

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15. TRANSPARENCY
    

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16. ACCOUNTABILITY
    

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17. CODING NOT
    ENOUGH
    

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20. “Ada Twist, Scientist” by Andrea Beaty
    

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21. “Success is liking yourself,
    liking what you do and
    liking how you do it”
    Maya Angelou
    Image by York College ISLGP
    

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22. “Success is liking yourself,
    liking what you do and
    liking how you do it”
    Maya Angelou
    

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23. Why do we exist?
    How do we behave?
    What do we do?
    How will we succeed?
    What’s important now?
    

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28. What’s important now?
    Why do we exist?
    How do we behave?
    What do we do?
    How will we succeed?
    

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29. STRATEGIC WORK
    IMPROVEMENTS
    HOUSEKEEPING
    

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30. MOMENTUM
    PREDICTABILITY
    

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31. HAPPINESS ENGAGEMENT ADOPTION
    TASK SUCCESS
    70
    RETENTION
    Net Promoter Score
    App store reviews 4.5 30%
    Bank feed setup 52%
    Monthly active users
    Mobile active users 1.1K
    Free trial conversion
    Mobile downloads
    Customer churn
    Open bugs
    Scorecard
    20%
    2%
    35
    76%
    SECURITY
    Security bugs 0
    SCALABILITY RELIABILITY PRODUCTIVITY
    1.26
    End user page load 3-month rolling availability
    220
    Deployment time
    # deployments/mo
    192s
    100%
    

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35. OKRs
    Objectives and Key Results
    

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37. AUTONOMY
    

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38. “Hoping for the best, prepared
    for the worst, and unsurprised
    by anything in between.”
    Maya Angelou
    

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39. “Success is liking yourself,
    liking what you do and
    liking how you do it”
    Maya Angelou
    

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40. GROWTH PATHS
    

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41. SELF ASSESSMENT
    TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY
    PROBLEM SOLVING
    COMMUNICATION
    TEAMWORK
    OWNERSHIP & LEADERSHIP
    DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE
    BUSINESS IMPACT
    TEAM COMMITMENTS & BEHAVIOURS
    

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47. “I've learned that people will
    forget what you said, people
    will forget what you did, but
    people will never forget how
    you made them feel.”
    Maya Angelou
    

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48. “Success is liking yourself,
    liking what you do and
    liking how you do it”
    Maya Angelou
    

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50. YOU
    own your personal development
    

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51. “If you get, give. If you learn,
    teach.”
    Maya Angelou
    

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52. ETHICS
    

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53. “Courage is the most
    important of all virtues,
    because without courage, you
    cannot practice any of the
    other virtues consistently.”
    Maya Angelou
    

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54. BE INTENTIONAL
    

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55. “Be a rainbow
    in someone
    else's cloud.”
    Maya Angelou
    

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56. THANKS!
    @mariagutierrez
    

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