Rapid Development Group, LLC

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“Oof! What did I even do this week?!” ...Meetings?!???? As engineers we tend to focus on how much code we wrote, and how many Jira tickets we moved to done. But as we move into more senior+, tech lead and management positions, we start writing less and less code. Less coding / tickets leaves us feeling like we didn’t get anything done. ?? But are tickets/coding the only value we contribute to our team? I’ve wrestled a lot with the feeling of getting nothing done as I transitioned into a?senior+ engineer, and tech lead... Slowly but surely it’s become clear to me. The more senior we become, the more important it is that we multiply our efforts and help others level up. ?? If I improve my coding by 10%, the team gets minimally better. ?? If I lean into being a force-multiplier and help 3-5 others level up, the whole team just got massively more productive and effective. ?????????? My efforts are compounded. Suddenly all these force-multiplying activities make sense! If I: – Give through, timely and helpful code reviews – Mentor junior engineers in our patterns, and systems – Tackle bugs or pain points that are plaguing the team – Write and review technical specs to ensure good design – Help estimate effort in roadmapping and planning meetings I’m now influencing and moving things forward on a whole different level. My productivity is actually improved – if we measure it by value contributed to the team and the business goals. ???? But back to feeling unproductive... A lot of wins are harder to measure and leave us feeling unproductive. One way to help your brain is keeping a daily + weekly summary journal doc. ?? Daily: Write 3-5 bullet points of ways you helped the team move forward. Weekly: Roll those up into a short summary of wins/learnings. Monthly: Add bigger wins to your brag doc You can even send that weekly doc to your manager and product partners. It’s a great way to manage up and give visibility into your work. It also helps them point out areas you might think are valuable, but aren’t as much, or areas you should lean into even more. Personally, I’m on a journey to re-think that I’m still contributing huge value even without coding as much. Days where I don’t code are still successful if I’ve been a force-multiplier. ???? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How about you? How do you think about contributing as a senior IC / manager when you aren’t coding as much? ??♀???♂? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you liked this post, you’ll probably love my weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e8d5ymr3 ?? Follow along as I share everything I’ve learned about becoming a?#fullstackengineer?and leveling up into a?#senior+ engineer and?#techlead?at a hyper-growth?#startup.