My engineering journey and 5 learnings along the way

Every year, we mark Engineer’s Day in India on September 15 in honor of Bharat Ratna awardee Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya for his outstanding engineering contribution to society. Engineering has been at the core of society’s growth and prosperity – more so during the last year of the pandemic, when technology has been at the backbone of our resilience. I do want to take this day to appreciate the important contribution that the engineers are making to the society.

It’s been 28 years since my first day as a Software Design Engineer at Microsoft and it feels like it was just yesterday.?As I reflect upon my journey - the achievements, the failures, the challenges & grit, and the incredible people I’ve had the good fortune of working with. These have provided me with valuable learnings which have helped me evolve – the experience has been exhilarating.

One theme that started early on has thrived and continues to be constant at its core is CURIOSITY. The inquisitiveness to understand and learn how the world works. Born in a small hamlet and raised in a small town called Sahib Ganj in Jharkhand. I still remember, as a child, being fascinated by the simplicity and impact of tools and how they made life easier for people.

The first-ever tool that intrigued me was the humble hand pump - the journey of discovering how water gets pumped up by a simple tool that uses physics and the compression power of the vacuum, at its core. The application of physics to draw water from underneath the earth fascinated me. One day it broke down, and I saw all the parts it was made of; the simplicity of its design intrigued and fascinated me and, it drew me to understand the workings better and I fixed that magical device that supplied water to us every day. That was the beginning of my journey of becoming a hands-on engineer.

“Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been.” — Theodore von Karman, Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist

On Engineering Day, I thought I would take this opportunity to share what I learned from world-class engineers and leaders at Microsoft. So here are my top five engineering learnings at Microsoft:

1. Continuous Learning:?For me, curiosity, learning, and grit are the three pillars that built my foundation as an engineer. The key to the doorway of becoming a world-class engineer is Continuous Learning - to consciously continue to learn with the ever-changing face of technology. The world is going through a digital transformation and every industry will transform with it.

During the pandemic, we witnessed a few years of digital transformation in just a few months; Computer Science continues to impact every aspect of our lives. No matter what career you choose, the impact of Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and Ambient Design is becoming pervasive. In this era of change, I believe what would help us become better engineers is rooted in the growth mindset - by being curious, learning continuously, and finding innovative ways of doing things.

"Education isn't something you can finish." — Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

2. Pride of Craftsmanship:?One thing I've learned as an engineer is the focus on quality and simplicity. What will set you apart is how you constantly strive to elevate the quality of what you’re building. That quality needs to manifest in every piece of your creation.

This anecdote that I read in Steve Jobs’ biography truly captures the essence of ‘Pride of Craftsmanship’ in my mind. He shares a conversation between him and his father, who was a carpenter by profession and a perfectionist at his craft. He talked about the instance when he asked his dad, why he was spending so much time on making the back of the drawer as beautiful as the front of the drawer, though no one will see the back. The response he got, changed his attitude towards quality. His dad’s response was that although no one else would see it, he sees it. With his craftsmanship, he ensured neither aesthetic nor quality were compromised.?

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Author

3. Customer Affection:?In my opinion, one of the characteristics of a good engineer is to deeply understand their customer. For that, one must connect with their customers to be “one with them”.

We develop customer empathy by spending time and effort in understanding what delights and pains our customers. Being “one with the customer” implies the ability to pre-empt what a customer needs by putting ourselves in the shoes of the customer. The customer needs manifest in the form of articulated and unarticulated needs, and the ability to translate this into product experience.

We can engineer great products only when they are designed with a deep understanding of the customer behavior, expectations, and needs. Sometimes a simple behavior element leads to the discovery of innate user needs, one such brush I had while researching the emerging market in trying to understand - ‘what does productivity mean on mobile?”, the deep realization that the “works gets done on chat” was the genesis of the product ‘Kaizala’.?

?4. Focus on Fundamentals:?Every and any line of work has certain fundamentals as its core. For example, the fundamentals for a bridge are its strength and resilience - what embellishes it is its design.

The?fundamentals that we focus on when building world-class software products are Speed, Size, Signal, Security, and Scale. Besides this, what makes software truly delightful is the Simplicity and the Soulfulness of the experience.?

1. Soul – focus on the key value proposition of the product.???????
2. Simplicity – simple experience, well organized
3. Speed –??high-performance, efficient interactions, and actions
4. Size - Small size for download
5. Stability – a glitch-free, reliable experience
6. Security – security, manageability, and privacy of data that inspires trust
7. Scalability – product scales to the intensity of usage and scales up for millions of users.

It’s easy to remember these with the moniker of 7S: 2S + 5S. 2S stands for Soul and Simplicity, 5S stands for Speed, Size, Signal, Security, and Scale.

5. Practice Mindfulness:?Last but not the least, it is important to “be actively calm and calmly active”. I would recommend practicing mindfulness every day because that will create focus and help you use your time most productively, including your dead time.

While these five are not complete, they have helped me become a better engineer, build products that are loved by millions across the globe, and helped me create and nurture a world-class engineering organization at Microsoft India.

I hope you find some value in these as you progress on your engineering journey and make this world a better place to live for everyone. Happy Engineers Day!