The Staff Engineer's Path

Foreword
Introduction
Two Paths
The Pillars of Staff Engineering
Part I: The Big Picture
Part II: Execution
Part III: Leveling Up
O'Reilly Online Learning
How to Contact Us
Acknowledgments

I. The Big Picture
1. What Would You Say You Do Here?
What Even Is a Staff Engineer?
Why Do We Need Engineers Who Can See the Big Picture?
Why Do We Need Engineers Who Lead Projects That Cross Multiple Teams?
Why Do We Need Engineers Who Are a Good Influence?
Enough Philosophy. What's My Job?
You're Not a Manager, but You Are a Leader
You're in a Technical Role
You Aim to Be Autonomous
You Set Technical Direction
You Communicate Often and Well
Understanding Your Role
Where in the Organization Do You Sit?
What's Your Scope?
What Shape Is Your Role?
What's Your Primary Focus?
Aligning on Scope, Shape, and Primary Focus
Is That Your Job?
To Recap

2. Three Maps
Uh, Did Anyone Bring a Map?
A Locator Map: You Are Here
A Topographical Map: Learning the Terrain
A Treasure Map: X Marks the Spot
Clearing the Fog of War
The Locator Map: Getting Perspective
Seeing Bigger
The Topographical Map: Navigating the Terrain
Rough Terrain
Understanding Your Organization
What Points of Interest Are on Your Map?
Keeping Your Topographic Map Up to Date
If the Terrain Is Still Difficult to Navigate, Be a Bridge
The Treasure Map: Remind Me Where We're Going?
Chasing Shiny Things
Taking a Longer View
If the Treasure Map Is Still Unclear, It Might Be Time to Draw a New One
Your Personal Journey
To Recap

3. Creating the Big Picture
The Scenario: SockMatcher Needs a Plan
What's a Vision? What's a Strategy?
What's a Technical Vision?
What's a Technical Strategy?
Do You Really Need Vision and Strategy Documents?
The Approach
Embrace the Boring Ideas
Join an Expedition in Progress
Get a Sponsor
Choose Your Core Group
Set Scope
Make Sure It's Achievable
Make It Official
The Writing
The Writing Loop
Make Decisions
Get Aligned and Stay Aligned
Create the Final Draft
The Launch
Make It Official
Keep It Fresh
Case Study: SockMatcher
Approach
The Writing
The Launch
To Recap

II. Execution
4. Finite Time
Doing All the Things
Time
Finite Time
How Busy Do You Like to Be?
projectqueue.pop()?
Resource Constraints
Your Dashboard
E + 2S + ...?
Bin packing
Choosing Projects
Evaluating a Project
What are you signing on for?
Questions to Ask Yourself About Projects
What If It's the Wrong Project?
Examples
Defend Your Time
To Recap

5. Leading Big Projects
The Life of a Project
The Start of a Project
If You're Feeling Overwhelmed
Building Context
Giving Your Project Structure
Driving the Project
Exploring
Clarifying
Designing
Coding
Communicating
Navigating
To Recap

6. Why Have We Stopped?
The Project Isn't Moving Should It Be?
You're Stuck in Traffic
Blocked by Another Team
Blocked by a Decision
Blocked by a Single $%@$% Button Click
Blocked by a Single Person
Blocked by Unassigned Work
Blocked by a Huge Crowd of People
You're Lost
You Don't Know Where You're All Going
You Don't Know How to Get There
You Don't Know Where You Stand
You Have Arrived Somewhere?
But It's Code Complete!
It's Done but Nobody Is Using It
It's Built on a Shaky Foundation
The Project Just Stops Here
To Recap

III. Leveling Up
7. You're a Role Model Now (Sorry)
What Does It Mean to Do a Good Job?
But I Don't Want to Be a Role Model!
What Does It Mean to Do a Good Job as a Senior Engineer?
Be Competent
Know Things
Be Self-Aware
Have High Standards
Be Responsible
Take Ownership
Take Charge
Create Calm
Remember the Goal
Remember There's a Business
Remember There's a User
Remember There's a Team
Look Ahead
Anticipate What You'll Wish You'd Done
Expect Failure
Optimize for Maintenance, Not Creation
Create Future Leaders
To Recap

8. Good Influence at Scale
Good Influence
Scaling Your Good Influence
Advice
Individual Advice
Scaling Your Advice to a Group
Being a Catalyst
Teaching
Individual Teaching
Scaling Your Teaching to a Group
Being a Catalyst
Guardrails
Individual Guardrails
Scaling Your Guardrails to a Group
Being a Catalyst
Opportunity
Individual Opportunities
Scaling Your Opportunities to a Group
Being a Catalyst
To Recap

9. What's Next?
Your Career
What's Important to You?
Where Are You Going?
What Do You Need to Invest In?
Your Current Role
Five Metrics to Keep an Eye On
Can You Get What You Want from Your Role?
Should You Change Jobs?
Paths from Here
Keep Doing What You're Doing
Work Toward Promotion
Work Less
Change Teams
Build a New Specialty
Explore
Take a Management Role
Take on Reports for the First Time
Find or Invent Your Own Niche
Do the Same Job for a Different Employer
Change Employers and Go Up a Level
Change Employers and Go Down a Level
Set Up Your Own Startup
Go Independent
Change Careers
Prepare to Reset
Your Choices Matter
To Recap

Index
About the Author