Principles for engineers

Principles

Focus on delivering value to customers

• Ask about the “Why?”. How does what you’re building help your customers make progress?
• If you understand this well, you can make better decisions while building.
• Iterate quickly in short cycles. This means small Pull Requests rapidly merged into main branch.

Communicate proactively

• Ask questions in meetings, especially to understand the “Why?”.
• Use threads in open channels (in Slack, for example) to communicate and bring people into the conversation as needed.
• Avoid relying solely on direct messages and sub-group conversations.

Encourage critique

• Learn to give thoughtful critiques of technical plans (see Design Docs). Focus criticism on the plan, not the person.
• Ask others for critiques of your technical plans, as early as possible.
• Thoughtful critiques, early in the planning process, help make technical plans stronger and ultimately save you time, because there will be less rework.

Take initiative

• Never accept being blocked. Communicate clearly if things are in your way, or are slowing you down.
• Don’t wait to be told what to do.
• Think of ways to improve the product and your team’s processes.

Debug scientifically

• Write down your hypothesis.
• Ask, how do I disprove this hypothesis?
• Test it to disprove it, and eliminate that hypothesis.
• Rinse and repeat to make progress towards understanding the root cause.

Practice habits

• Read at least 1 book on habits: Atomic Habits and/or The Power of Habit.
• Be intentional with your habits for:
  • Learning
  • Reading and audiobooks
  • Sleep
  • Nutrition
  • Exercise
  • Meditation
  • Caffeine
  • Social Media
• Set monthly goals for both good and bad habits.

Resources

• “Ten Principles for Growth as an Engineer” by Dan Heller
• “How To Engineer Flow” by Sharif Shameem