Business Impact
Explore how senior developers enhance business impact by seeing the big picture beyond coding. Learn to focus on outcomes over features, ask strategic questions, communicate effectively, and shift left to prevent costly defects. Understand ethical responsibility in technology use and how standing firm on priorities can lead to better decisions and career growth.
Having a sense of a big picture
“The most valuable engineers are the ones who habitually view their work through the lens of what the business needs to succeed. Which is a skill you have to practice and foster and cultivate, just like any other.”
- Charity Majors
The final element that everyone expects from senior engineers is having some sense of the “bigger picture.” People are usually vague about what this means, but by and large, they mean having a sense of where your code and systems fit into the broader context of how the company makes and spends money.
Outcomes over features
As a senior engineer, you realize that it doesn’t matter if you deliver the perfect feature if a confounding factor prevents the user from seeing the desired outcome. Requirements that are given or agreed upon can be wrong.
Ask the right questions
If junior engineers are hired to find the right answers, then senior engineers should constantly be on the watch to ask the right questions. Your communication skills, especially your writing skills, are essential here to clarify and push back with tact.