Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer?
by byoung2 on Saturday March 09, 2019 @09:59PM
(#19349903)
That's a great way to visualize it. One of the hardest parts about my transition from engineer to director of engineering was planning ahead for headcount without knowing what upper management had in mind 12 months down the line (they didn't know either).
Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer?
by playing_colours on Sunday March 10, 2019 @10:09AM
(#19352047)
It was a hard part for me as well. How did you approach it? Maybe, you could also share some useful links if you keep them?
Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer?
by Sharlin on Sunday March 10, 2019 @08:49AM
(#19351720)
I think you’re mixing up tactical and operational though. In the standard military vocabulary at least, the operational level of decisionmaking (what) is between strategic (why; the most abstract) and tactical (how; the most concrete).
Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer?
by clocksp33d on Saturday March 09, 2019 @10:21PM
(#19349971)
nicely explained, thanks!
The third layer on top of all of this is strategic thinking (in theory, what your executive team is providing... even higher level and longer term abstract goals).
Your executive team thinks strategically about what the goal is, your engineering management thinks tactically about the people and tasks needed to complete the goal, your engineer thinks operationally about how to build or design the work in each task.