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The 10X Engineer.
We've talked about these 🦄 folks for a long time now... and we still can't fully define what they are.
Some folks use "10x Engineer" to talk about those folks who absolutely ooze code from their bloodstreams - they possess a level of wizardry that amazes all bystanders, that eclipses entire teams of other engineers. They always seem to be fully aware of the complete context of any problem and they're playing multi-dimensional Go while the rest of us are exploring Candy Land.
Others think of 10x Engineers as a purely pejorative manner. They use the moniker in purely interpersonal terms, to describe the arrogant lone-wolf programmer with tons of talent but zero chill - who's likely to call their coworkers terrible things like "peasant" or "idiot" because their inflated ego has amplified their inner narcissist.
Probably the most valuable definition of the 10x Engineer (and the one I'd like to examine today) is someone who acts as a "force multiplier"... that is to say, adding them to a team increases the team outputs by 10x.
Why we're focusing on the 3rd one
The definitions are all valid and in common use. Why not explore the others too?
Because while I acknowledge their existence, I don't believe they're genuinely useful to an organization.
Number 1 could be useful, possibly... but only in a limited capacity. Having a superhero means you risk becoming completely dependent on the superhero for everything, and they don't do a good job of ensuring continuity-- when your superhero is no longer available, you regress very rapidly.
Number 2 is generally useless. They're sort of a misfired version of #1; when your superhero loses the necessary humility they morph into this one. Not a good look for your organization to have these folks because not only do they do the superhero thing and fail to share their knowledge, no one likes to work with them and it makes it so there's even less information shared.
So #3 is really where we want to spend our time and attention - learning how to identify and cultivate the 'force multiplier' 10x Engineer provides tremendous benefits across our whole organization!
Identifying a 10x Engineer:
So how do you spot a 10x Engineer in your organiztion? What are the tells that reveal them to you?
Well... your Metrics probably won't
You'll probably be surprised to learn that your 10x engineer won't naturally be at the top of the leaderboard... regardless of what your metrics actually are. So why don't 10x Engineers show up in metrics?
They often just don't care about measurements. A 10x is more focused on solving problems than they are about hitting certain numbers on your reports. They may actually treat metrics with disdain, seeing them through the lens of Goodhart's Law and realizing long before you do that a measurement has ceased to be a good measure because it's become a target.
They're willing to sacrifice personal recognition for team success. A 10x engineer multiplies their value in others by traditionally-non-value-add tasks such as teaching or automating administrative overhead. You might not find them increasing your revenue because they're eliminating waste from processes and affecting the bottom line in a very different way from what you expect!
The Wisdom of Mr. Rogers
This might seem like a strange place to get advice about tech leadership, but... Mr. Rogers' quote fits the situation so well.
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
― Fred Rogers
If you're searching for 10x engineers in your organization, the mantra "Look for the helpers" is a great plan of attack! Let's take "10x" literally and assume that these people are producing at 10x the rate of the average person.
How would you do that? Either you do 10 things for every 1 that someone else does, or... you find ways to increase the efficacy of everyone around you. You can try to save 1 hour off 1 thing, or you can save 5 minutes off 12 things... either way saves one hour of work.
So a 10x engineer is going to be the kind of person who's out there looking for little problems with big scale. They might only save 5 minutes off the task they're working on, but they're expecting that to be a frequently-run task that ends up with massive savings overall!
Did you get the hidden message yet?
There's a message that I hid in plain sight above, in the title: "10x0 = 0"
Did you notice what really makes a 10x engineer? Access to OTHERS. If you're an engineer trying to increase your "x" factor, you'll do it by being part of a community.
The point of this entire post isn't for an organization to find more 10x engineers. It's to show engineers how to become more valuable; specifically, it's to point out that they become more valuable when they work to make their teammates better.
See ya next time.
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