Growing as an Individual Contributor (IC) is a rewarding journey, but it’s not always clear how to make meaningful progress. I’ve faced these challenges myself—balancing learning, making an impact, and figuring out how to advance my career. Reading Staff Engineer by Will Larson was a transformative experience. While some concepts felt familiar, the book’s structured approach provided clarity and actionable insights that illuminated a clear path forward.
This article captures the key lessons I learned from the book, focusing on technical leadership, areas for improvement, and practical growth tips. My goal is to provide value for readers while solidifying my understanding of the book’s teachings as a reference for future growth. I hope this dual perspective helps you reflect on your journey, identify your strengths and areas to improve, and discover tools to navigate the IC path with confidence. For deeper insights, I highly recommend reading the book and exploring the resources at staffeng.com.
The Four Archetypes of Staff Engineers
One of the most fascinating insights from Staff Engineer is the concept of archetypes that define how Staff+ Engineers operate. These archetypes provide a framework for understanding the diverse ways individuals can make an impact:
- The Tech Lead: Breaks down tasks, aligns the team, and delegates effectively to maintain momentum.
- The Architect: Specializes in a technical domain, ensuring scalable, maintainable solutions that align with business goals.
- The Problem Solver: Tackles complex challenges, resolves issues, and hands off solutions to the owning team.
- The Right Hand: Bridges leadership and engineering, translating business needs into technical initiatives.
Comparing the Four Archetypes
| Archetype | Focus Area | Key Responsibilities | Example Scenario |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Tech Lead | Team execution & alignment | Scoping tasks, aligning the team, and delegating effectively | Coordinating a major feature rollout across multiple developers |
| The Architect | System & technical vision | Designing scalable solutions and ensuring technical consistency | Defining an API strategy that scales across teams |
| The Problem Solver | Complex challenges | Troubleshooting critical issues and handing off solutions | Fixing a database bottleneck impacting performance |
| The Right Hand | Leadership & strategy | Aligning business and engineering priorities | Communicating a strategic shift to the engineering team |
Staff Engineers adapt to different roles as needed, making their impact dynamic and situational. While I don’t hold the title, I’ve taken in the past the Tech Lead and Problem Solver roles—aligning teams or tackling challenges when necessary. The ability to flex between these archetypes is a key trait of high-performing engineers. Those who recognize when to shift their approach can maximize their influence and help their teams succeed at every stage of a project or company growth.
Key Areas of Focus for Staff Engineers
One of the main takeaways from Staff Engineer is the importance of focusing your efforts where they matter most. Staff+ Engineers prioritize their work by avoiding common pitfalls and targeting impactful areas.
Avoiding the Pitfalls
Not all tasks are equally valuable, and some can drain your energy without meaningful results. Larson identifies three common traps:
- Snacking: Low-effort, low-priority tasks that feel good to check off but don’t contribute to meaningful growth. Occasional filler tasks are fine—but don’t let them dominate your focus.
- “Preening”: This is a subset of snacking—tasks with high visibility but little impact. These can be tempting if you’re trying to stand out but often end up as distractions. I once spent longer than I’ll admit micro-optimizing a feature, excited by the idea of achieving a 70% performance boost. While it felt like a big win, in absolute numbers, it only saved a few milliseconds and had little real-world impact.
- Chasing Ghosts: Pursuing outdated priorities or visions from others without aligning them to current goals.
While avoiding these common traps is essential, it’s just as important to proactively focus on high-impact work.
Focusing on Impact
To make the most of your efforts, focus on areas where you can truly make a difference:
- Addressing the Gaps: Identify overlooked areas that need attention and step up to fill them.
- Supporting Growth: Create lasting value by improving processes like onboarding new team members.
- Editing and Guiding: Ensure ongoing work is on track and of high quality. Acting as an “editor” can amplify the team’s impact.
- Closing the Loop: Help complete stalled or lingering tasks to bring clarity and forward momentum.
- Doing What Only You Can Do: Focus on tasks where your unique skills and expertise are critical. Delegate work when it makes sense, allowing you to concentrate on where you add the most value.
Focusing on high-impact work is crucial, but to drive real change as a Staff+ Engineer, you also need to guide your team in the right direction. This is where strategy and vision come into play.
Strategy and Vision: The Path and the Way Forward
Two essential tools for effective leadership as a Staff+ Engineer are vision and strategy. These aren’t just buzzwords—they’re the compass and the roadmap for navigating uncertainty and driving progress.
Vision: The Long-Term Destination
Vision is about defining where you want to be in the future, typically one to two years down the line. A strong vision provides clarity and alignment, especially during times of uncertainty. It answers the big questions: What are we building? Why does it matter? When a team rallies around a shared vision, they can move forward with confidence, even when the path isn’t perfectly clear.
Strategy: The Map for Getting There
Strategy, on the other hand, is about the how. It’s most useful when the same discussions start to repeat themselves—when you’ve talked about a problem three or four times but haven’t made progress. A well-crafted strategy cuts through this noise, providing direction and enabling teams to move forward decisively.
The magic happens when vision and strategy work together. Vision sets the destination, and strategy outlines the steps to get there. With both in place, teams can not only move faster but also stay on track, even when challenges arise.
Contributions to Quality: Building the Foundations for Success
One of the most impactful ways a Staff+ Engineer can elevate their team and organization is by championing quality. This doesn’t just mean writing better code; it involves fostering a culture and infrastructure that prioritizes excellence. Here are some key areas where Staff+ Engineers contribute to quality:
1. Focus on Hot Spots
Identify the areas demanding attention—whether it’s a buggy module, a slow process, or a recurring pain point. By addressing these high-priority “hot spots,” you can drive immediate, noticeable improvement.
2. Define and Train for Best Practices
Great quality starts with shared understanding. Staff+ Engineers are often responsible for defining best practices and ensuring they’re communicated effectively. However, avoid overwhelming the team: focus on introducing one best practice at a time to minimize friction and maximize adoption.
3. Be Involved in Leverage Points
Certain decisions have an outsized impact on long-term quality. These include interfaces, state management, and data models. Staff+ Engineers ensure these critical “leverage points” are designed thoughtfully, as they’re hard to change once established.
4. Measure Quality
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. By introducing and tracking quantifiable metrics, such as code coverage, performance benchmarks, or bug resolution times, you create visibility into quality and its trends.
5. Use Vectors for Progress
Progress isn’t just about moving forward—it’s about moving in the right direction. Vectors ensure that everyone involved is aligned and working toward the same goals, preventing wasted effort.
6. Leverage Quality Teams or Programs
Sometimes, quality improvements require systemic changes. Dedicated quality teams or programs can drive these initiatives, ensuring a cohesive approach to raising standards across the board.
Checklist for Solving Quality-Related Pain Points
This checklist is a combination of insights from Staff Engineer and my own experiences in tackling quality-related challenges.
✅ Identify key pain points: Talk with people, empathize with their struggles.
✅ Understand the root cause: Determine where the struggle originates and why it happens.
✅ Research best practices: Look for industry standards and solutions that fit your company's unique needs.
✅ Establish clear metrics: Define measurable success criteria to align all stakeholders on progress.
✅ Communicate the process: Ensure all stakeholders understand the impact and why change is necessary.
✅ Train and support teams: Guide teams through the improvements, and recruit "champions" to help drive adoption.
✅ Celebrate milestones: Acknowledge progress, especially when overcoming challenges!
Ensuring high-quality engineering practices is crucial, but technical excellence alone isn’t enough. To truly lead and make an impact, a Staff+ Engineer must also master the interpersonal side of leadership—building trust, fostering collaboration, and guiding teams effectively.
Soft Skills for Success: The Hidden Superpower
Technical expertise is vital for a Staff+ Engineer, but soft skills often make the difference between good and great leadership. These skills help you align with others, build trust, and create a positive impact beyond just code.
1. Stay Aligned with Authority
One critical soft skill is ensuring alignment with your manager or leadership team. Avoid surprises by keeping them informed and providing context for your decisions. This transparency builds trust and ensures smoother collaboration.
2. Know When to Follow
Not every issue requires you to take charge. When deciding whether to lead or follow, ask yourself: Will this still matter in six months? If not, let someone else take the reins while you focus on higher-impact priorities.
3. Avoid Being Wrong
When someone seeks your advice, resist the urge to jump straight to an answer. Instead, ask three clarifying questions to gather context and better understand their perspective. This not only improves your response but also demonstrates respect for the person asking.
4. Create Space for Others
Leadership isn’t just about your voice; it’s about amplifying others’ contributions. Here are some ways to create space for your team:
- Engage the Quiet Voices: Ask quieter team members for their thoughts during discussions, ensuring everyone has a chance to contribute. I’ve worked with an amazing developer who rarely spoke up in meetings, not because he lacked insight, but because he didn’t feel comfortable jumping into discussions uninvited. I learned that by directly asking for his opinion, he shared valuable perspectives that might have otherwise gone unheard.
- Take Notes: By being the one to document meetings, you allow others to focus on active participation.
- Make Decisions Visible: Share decisions publicly, like in a Slack channel, to encourage feedback and foster transparency.
- Sponsor Others: Assign meaningful tasks to teammates, helping them grow and succeed while creating shared ownership.
5. Build a Strong Peer Network
Your network is your lifeline. Larson emphasizes the importance of three types of connections:
- Internal: Peers within your organization who provide support and collaboration.
- External: Professionals outside your company who offer fresh perspectives and insights.
- Executive: Leaders and decision-makers who help bridge the gap between technical and business goals.
Remembering to build “in, out, and up” networks ensures you’re connected at all levels, both within and outside your organization.
Mastering these soft skills lays the foundation for technical leadership, but progressing to a Staff+ role requires more than just interpersonal growth. It demands a clear strategy, intentional career moves, and a focus on high-impact initiatives.
Climbing to Staff+: The Path to Growth and Impact
Reaching a Staff+ Engineer position requires intentional effort, a clear plan, and a willingness to tackle significant challenges. Staff Engineer outlines several key strategies for navigating this journey:
1. Create a Promotion Packet
Work with your manager to define what success looks like. Ask yourself: If I were promoted in 1-2 years, what accomplishments would justify it? Once you have this clarity, focus your efforts on these areas to ensure measurable progress.
2. Find a Trusted Sponsor
A sponsor is more than a mentor—they actively advocate for you in key spaces. Identify someone who understands your potential and is willing to support your growth by creating opportunities and vouching for your contributions.
3. Be “In the Room”
Being in the room matters because that’s where key discussions and decisions happen. To get there, you need to provide something valuable to the people already in the room—something they don’t already have or know. This could be a unique insight, a fresh perspective, or specialized expertise. Importantly, having a sponsor in the room who knows you and understands your goals can make a big difference. They can help open the door and ensure your voice is heard.
4. Make Your Work Visible
Contribute meaningfully and ensure your impact is recognized. This doesn’t mean overshadowing others but rather documenting and sharing your contributions in a way that highlights your value.
5. Take on a Staff+ Project
High-impact projects can showcase your ability to lead and deliver, but it’s important to note that not every organization requires these for promotion. While it’s always good to look for meaningful challenges that help you grow, don’t chase projects purely for the sake of promotion. Focus instead on initiatives that align with your goals and provide real value to your team or organization.
Lifelong Learning and Staying Energized
One of the most inspiring lessons from Staff Engineer is that learning never stops. The best engineers are those who continuously seek out opportunities to grow, both technically and personally. Here are some takeaways that stood out to me:
1. Learn from Your Network
Staff Engineer highlights the value of building a strong network of people you respect and learn from, while also giving back. Relationships thrive on mutual support, sharing knowledge, and collaboration. For me, this means turning to mentors, past managers, or experts for guidance while contributing to their growth in return. A strong network fosters continuous learning and fresh perspectives.
2. Focus on Solving Meaningful Problems
Many engineers find motivation and fulfillment by tackling serious, unaddressed challenges. Instead of spreading yourself thin across smaller tasks, commit to solving the problems that truly matter. This not only amplifies your impact but also deepens your expertise.
3. Learn What Energizes You
One of the most resonant lessons from Staff Engineer is the emphasis on focusing on what excites you. Many of the interviewed Staff+ engineers in the book echoed this sentiment, each in their own way. Pursuing topics you’re genuinely curious about leads to deeper understanding and sustainable growth, while trying to learn everything often causes burnout.
Reflecting on this, I realized I’ve fallen into the trap of feeling obligated to master countless topics, many of which weren’t critical. The knowledge I value most came from exploring areas that truly interested me. This approach keeps me energized and motivated. For more on avoiding burnout, check out this article I wrote a few years back.
Conclusion: Building Your Own Path
Staff Engineer by Will Larson isn’t just a guide for becoming a better engineer—it’s a roadmap for aligning your career with your values and aspirations. From understanding the archetypes of leadership to mastering the art of strategy and vision, the lessons in this book offer something for every IC striving to grow and make an impact.
Reflecting on my journey, I’ve realized the importance of focusing on what truly matters—whether it’s solving meaningful problems, building strong relationships, or prioritizing learning that energizes me. These insights have not only clarified where I stand but also highlighted the areas where I can grow further.
If you’re an IC aiming to grow your career, I encourage you to explore these ideas, reflect on where they resonate with you, and create your own actionable path forward. Which of these lessons stood out to you the most? Let’s discuss in the comments! For more insights, check out StaffEng.com.
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