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I once had an employee who was by no means a 10x engineer, he was honestly lacking in a couple of technical areas. He was a 10x catalyst for the team though. E

I once had an employee who was by no means a 10x engineer, he was honestly lacking in a couple of technical areas. He was a 10x catalyst for the team though. Everyone came and talked to him about their problems, he motivated people to learn new skills, and he knew at least a couple developers on every one of our partner teams. If I wanted to cut through the BS and find out what was really going on, I'd just ask him. "Oh John's team is actually behind schedule, their PM is full of it and their lead is in denial, they'll actually ship a couple weeks late at best." Was he a 10x engineer in terms of code written? He had his moments for sure (some of which had huge business impact), but his real value was all the connections he had formed.

b20000 6y ago
so you valued him for being a little snitch?
blackoil 6y ago
He seems like to be a highly skilled product manager than a developer, both are different roles and people should be motivated for the right track.
- hiptobecubic 6y ago
  No. This idea that developers just write code and leave all the "squishy" problems to the pointy-haired bosses is not only wrong, but actively hurts teams. If you move this person from engineering to PM, they will not function in the same way.
Fire-Dragon-DoL 6y ago
I don't think the 10x engineer idea was targeted at the coding skills itself. Given that, the engineer you mentioned is definitely a 10x
SwiftyBug 6y ago
This is what I hope to be for my team as I feel like I'm at least a -3x engineer.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  Embrace a growth mindset and develop your skills.
dctoedt 6y ago
Was this person rewarded for his "glue" contributions?
- com2kid 6y ago
  Yes, but I had to constantly fight for it! I'd have to explain to other leads that, yes, his code velocity isn't that good, but he's also the reason I knew I needed to lend your team support last sprint.
- SteveNuts 6y ago
  As a manager this is the most difficult type of skill to quantify in order to get raises approved. If anyone has tips for how to sell the value in this, please let me know
  - mindhash 6y ago
    We had a people choice award for such work. And then you could use that in your appraisal. But yeah, I used to do this just for my own interest of learning. Companies can't accept that only one or two persons are doing this. They would say - its a part of the job. One thing you can do is keep tab of problems and create a common resource point for all the team. And use some kind of way to show hours saved. Long shot but it holds a substantial promise.
  - mehrdadn 6y ago
    Off the top of my head: how about quantifying it like, "If we didn't have this person, we'd waste X person-hours over the course of the year"? That should help you put a number on it.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    “We can’t afford to lose this person.” Managers love status and insight. If that’s not enough, improvement is not a primary goal, and likely it’s time to move on.
    - SteveNuts 6y ago
sali0 6y ago
The senior engineer on my past team was also this way. He had strong domain expertise, but he was definitely not the best technically. But his greatest gift was his ability to bring everybody together and be a strong mentor the junior engineers. We called him a force multiplier, and he was awarded many times for this.

b20000 6y ago

so you valued him for being a little snitch?

blackoil 6y ago

He seems like to be a highly skilled product manager than a developer, both are different roles and people should be motivated for the right track.

hiptobecubic 6y ago
No. This idea that developers just write code and leave all the "squishy" problems to the pointy-haired bosses is not only wrong, but actively hurts teams. If you move this person from engineering to PM, they will not function in the same way.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 6y ago

I don't think the 10x engineer idea was targeted at the coding skills itself. Given that, the engineer you mentioned is definitely a 10x

SwiftyBug 6y ago

This is what I hope to be for my team as I feel like I'm at least a -3x engineer.

mixmastamyk 6y ago
Embrace a growth mindset and develop your skills.

dctoedt 6y ago

Was this person rewarded for his "glue" contributions?

com2kid 6y ago
Yes, but I had to constantly fight for it! I'd have to explain to other leads that, yes, his code velocity isn't that good, but he's also the reason I knew I needed to lend your team support last sprint.
SteveNuts 6y ago
As a manager this is the most difficult type of skill to quantify in order to get raises approved. If anyone has tips for how to sell the value in this, please let me know
- mindhash 6y ago
  We had a people choice award for such work. And then you could use that in your appraisal. But yeah, I used to do this just for my own interest of learning. Companies can't accept that only one or two persons are doing this. They would say - its a part of the job. One thing you can do is keep tab of problems and create a common resource point for all the team. And use some kind of way to show hours saved. Long shot but it holds a substantial promise.
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  Off the top of my head: how about quantifying it like, "If we didn't have this person, we'd waste X person-hours over the course of the year"? That should help you put a number on it.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  “We can’t afford to lose this person.” Managers love status and insight. If that’s not enough, improvement is not a primary goal, and likely it’s time to move on.
  - SteveNuts 6y ago

sali0 6y ago

The senior engineer on my past team was also this way. He had strong domain expertise, but he was definitely not the best technically. But his greatest gift was his ability to bring everybody together and be a strong mentor the junior engineers. We called him a force multiplier, and he was awarded many times for this.