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> If I took a Staff Engineer role and my job was to compensate for organizational dysfunction and fill voids left by underperforming managers, I'd be leaving th

> If I took a Staff Engineer role and my job was to compensate for organizational dysfunction and fill voids left by underperforming managers, I'd be leaving that role very quickly. Either that or requesting a formal title change (or promotion) into an actual management position. Eh. You might not fit it, but I really like that role. I don't want to be out of technical conversations and I don't love reports, but I do really like facilitating a path forward. At the moment I'm working outside of an engineering function, but I do it when wearing that hat, too. > a Staff Engineer wouldn't have the necessary org structure authority to be an effective manager-of-managers If that were the job, then yes. It is a soft-power role, though, not a hard-power structural role. Limited authority absolutely can be a problem, but usually due to intransigence, at which point the hard-power elements of the org (who are typically limited in their available attention span) can be escalated to.

maerF0x0 4y ago
> I, on the other hand, really like that role. I don't want to be out of technical conversations and I don't love reports, but I do really like facilitating a path forward. At the moment I'm working outside of an engineering function, but I do it when wearing that hat, too. iirc this kind of role, and other glue are actually really great Scrum Master && Project Manager skills.
- eropple 4y ago
  You probably don't hire a project manager to also occasionally buckle down and write code, though. ;) Supersets, not subsets.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
> Eh. You might not fit it, but I really like that role. I don't want to be out of technical conversations and I don't love reports, but I do really like facilitating a path forward. I'm not suggesting that the role isn't helpful or that some people wouldn't like it. This is the problem: > At the moment I'm working outside of an engineering function, If the company needs a firefighting cross-team manager, get a firefighting cross-team manager and empower them accordingly. But hiring Staff Engineers to combat management dysfunction is a misunderstanding of the Staff Engineer role.

maerF0x0 4y ago

> I, on the other hand, really like that role. I don't want to be out of technical conversations and I don't love reports, but I do really like facilitating a path forward. At the moment I'm working outside of an engineering function, but I do it when wearing that hat, too. iirc this kind of role, and other glue are actually really great Scrum Master && Project Manager skills.

eropple 4y ago
You probably don't hire a project manager to also occasionally buckle down and write code, though. ;) Supersets, not subsets.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

> Eh. You might not fit it, but I really like that role. I don't want to be out of technical conversations and I don't love reports, but I do really like facilitating a path forward. I'm not suggesting that the role isn't helpful or that some people wouldn't like it. This is the problem: > At the moment I'm working outside of an engineering function, If the company needs a firefighting cross-team manager, get a firefighting cross-team manager and empower them accordingly. But hiring Staff Engineers to combat management dysfunction is a misunderstanding of the Staff Engineer role.