Forem: Jared Niervas

Scaling yourself as an Engineering Leader

Jared Niervas — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 17:25:01 +0000

Everyone has their own definition of true leadership. There is a piece of advice that I share with every engineer I speak to scaling up the ladder to Engineering Leadership: Leadership is a skill and as with any skill it can be learn – every day is a school day.

The following quote has heavily shaped my thoughts on engineering leadership.

💡 You have to think of yourself as your department and your department’s efficiencies, but it’s more important to think of yourself as an executive first.

Many paths lead to the top that is Engineering leadership and it all starts with the definition of the term. “Engineering Leadership is the ability to lead a group of engineers and technical personnel responsible for creating, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating products, systems, or services.”

There are a lot of books, podcasts, articles and frameworks about Engineering leadership. Despite the experiences under my belt, and as any good technical professional will tell you; Leaders must provide structure and definition to be able to effectively support their teams and deliver excellent products and features.

These are my notes on this topic.

Do not obsess to become a manager or leader. Ask yourself:

Why do I want to do this?
What assets do I have to contribute?
What liabilities do I bring?

Engineering Leaders Roles & Responsibilities

Delivering a full-scale implementation of a feature or product as defined by stakeholders.Ensuring the quality of code meets defined expectations.
Training their team to prepare them for the responsibilities that will help progress their careers over a defined career lattice.
Managing defined stakeholder expectations.
Making sure their team is up to speed on defined best practices.

The key is to start early on. Let’s explore how.

Clearly, there are a lot of great engineering blogs out there worth following. I hope this read sets you on the same path to Engineering Leadership

If you enjoyed this post, check out Lohika [Re:think] Community, an online community platform for events, resources and discussions on technology, innovation and leadership for more related resources to keep you up to speed with everything happening in the world of tech and Leadership

Best Online Communities For Engineers

Jared Niervas — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 15:40:21 +0000

The world of tech and software development evolves fast. New frameworks and libraries emerge all the time, and that's why it's important to stay in tune with what's happening in the industry otherwise you could end up feeling left behind—and that's no good for anyone!

To make that less of a challenge, it is essential to not go at it alone. Having a group of people with the same interests, ambitions, and goals as you, will not only help you progress a lot faster by interacting and learning with people above your level, but it will also provide you an opportunity to give back to the community.

Whether you’re in the early, middle or late stages of your career, joining a community can be a great way to ensure success in this career path.

Communities brings industry and academia experts together to give engineers and technicians around the world a platform to network, learn and collaborate online or face to face. Peer to peer networking opportunities then fosters real connections in the engineering community.

I'm interested in learning more about some online communities related to tech blogging and engineering leadership in general. Are you active in any community? Please let me know in the comments

Based on that criteria, Here's a list of my top 2 Engineering communities (that I’m also a member of that you could also be a part of )

Lohika[Re:think] Community, an online community platform for events, resources and discussions on technology, innovation and leadership.

Benefits

Participate in 1:1 chats and join discussions about scaling teams, engineering leadership and more.
Attend live events, view on-demand videos, read articles and connect with like-minded peers.
Explore videos and articles about web3, engineering leadership, angel investing and more..

Visit now, then click “Sign In” to create an account https://community.lohika.com/public/learn

[ELC](https://elc.community/) - Home for engineering leaders
ELC is a peer community for all engineering leaders, regardless of role or tenure to gain outside perspectives and discuss real challenges with trusted peers. It's a place where you can get support and support others.

Benefits

1:1 Conversation
Discover and attend events on topics relevant to your interests.
Use “Channels” to join discussions on interesting topics with other community members.
Knowledge hub: One can Explore the expansive library of videos and podcasts.

Calling all software engineers! 📣

Jared Niervas — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 17:04:23 +0000

Come learn what it’s like to work at Capgemini Engineering and Lohika. Hear from Capgemini Engineering developers while enjoying food & beverages.

The event takes place in Zapopan, Jalisco (Mexico).
Request an invite via https://www.lohika.com/happy-engineering-hour-2022

5 Hard Truths about Engineering leadership

Jared Niervas — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 17:00:35 +0000

Overall, becoming an engineer leader is great. All routes to seniority lead away from programming. But, once you make it up that ladder, based on hard work and your engineering excellence, did you ever think you might not be as prepared to lead as you’d like?

- One of your most important talents as a leader will be delegating. You must know who is capable of doing what and who is willing to take on additional responsibility. People must be pushed without being drowned. If you can delegate everything, you'll be ready to take on greater responsibilities in the future.
- Big Tech does a superb job at putting together teams. The two-pizza team is the most effective. Take the model and use it. It is not always a good idea to experiment with organizational structures.
- When it comes to managing engineers, what can non-technical leaders do? Many developers find it difficult to report to non-technical bosses. It's why, with a few exceptions for CEOs, all Engineering Managers in Tech-Driven companies are examined for technical skills during interviews. As soon as possible, place qualified technical individuals in the middle between them and the teams. If this will take time, promote and assign tech leads to be your right hand in the short term, and then pay attention to them.
- Engineers have a problem with empathy at times. Just because they've worked as an engineer before doesn't mean they're qualified to manage people's careers. People who lack empathy should not manage engineers, just as non-technical MBAs should not manage engineers. No amount of Management training can teach you to care about people. You have to find it in yourself.
- Don't juggle the roles of Engineering Manager and Senior IC! Performing both jobs for an extended period of time is a bad idea. It will stifle your growth in the long run.. You're not going to get very good at either of these things. It's also a disservice to your employees, product, and clients.
- Corporations have a pressing need for trans-formative leaders who drive innovation in today’s complex, rapidly evolving global markets. This is true of many technical disciplines but incredibly true for software engineering. To become one of these highly prized leaders, technical professionals must transcend their silos and broaden their perspectives.

Leverage the expertise of peers and mentors. Search through and save resources interesting to you through a safe space for engineering leaders to connect and learn. Join Lohika Community curated to bring together Engineering leaders to share insights, explore trends, attend events, and empower leadership and career growth.

How Visibility Helps Developers Focus On Innovation

Jared Niervas — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 16:25:51 +0000

As software engineering leaders adjust to a future defined by remote and hybrid work models, as a result, they are altering priorities in the in the structure of work to compensate for the lack of in-person collaboration.

According to a recent Jellyfish study, engineering leaders' top priority is ensuring that each member of their team spends as much time as possible on the highest-priority work. To achieve this goal, these leaders are using real-time visibility and data-driven decision-making to guide more effective management.

To shift from reactive to proactive work, Engineering executives spend an average of 3 hours per day going through email to ensure that each member of their team has access to everything they need to accomplish their work effectively and efficiently, according to the Jellyfish study.

This shift toward data-driven decision making has been driven by a desire to improve communication between teams and eliminate blind spots. Engineering executives must first have visibility into what their teams are doing. How can you better distribute your time and resources if you don't know how they're currently allocated? Engineering Leaders must first determine how much bandwidth their teams have to take on new projects before they can successfully prioritize work.

The new approach involves using technology like Slack with different channels depending on what department needs immediate attention or feedback from another department's members without disrupting workflow too much. However, this is inefficient and distracting, but it also means that engineers' trains of thought are continuously interrupted by notifications from a variety of sources.

Some engineering teams are doubling down on data aggregation and analysis to obtain visibility into their processes. While all firms spend roughly the same amount of time on "keeping the lights on" and customer service, those who invest in a more sophisticated data organization can spend 29 percent more time on innovation and 48 percent less time on unplanned work, according to the report.

Despite the multiple obstacles faced by engineering teams over the last two years, the industry has changed and become more collaborative as remote and hybrid work models have become more prevalent. New tools and methodologies will result in more purposeful engineering work, enhanced visibility, and operations for leaders who want to increase data-driven decision-making.

This approach to data will be critical for every technical leader to retain efficiency as their teams grow. More than 79 percent of engineering leaders intend to expand their teams in 2022, and the most major obstacles they encounter include employee on-boarding ramp time, virtual on-boarding, and hiring

Pillars of Great Engineering Leadership

Jared Niervas — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 19:53:15 +0000

The topic of organizational leadership is clearly one that engineering leaders are thinking about. As a former engineering leader myself, I certainly feel the same way! I know it's an area that I felt a lot of pressure in. Every engineering leader feels like they need to do everything and be everywhere. With that pressure, how can we really focus on the areas that will take our engineering organizations from good to great?

Organization, Velocity, Quality, Outcome, and Impact are five topics that continually come up in my conversations with hundreds of engineering professionals. These, in my opinion, are the foundations of great technical leadership. Learn more about them on Lohika ReThink Community

How to Encourage and Develop Female Software Engineers

Jared Niervas — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 19:29:25 +0000

Learn what it was like for Valli to be a software engineer on teams comprised mostly of men. Hear her thoughts on how leaders can encourage and develop female software engineers from this on-demand recording here

Growth, Resilience & the Power of Creative Possibility

Jared Niervas — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 19:08:30 +0000

“Just like scaling the mountains to get to the top, in life we must push ourselves to keep going and turn the challenge,” Cindy-Anne. Read on here

Should There Be A Healthy Tension Between Product and Engineering Teams?

Jared Niervas — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 19:03:47 +0000

Came across this read today. Sharing for whoever needs to read this. https://community.lohika.com/home/blogs/should-there-be-a-healthy-tension-between-product-and-engineering-teams-2022-01-27

How to Transition Into an Engineering Leadership Role

Jared Niervas — Tue, 17 May 2022 20:55:59 +0000

There is no hard and fast rule that says engineers cannot become good leaders — Engineers have many skills that make them ideal managers.

The most common management tasks involve:

Resolving matters of conflict among team members (25%)
Motivation of team members (22%)
Exploring resource to bring improvements into the team (15%)
Handling corrective actions and performance reviews (15%)
Recruitment of new leaders and mentoring internal team members (12%)

No one is a perfect leader, and no one gets leadership right all the time — Learning is a cooperative process when you link up with link-minded Engineering leaders — peers. Check out Lohika Community: Home to Engineering leadership.

What are the top engineering and Slack communities?

Jared Niervas — Mon, 16 May 2022 19:19:00 +0000

Which is an equivalent of Lohika ReThink Community?

The Complete Guide To Creating An Amazing Career For Yourself As An Engineer.

Jared Niervas — Mon, 16 May 2022 17:00:22 +0000

Starting a career as an engineer can be an exciting time in your life. As a new engineer, there are plenty of different engineering positions you could pursue but it can also feel overwhelming — because if you make the wrong choice, you’ll be stuck doing something you don’t really want to do.

Engineering managers oversee teams throughout the product design and development process, ensuring that all deadlines are reached. As you may expect, this profession necessitates excellent organization and communication abilities.

Here are some tips for young engineers managers who want to make sure their careers are going in the right direction:

*1. Find a good mentor
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Undoubtedly, It seems quite obvious — They may be able to offer you tips on how to boost your skills, or what you need to do to take the next step in your career. Have a closer look at an Engineering community and seek their guidance to do better and keep your career on track.

*2. Practice project management & Learn a New skill.
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7 out of 10 engineering managers devote their entire time and effort to enhancing their technical abilities. Technical skills are vital, but as you advance professionally in the long run, you’ll need to improve on soft skills like communication, teamwork, and presentation.

On a similar note, consider enrolling in some more training and webinars. You might wish to brush up on some technical abilities. Whatever it is, learning is always beneficial. Stay connected with key events happening across the world.

*3. Take risks by stepping out of your comfort zone.
*
Managerial positions require a diverse set of talents. You may be an outstanding engineer, but you must also be a capable leader. With this in mind, there is no substitute to developing your own personal expertise. Always demand and deliver greatness by raising the bar, and take calculated risks. What a better way than to connect with peers — senior in the industry and catch up on latest trends and topics in web3 Digital Health, Hybrid work model