Creating technical leadership in context

Lead by example by identifying and tackling key technical problems, rather than trying to solve everything at once

Focus on making better “big decisions” that have broad technical impact, rather than getting lost in small local optimizations

Build community and forums for engineers to share context, align on technical direction, and surface hidden problems

Create lightweight processes (like RFC templates and architecture councils) to facilitate better technical decision making while avoiding bureaucracy

Standardize and document technical decisions to reduce implementation variance and establish clear contracts between systems

Scale technical leadership gradually after establishing strong points of view and proven approaches - don’t try to scale prematurely

Align technical priorities with business goals and organizational needs rather than pursuing “tech for tech’s sake”

Identify and diagnose why important technical decisions aren’t being made (hidden problems, unclear solutions, lack of confidence)

Foster bottoms-up technical excellence by empowering engineers while providing appropriate guidance and guardrails

Build momentum through incremental wins and prototypes before attempting large-scale technical transformations