10x Engineers
The Myth. The Legend.
Johnny Ray Austin
https://recursivefunk.io
@recursivefunk
CTO Summit, 5/21/2019
Legend Has It...
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In the first quarter,
of the first year,
of the first round of funding...
(Probably a guy...)
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Breaker of Bugs
Blocker of Chains
He Who Vims
The Opinion
He will go by many names
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Scales kubernetes clusters with his thoughts
His bugs are misunderstood features
His code is phyisically unreviewable. If you look at it, and ask him a question, you'll die!
Product requirements bend to his will because the ones you came up with are "stupid"
Reported Feats of Power
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Why is This Dangerous?
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Managers Get Lazy
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Hero Culture Persists
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Heroes Breed Complacency
People Don't Debate
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Brad disagrees, and he's never wrong!
The Velocity Misconception
- Velocity has a direction
- Fast movement is not necessarily forward movement
- Spend your wheels at 50 mph or move forward at 10 mph?
- Code no one else understands or can touch
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Myth vs. Reality
How does a real 10x engineer operate?
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Not 10x more productive than anyone else on the team...
Increases the productivity of everyone else on the team!
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A Real 10x Engineer...
Doesn't Hoard Knowledge
- Pairing
- Tooling
- Tech deep dives
- Code tours
- (Thoughtful) Code reviews
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These Duties Sound Familiar?
Every senior engineer should be a 10x engineer - period.
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Are You Perpetuating the Myth?
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You Might Be, If...
- Consistently give your "hard" work to your "best" engineer
- Rely on heroes to save the day
- Job descriptions use any of these terms
- Rock Star
- Ninja
- Guru
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Growing and Hiring Real 10x-ers
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Hiring
- Job descriptions should be honest about mentoring expectations
- Interview process should dig into this skill
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Cultural Norms
- Rules of engagement for code reviews
- Pairing
- Tie knowledge-sharing to performance
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Reward the "Boring" Stuff
- Writing docs
- Building tooling
- Debt payoff
- On-boarding streamlining
Shipping features is great, but don't forget...
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Wrapping It Up
- 10x Engineers aren't 10x more productive - they increase the productivity of others
- The myth is dangerous and puts your business at risk
- Create lazy managers
- Cultivates "heroes"
- Heroes don't scale, and they don't stick around
- Don't perpetuate the myth!
- All senior engineers should be 10x-ers
- Grow and hire real 10x-ers
- Reward the "boring" stuff
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Thanks!
@recursivefunk
10x Myth
By Johnny Ray Austin
10x Myth
The myth of the 10x developer
