Early in your career as a developer, it’s easy to focus on the technical skills. You want to write cleaner code, learn new frameworks, and become faster at building features. All of those matter.
But if you want to accelerate your growth and stand out, there’s one thing that will set you apart far more than your coding ability: understanding how your company defines value.
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The Story: How a Junior Dev Became My Replacement
A number of years ago, I accidentally hired my replacement.
He was fresh out of coding school, smart, curious, and excited to learn. At first, he asked a lot of questions about the codebase. Then, something shifted.
Instead of just asking how things worked, he started asking why we were building certain features. He wanted to know what the product manager cared about, how end users interacted with the product, and how success was measured.
Over time, he became deeply aligned with the product’s goals. He started spotting complexities and considerations far earlier than anyone expected.
Within 15 months, he was the go-to developer for that product and had effectively taken over my role.
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Why Understanding Value Matters
Companies don’t succeed just by shipping code. They succeed by solving problems that matter to their users. Developers who understand how their work connects to that success make better decisions and contribute more meaningful solutions.
When you know what outcomes matter, you can:
✅ Anticipate trade-offs and offer better options
✅ Catch issues that others might overlook
✅ Collaborate more effectively with product managers and designers
✅ Build trust as someone who truly “gets it”
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How to Start
Next time you’re in a planning meeting, ask yourself:
- What outcome are we trying to achieve with this feature?
- How are we measuring whether we’re successful?
- Is there a simpler or faster way to get the same result?
By focusing on outcomes instead of just tasks, you become more valuable to the team.
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Your Career Superpower
The developers who rise fastest aren’t always the ones who know the most languages or ship the most code. They’re the ones who understand why their work matters and align themselves with that purpose.
Learn the value your company is trying to create. It might just be the fastest way to become indispensable.
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📬 This post is part of my newsletter Beyond the Commit, where I write about engineering leadership, career growth, and building high-performing teams.
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