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Discussion on: Being VP Of Engineering Is Harder Than Being CEO

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard • Edited

I've read it, it seems that you are doing some pretty advanced stuff at linear B :)

Now maybe I have an additional challenge for you.

Something I try and most often fail to communicate is how crucial learning is for programmers. I have lines like: "you know, programming is in fact easy when you have everything figured out. Figuring things out is the part that is hard. I think we should allocate time and money for experiments, learning, training and education".

I believe what I say but it's mostly my educated guess as a guy who has done programming for a long time.

Hard to communicate in numbers to C-level executives.

How would you tackle this - admittedly tricky - challenge?

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linearb_inc profile image
LinearB

That is a good challenge. The answer is probably more nuanced than can be captured in a comment board :) but I'll try.

  1. Our community of users has reported that bringing metrics about their team on a regular basis build a new level of trust with the c-level, so that their requests for more "non-functional" or research work are better received.

  2. Metrics can actually uncover areas of your process or teams that could potentially benefit from research time.

  3. Metrics can also serve as a baseline to prove the benefit after the fact. For instance, "Before our research project, our cycle time was 3 days, but since we implemented the changes we found in the research, cycle time is down to 2 days. This means we can deliver faster."

Certainly lots more to discuss in this area. Let me know if you'd be interested in connecting with our team. Our co-founders were both former VPs of Engineering and have lots of experience trying to bridge the gap between engineering and executives. I can connect you with either of them, or you can visit linearb.io and click "Get a Demo" to meet with our team.