Weekly Journal 88 - Strategy

Strategic Thinking

Last week I accepted a promotion from DevOps team manager to an engineering director. This opportunity is simultaneously exciting and terrifying to me. It’s exciting because I get to have a seat at the table where the strategic engineering decisions are made. To date I have been very involved as a tactical leader focusing largely on how things are built within my team. Now I get to focus more on what we are building and how it fits into the larger picture of company vision and goals.

At the same time it’s also a little scary. I am moving another step further away from the technical work that has been the backbone of my career. I still want to keep my developer skills somewhat sharp, and now I will have to be very intentional about doing so on my own time. Even as a manager my skills have atrophied a fair amount as the size of my team has grown. If I don’t make time to practice some on my own, I will likely lose those abilities. As this is a role I have never held before I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. On the plus side I have some really great peers and leaders above me who are willing to help me get acclimated to this position.

On the whole I am very happy with my decision to take this role and I am looking forward to the new challenges and opportunities that will come with it. I expect it will also change the tone and content of this blog a bit. Right now I don’t know what that will look like, but I am looking to see where this road will take me.