201: Strategies for Prioritizing Tasks and Avoiding Backlog Chaos

StaffPlus roles dealing with impostor syndrome and strategies to avoid backlog chaos

Thank you for reading Snippets of Text. Snippets from media about tech, programming, parenting, and more. This is a preview of a post available exclusively to paying subscribers. You can get unlimited access to all articles by purchasing a subscription.

Off Topic: Breaking the Impostor Syndrome

Principal Engineers hold a higher rank than Staff Engineers. It's important to note that even these accomplished professionals can experience impostor syndrome. Staff engineering is not a role. It's the intersection of the role, your behaviors, your impact, and the organization's recognition. In senior positions, you're accountable to the business and organization first and yourself second.

Staff-plus roles are leadership roles, and the support system that got you here will fade away in leadership roles. To remain effective within a Staff-plus role, you must learn the art of staying aligned with organizational authority. Staff Engineers are expected to define a technical direction for the team they are operating in. To assist senior engineers, managers must offer feedback that helps their progress. The skill and conduct displayed by exemplary engineers can influence the code we produce, the algorithms we put in place, and our choices.

Current Work: Strategies for Prioritizing Tasks and Avoiding Backlog Chaos

To create a solid foundation for the bigger picture:

1. Use experiments and make minor iterative improvements.

2. If a story doesn't fit the expected pattern, alert early and consider rewriting it.

3. Get rid of or replace any fake or misleading stories. While micro-stories are fine, more detail is needed for things beyond short-term plans.

Thanks for taking a look at the free preview of Snippets of Text. Please consider subscribing to the paid version if you find my work helpful. This way, I can spend more time developing new ideas to share with you.