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Whatever it takes to best satisfy your customer. That's it. No, I'm not being snarky, so hear me out... I've met and worked with many developers over the years and lots of them have become very good with technology and user domains, but still have struggled to "crack the digital ceiling". These are brilliant people who have achieved serious things, but are still not recognized by the big decision makers as "senior", whatever that means. Then there are a select few who always get the big gigs, big money, and big reputations. Why? Because they best satisfy their customers. There are lots of non-technical skills that help them, but I think the biggest is their ability to separate the signal from the noise and zero in of the most important things to work on and to get them done. It's almost like they have "satisfiability radar". And this rarely requires any special technical or people skills. All they really have to learn is a good grasp of the technology, a deep understanding of the customer's domain and business, and the ability to get things done through others. And how did they develop them? By good old fashioned grunt work, whether digging into the bowels of the system or getting up off their butts and relentlessly going around finding out whatever they needed to know. Once you've figured out the best thing(s) to work on to best satisfy your customers, got them onto the decision makers' radar, and found a way to get them done one way or the other, you are no longer a dev or even a senior dev. You're now a digital rainmaker, the most senior dev of all. |
Ever met that person who earned their senior title through brute force rather than commendation who can talk circles about technology and architecture surrounding the project(s), but when there's a meeting with the business folk, they sit there listlessly with no input? They're a god among humans to the dev team. They're just a voiceless workhorse to the client.
Although the name doesn't explicitly state it, I think a senior dev needs to skillfully interact with the client. Kicking ass at the keys and architecture is a given necessity. Catering to the client, delivering what is needed, truthfully and tactfully explaining why something is or isn't feasible, and all those other soft skills that many developers aren't known for is an undersold boon.