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by ebrewste 2385 days ago
My personal tech journey has been doing more advising within the corporation regarding how to roll out new IoT stuff. Spending more time the with more senior people in the corp and seeing projects that are having problems because they don't really have a vision has been an eye opener. I'm a tech person and want to code or otherwise engineer my way out of every problem, but I'm seeing over and over, it's the clear customer value (customer can be anyone, including yourself) that gates success. Clear customer value can be tech heavy, aimed at tech users, but the tech by itself doesn't have much value.

Things that I see that are cool really solve a problem. I am finding that I am doubling down on looking at the problem that is being solved before I deal with tech. Tech is critically needed and you learn useful stuff on the way, but what I am learning, repeatedly, is that the really cool stuff is the product of the clear customer value and delivering on the underlying tech.
2 comments
samename 2384 days ago
How did you get to that role, is it a management position? I’m in a junior dev role but constantly find myself focused on the bigger idea and vision that solves people experience everyday.
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ebrewste 2383 days ago
I was on a team that would do present to groups about how to improve their products and would some short presentation on a tech topic, like rolling out Wi-Fi in real products. Being part of the team, I listened to all of the talks and participated in break outs with engineers. Seeing the commonalities was number one. Then coaching the really reluctant engineers. Little by little, by parroting what the business and C-levels were saying (when it resonated with me), I would see the light and polish my message. It's been a bit by bit journey, but I no longer avoid jobs like calling a bunch of customers to see what their needs are.
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christiansakai 2384 days ago
I am currently nowhere near your level. I am still a rank and file developers.

Also I am not that interested in management track. If I can I want to be on technical track. It is harder to do as I get older.

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