Comment by xmprt
1 day ago
In a functional org, the principal engineer's role would be to review designs to reduce complexity and new systems. The goal of the org (and engineers within the org by extension) is to deliver impact. The engineer who can ship the impact of 3 new features with simple implementations in the time that it takes one complex implementation to be build should be promoted.
> the principal engineer's role would be to review designs to reduce complexity
Two questions:
1) How did this principal engineer get this title?
2) How is he going to get the next one?
> How is he going to get the next one?
By delivering, or helping the team deliver, outsized returns on engineering hours invested.
If a design is bloated, a good principal engineer should point out gaps, help simplify the solution and enable the team to deliver faster. That definitely gets noticed.
1) not by keeping things simple I think. (sarcasm yes, but also mostly true)
yes, I’m with you. Keep it simple, ship the thing, and only add a new system when you actually need it.