By Abhay Singhal,
I was reading up about Bret Taylor. He has one of the most impressive portfolios I’ve seen in recent times. Starting as an engineer at Google, he founded companies like FriendFeed and Quip before eventually becoming the co-chief executive officer of Salesforce.
His journey got me thinking about how having a deep understanding and passion for engineering is the foundation of his business acumen. And it’s not just him. Satya Nadella, Elon Musk, Jyoti Bansal — the list is endless. Some of the most respected and successful business leaders are, by practice, engineers.
The problem with quiet genius
The trajectory from engineering excellence to business leadership has been a winning formula repeatedly. Of course, engineers in any tech company are closest to the product and often have the deepest understanding of the problems at hand.
But as is often the case, engineers don’t like being wrong — it must have something to do with years of conditioning and coaching where mistakes aren’t tolerated. But that’s a whole other article in itself. Engineers tend to analyse a thought from every possible angle before sharing it with a room. By then, the conversation has often moved along, leaving the engineer hesitant to butt in. The only way to fix this is to nurture the habit of speaking.
Organisations must stop putting intermediaries between the engineers and the business — folks whose skills lie in “communicating the problem”. Engineers’ voices get drowned out by those more outspoken, leaving a vacuum filled by others who may not share the same technical insights. Instead, encourage the engineer to share their analysis, solution, and own the consequence of their decisions.
Of course, this can only work in an environment where failure is an option, risk-taking is encouraged, and learning is shared openly.
Engineering first and centre
Give engineers control over their code and ownership of their work. This involves breaking the vicious cycle where engineers feel powerless, leading them to change jobs instead of addressing conflicts. When engineers avoid conflict, resentment builds, they stop caring, and companies suffer.
At InMobi, for example, we have events like “InMobi Builders” where representatives of specific engineering teams share their stories with the entire organisation — stories include those of failure and introspection. These practices build engineering pride in the company and shine a light on the heroes that make our products and services tick. The response to these events also encourages more and more engineers to take up their place in the limelight, own their work, and take responsibility for the business outcomes.
We’ve been intentional about creating an environment that breaks this cycle and fosters a truly tech-first environment:
Psychological safety: We recognise that the only way for engineers to truly learn and grow is by doing, and that means embracing failure as a necessary part of the process. We’ve cultivated a culture of psychological safety, where engineers feel empowered to take risks and learn from mistakes.
Metrics-driven decision-making: Rather than relying on the loudest opinions, we’ve empowered our engineers to define the product baseline metrics. This ensures decisions are rooted in data and the inherent strengths of the engineering team, rather than being swayed by external influences.
Connecting the business dots: We’ve worked to tie the entire business together through a flowing, logical metrics system. This allows our engineers to see the big picture and understand how their work directly impacts the company’s success.
A culture of speaking up
The transformation we’ve witnessed at InMobi has been nothing short of remarkable. Engineers who were once hesitant to speak up are now driving the conversation, sharing their insights, and shaping the direction of the company.
Recently I was trying to understand specific aspects of private exchange. The conversation was between me and five InMobi leaders. Since none of us had the necessary expertise, we gave an open call for anyone with better understanding to join us in the discussion. To our surprise, a relatively new engineer responded to our outreach. “I know how to do this,” she said and proceeded to educate all of us with an in-depth analysis covering everything we wanted to know. She became the most sought-after voice in that discussion.
If the conversation had ended in the meeting room with me and my leaders, this young engineer’s knowledge would have never reached us. The organisation would have suffered on many counts.
My biggest learning from this experience: ask open-ended questions, invite people to come up to you and share their expertise, and crowd-source answers to challenging problems.
The goal is to help our “I-shaped” engineers become “T-shaped” leaders with deep technical expertise, business knowledge, and great leadership skills. Equip them to seamlessly navigate the intersection of technology and business. Nurture a new generation of business-leading, confident engineers.
This is a journey of continuous experimentation. We hypothesise, observe outcomes, and refine our approaches to empower a generation of leaders with strong engineering backgrounds, unique skill sets, and problem-solving abilities.
The author is co-founder of InMobi and CEO, InMobi Advertising.
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