“Can you actually explain in clear terms how your company makes money? If you can't, that's a problem.”

In today's tech landscape where efficiency and productivity metrics are increasingly scrutinized, it isn't enough to just write good code. You need to demonstrate how your engineering investments contribute to the bottom line - especially if you've suddenly found yourself in management feeling overwhelmed by new business expectations.

Communicating the business impact of engineering investments is important for decision-making and stakeholder engagement – and ensuring your company knows you’re indispensable if they decide to have another round of layoffs.

In this episode, Lena and Amani explore how engineering leaders can effectively communicate their teams’ business value.

Our guest Amani brings wisdom gained from nearly 15 years of tech industry experience to share how engineering leaders can:

• Partner effectively with analysts and product managers to understand key business metrics
• Develop empathy for users to create truly impactful products
• Handle increased pressure to track and demonstrate progress
• Communicate engineering value clearly to stakeholders
• Adapt to management responsibilities when thrust into the role

Together, they explore practical strategies for engineering leaders to understand, measure, and articulate their team's business impact in an environment of constant change.

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⁠⁠Full episode transcript link⁠⁠.

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Resources

• ⁠Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Book)⁠
• ⁠Founders First Blog⁠

• ⁠Founders Network: Startup Metrics 101: What to Track and Why It Matters
• Lena published a Series on Productivity, with articles such as:
• Engineering Metrics Guide for Leaders⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠How to Understand, Measure and Improve Team Productivity⁠⁠

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Why this podcast exists 

I make this podcast as a space for honest conversations about the hard parts of leadership that most leaders only dare to talk about behind closed doors—after all, we're supposed to be “in charge”, and “on top of things" at all times. But from my close work with dozens of leaders every week, I know that more leaders than you may think are struggling with topics like self-confidence, imposter syndrome, unclear expectations, or difficult bosses. This podcast is where we talk about it.

About your host

I’m Lena Reinhard (she/they), a fractional VP Engineering, leadership coach, mentor, and facilitator. Having served as an engineering executive with companies like CircleCI and Travis CI, and as a SaaS startup co-founder & CEO, I have dedicated my career to helping fast-paced organizations across the globe succeed in times of high change and challenging markets. You can regularly find me speaking at tech conferences and read my practical guides for leaders in the technology space ⁠⁠on my website⁠⁠.