What I am describing is an engineering team trying to balance technical and operational excellence with feature development. Building quality software and fostering a healthy and balanced team requires strong coordination between engineering and product. Yet this can be challenging; engineering and product might not always have the same priorities. If your roadmap is too product heavy, you might not get to key infrastructure and framework projects that will improve developer velocity. On the other hand, if your roadmap doesn’t properly iterate on product initiatives, you jeopardize the success of the product in the market.
As I’ve spent more time in engineering management, I’ve found a framework that works for me in collaborating with product to ensure the team is prioritizing the right balance of feature development and infrastructure improvements, allowing us to deliver more value to the business overall.
