Leadership in Tech
Leadership in Tech
#280 – January 25, 2026
Marketing can say they get $3 back for every dollar spent, but CTOs usually can't provide similar numbers
The hitchhiker’s guide to measuring engineering ROI
27 minutes by Itzy Sabo
Engineering ROI is harder to measure than marketing or sales because there's no clear link between engineering work and revenue. Marketing can say they get $3 back for every dollar spent, but CTOs usually can't provide similar numbers. The best approach is to identify specific business outcomes your company needs, then design engineering projects to deliver those results. Track and report the actual impact of these projects to demonstrate value.
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Why senior engineers let bad projects fail
7 minutes by Lalit Maganti
When you’re earlier in your career, you want to believe that good ideas win on merit, that if you just explain clearly enough, people will see reason. It took me quite some time to accept that big companies don’t work that way. Pick the battles where you can actually change the outcome, where your team will be hurt if you stay silent.
Why I still write code as an engineering manager
3 minutes by Matheus Lima
Staying technical doesn’t mean being the top contributor, but maintaining enough connection to the work that you can make informed decisions, earn your team’s respect, and remember what it actually feels like to ship software. The frustration and the satisfaction, the parts that look easy but aren’t, the parts that look hard but turn out to be trivial.
Heroic modes & strategy
10 minutes by Roger Martin
Roger explores David Kantor’s heroic modes model — fixer, survivor, and protector. And how it helps explain behavior in leadership and strategy. He shows how each mode has strengths and risks, and how understanding these modes improves teamwork, strategy choices, and self-awareness.
Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
8 minutes by Adam Mastroianni
Adam explores why some conversations flourish while others fail. The key isn't whether someone gives or takes control, but whether they create "affordances" - conversational doorknobs that others can grab onto. Good conversationalists offer graspable topics and respond quickly to what others share. Both question-askers and story-tellers can succeed if they give their partners easy ways to jump in and contribute.
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