Engineers as Vertically Integrated Product Teams

I have been thinking a lot about generative engineering cultures - namely the benefits they yield and how they are implemented.

I was discussing the impact of such a culture with a fellow engineer and how re-structuring our team’s approach to work to ensure that twenty-percent of engineers’ time is spent pursing their own inklings and developing original value. This engineer tells me that a culture where engineers are strongly encouraged and coached on delivering original value is one where an engineer is considered a vertically integrated product team.

Think about that for a moment: empower and coach your engineers so they are able to solely perform the role of an entire product team. They can identify opportunities, consensus build, manage a project, perform design iterations, and implement features.

This isn’t to argue that engineers should replace their valuable cross-functional teammates. Rather, enable them to deliver end-to-end on their twenty-percent work as at the end of the day, product engineering is an inherently creative pursuit and product engineers are creative individuals.

Let their freak flags fly.