Have you ever struggled with a specific engineering skill, and if so, how did you work to improve it?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Over the past year, I've been deliberately focusing on developing both technical
and leadership skills that I believe are crucial for modern engineering
management. Let me share the key areas:
System Design and Architecture
 * I've been deepening my knowledge of distributed systems and microservices
   architecture
 * Completed several courses on cloud-native architectures and AWS solutions
 * Actively participated in architecture review boards for major projects
 * This helps me better guide my team's technical decisions and mentor senior
   engineers (5 senior engineers) and interacted with Sr PEs and distinguished
   engineers.

Data-Driven Decision Making - Give example of Alexa dashboard to reduce latency
and make specific callouts on how to use data to transform and understand how
leaders think
 * Enhanced my skills in data analytics and metrics interpretation
 * Implemented better tracking systems for team performance and project health
 * Learned to use data visualization tools more effectively
 * This helps me make more informed decisions about resource allocation and
   project prioritization

Modern Engineering Practices
 * Strengthened my understanding of DevOps practices and tools
 * Improved my knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code
 * Studied security best practices and compliance requirements that came up for
   revised Alexa world
 * This enables me to better guide my team in adopting industry best practices

Leadership and People Management
 * Completed advanced courses in engineering leadership. 8 week leadership
   course from Dale Carnegie Live Online: Course information for Develop Your
   Leadership Potential. Learnt about different management and leadership
   styles. Helped improve diversity in hiring and understood nuances of
   companies outside Amazon who operate at such a huge scale. Interacted with
   multiple other managers from healthcare, small scale startups, manufacturing,
   local businesses, etc etc.,
 * I have also attended Grasshopper conferences in the last two years to learn
   from other women in technology and made a lot of meaningful connections with
   other women leaders int he community. I brought back in lot of learnings from
   the sessions I attended throughout 4 day conference. I kicked off a panel for
   supporting women in my org and volunteer for the community outside of my job
   responsibilities.
 * Improved my coaching and mentoring techniques
 * Developed better skills in conflict resolution and difficult conversations
 * Enhanced my ability to build and maintain high-performing remote teams

Project Management, not having a TPM or PMT support enabled me to play a hybrid
role that enhanced by PM skills
 * Refined my skills in agile methodologies
 * Improved estimation techniques and risk management
 * Developed better strategies for managing dependencies across teams
 * This helps me better plan and execute complex projects
 * Learnt to write communications to leadership and deliver status updates
   succinctly and effectively

For example, I recently led a major Alexa project where I applied many of these
improved skills:
 * Used my enhanced architecture knowledge to guide the technical approach
 * Applied data-driven decision making to prioritize migration phases
 * Implemented new DevOps practices to streamline the process
 * Successfully coached team members through the challenges

I believe continuous learning is crucial in technology leadership, and I
maintain a personal development plan that I review and adjust quarterly. I also
encourage my team members to pursue their own learning goals and create an
environment that supports knowledge sharing.

Have you ever struggled with a specific engineering skill, and if so, how did you work to improve it?

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