Describe the Best Engineer You Have Worked With

Describe the best engineer you’ve worked with. Why were they so great? What made them special?

Someone gave me this prompt recently, and it felt like great fodder for a post. The prompt focuses on the engineer role specifically, but a few of the qualities listed below are specific to engineering.

I have had the opportunity to work with several really great people, but there is an archetype that sticks out for me. Below are the behaviors that this archetype embodies.

Strong opinions, weakly held—They have views informed by their experiences. They have seen what good looks like, and they can see around corners. However, they know the value of the diversity of experiences around them. It isn’t about their idea; the goal is to find the best one.

They say, “I don’t know.”—Feigning knowledge can lead to misaligned expectations and miscommunication. The best engineers I’ve worked with will put their ego aside and admit ignorance. This behavior sets an example for less experienced team members and works to create a psychologically safe environment for everyone.

Amplify others and collaborate—They are more than willing to put down their work to help a teammate. Perhaps the teammate is blocked, or there is an identified need to help them grow or onboard. They believe that personal success comes through team success.

Bias towards action—They prototype and experiment to seek evidence over debate and up-front analysis.

Right tool for the job—They don’t seek a tool because it is shiny, but because it fits the need.

Simplicity—They understand that complexity is a liability and work to find the simplest solution for the opportunity at hand.

Communication—Not only are they skilled at communicating verbally and through writing, but they also understand that code is a communication tool. They write intention-revealing code for future readers and relentlessly create and modify software to mirror domain concepts for users and/or the business.

Value-centric mindset—They understand it isn’t about the output produced or the shipped features. The goal is to deliver value. Sometimes, that might mean less code, not more.

“Non-traditional” backgrounds—So many of the best engineers I have worked with don’t have a Computer Science degree; they were career changers.

Seek alignment through selling ideas, not dictating requirements—They are human-centric and understand that they need alignment and buy-in to get the best outcome.

Preserving optionality through quality—They understand the nature of product development and the change that comes with it. They create cohesive abstractions that can be composed, allowing the software to evolve in ways we can’t predict in the present. They know investments in quality can lead to big payoffs in the future because of the flexibility it yields.