When the Bobs come asking, you better have an answer.
Is it your title? “I’m the CEO. I do the CEO things.”
Is it your project responsibilities? “I’m the lead software engineer for the automated test framework. I define, develop, and fix it.”
Or is it more informal and harder to define?
Every good engineering team has at least one person whose role is hard to define. At least in the traditional sense of “here’s my title, and here’s my job description.” They step up to whatever is needed at the time, even if what is needed is below them, not familiar, or someone else’s job. They’re standing next to you in the lab, the conference room, and the mud.
Every great engineering team has this quality running through all the members.
When you start something new you’re going to need defined roles. A contract amongst yourselves so that everyone knows who’s responsible for what. You’ll need to satisfy the Bobs.
But also, everyone’s gonna need the mentality of “Yeah, I’ll do that.”
