Picture this: You’re an up and coming engineer fresh off a big win. In doing so you’ve won the trust of your peers and leaders, and also proven your readiness for bigger challenges. You are thrown into an ambiguous space with a few open questions that will dictate the direction of thousands of hours of engineering time. The decisions you make now will meaningfully impact the business and hundreds of people’s day to day lives. You are now accountable for this - proudly so. But how do you actually get this done? What are the steps? And how do you know if you are over analyzing vs. being reckless? How do you push through conflicting views from your trusted teammates?
This article lays out a structured approach for driving complex decisions quickly, collaboratively, and effectively. We’ll cover mental models, practical steps, and pitfalls to avoid so you can lead with confidence in moments that truly matter.
Many Paths, Not One
First let’s take a step back and acknowledge that solving technical challenges affords an unexpected amount of artistic freedom. There are typically many paths - even if we can only just barely see one of them. Our primary goal as the driver is to navigate through and identify the top contenders utilizing the full potential of the team.
Pitfall #1: Chasing the “Golden Path”
The first major pitfall is pursuing a “golden path”. It involves a mental model where we underemphasize that there are many solutions and try to focus in on what is the single best and most optimal solution to the problem. This approach provides an easy mental escape to procrastinate making progress on the decision by making the discovery of this path a pre-requisite to any other action.
The biggest indicator that you might be trapped in pursuing the golden path would be spending multiple days ideating before pulling in teammates for feedback. The more time you spend alone the more committed you get to an idea that very well may be ripped to shreds by the group at large. Your mindset for the first pass should be getting to “a solution” and not “the solution”. Easier said than done as it can be tough to balance what is “enough” since too little thought can end up being a waste of your teams time.
Remember - you are not accountable for finding the golden path as part of your first proposal! The idea is that you want to land as close as possible to the golden path at the end of the decision making process, and the best way to do so is by incorporating as many minds as you can for as long as you can. This should shift your mindset towards trying to pump out your first proposal to the group as fast as possible as your first move.
The Provocation Path
I like to call all of my initial proposals “provocations”. It helps me mentally to distance myself from the solution in public - as if I didn’t spend 8 hours last night refining and tweaking it. It is also intended to acknowledge that it may offend some sensibilities within the group and that I am welcoming to feedback. This solution path may not be optimal or glamorous but it gets the job done and I’m able to to defend it against basic inquiry.
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