Career Growth
Executive communication for engineers
How senior engineers and tech leads communicate decisions to leadership.
5 min read
As you grow, more of your impact comes from helping others make good decisions. Executives have little time and lots of context-switching — communicate accordingly.
Lead with the answer
Start with your recommendation and the decision you need, then give supporting detail. "We should delay launch by two weeks to fix data loss risk; I need approval today."
Translate to outcomes
Frame technical work in terms of revenue, risk, cost, speed or customer experience.
Show options and trade-offs
Present two or three options, their costs and risks, and which you recommend and why.
Write it down
A one-page design or decision doc beats a long meeting. Include: context, goal, options, recommendation, risks and next steps.