Still on the Dancefloor
My previous role was something special. Although I had been wearing three hats, I never felt stressed, overworked, or dragging my team down.
I was a software engineer, a team captain, and a tech evangelist on top.
The role of a software engineer normally would not need a lot of explanation. But our team was small and crucial. We were developing the centralized feature flagging solution for a big company with a small team.
Our focus was delivering not just good software, but being seen as a service-oriented team that wants to help others succeed by using our tools. I still feel like I have been successful in that matter.
The team captain was a role I loved, but I also feel like part of this is a responsibility of each senior developer. Helping your team members grow, find purpose, and develop individually and as a team is, for me, the definition of seniority.
Additionally, it was an interface to the outside — to check on team health, find friction, and handle the bureaucratic efforts. Defining goals for us, trying to reach those, and pushing for greatness in a sense that people see us as a good example. This was great.
Lastly, the tech evangelist. An add-on role which allowed me to share the foundation of our internal tooling with the world. Fostering community and engaging with other developers to help OpenFeature succeed, and to present my employer the way I thought they were.
The hard part is finding something like this again. I love to solve puzzles. Not necessarily engineering-wise, also team-dynamics-related. AI is a good example of that. It has such a big impact on implementation but also on team dynamics.
Developer advocacy sounds like one part of this, but I need to find my anchor point. Especially with outside and inside validation. Am I reaching in the right direction? Am I doing the right thing?
A lot of questions, and still dancing the Limbo.
Luckily I had the chance to explore a lot of things recently.
Being independent and doing feature flagging workshops and introductions.
Mentoring people at the start of their career and further advanced ones. Additionally, exploring options within leadership roles.
Supporting OpenFeature and driving things forward.
By now I am even a fractional developer advocate for Flagsmith.
I started to formulate my ideas about how AI still needs a team for direction and understanding.
But still, nothing crystallizes in a way that I can say. Only this and not the others.
Still dancing.