How to think multiple years ahead?

Question

My team is responsible for an ambitious product that we're looking to have a multi-year time horizon for. I know that it's important for senior engineers and especially staff engineers to be able to think proactively, so I was wondering what can concretely be done to get better at creating that long-term vision spanning across many years?

Rahul Pandey · Accepted Answer

Focus on building trust -- if you're new to the team, that might mean focusing on just completing tasks for a few weeks, before jumping into setting a roadmap/vision. (This is more applicable for junior folks, probably less applicable for you as a senior eng). Another part of building trust is to provide your input/opinion on someone else's work and have that be helpful + respected. Setting a multi-year roadmap is only possible if other people are aware of your background + experience. Think about filling in the gaps for the product roadmap: there's probably internal tech discussions, collaboration with partner teams, doing security checks, and looking at historical breaks. Where would you be most helpful?

How to think multiple years ahead?

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