Dec 10 2025 Advice for New Principal Tech ICs (i.e., Notes to Myself)

• Principals have diverse styles: Some specialize deeply, some lead horizontally, others clarify or align organizations; find the flavor that fits your strengths.
• Shift in core activities: Hands-on coding becomes secondary; focus moves to vision, design feedback, sponsorship, context, problem-finding, and connecting dots.
• Code with impact: Stay connected with coding but amplify effectiveness mainly by empowering others.
• Part-time everything: Your judgment and experience let you act across product, design, QA, hiring, finance, and culture.
• Communication and alignment: Influence grows; scope spans teams, directors, VPs. Success depends on aligning and collaborating across orgs.
• Convince and activate: Being right isn’t enough—lead by building conviction, momentum, sponsorship, and execution.
• Teach new values: Influence the org to value things it overlooks. Failure is common, but driving successful adoption is where principals add long-term value.
• Unique high-leverage work: Take on problems that only you can solve—centered on your unique skills and passions.
• Connect the dots: Sometimes, your highest value is connecting teams and individuals to resources, learnings, or each other.
• Mentorship as leverage: Coach and grow other ICs and leaders; success means enabling others to make wise decisions independently.
• Transition ownership: Give others opportunities to own impactful work; support but let them drive direction and learn from outcomes.
• Create space in meetings: Draw out quieter voices, invite absent stakeholders, and foster inclusive discussions.
• Step back when possible: Don't always need to comment or direct; sometimes silent approval is enough—be mindful of your presence.
• Focus in exec meetings: Don’t address every topic; ask key questions and unblock what only execs can.
• Defend your time: Breadth roles can lead to schedule overload—push back and delegate, preserving quality thinking time to strategize.
• Principal-worthy scope: If you can't justify why a principal is needed for a project, reconsider its fit.
• High-ROI opportunities: Experience and access allow small investments for outsized project impact; use this privilege wisely.
• Clarity in communication: Your comments carry weight—make explicit what you know, don’t know, want, or suggest.
• Explain your reasoning: Share the "why" behind judgments, so others understand and own decisions.
• Stay close to teams: Keep a real-world pulse through reviews, demos, lunches, and hallway chats.
• Maintain big-picture focus: Remind teams of broader strategic goals to avoid local optimization traps.
• Balance big and local views: Consult working-level experts for practicality while keeping sight of the larger mission.
• Respect promotional feedback: Decline if you lack enough context—give meaningful input only when qualified.
• Support interns and mentors: Interact with interns to steer their impact and create lasting deliverables.
• Critical path vs. scale: Principal’s effectiveness grows by empowering others rather than being indispensable; encourage independence.
• Promotion continuity: Promotion follows existing principal behavior—keep doing what works and refine your focus with leadership.
• Autonomy with accountability: Freedom comes with the responsibility to find and solve the highest-leverage problems—don’t wait to be guided.
• Define your charter: Clarify with leadership where you own, sponsor, or consult, and balance your time accordingly.
• Peer network: Principals feel both everywhere and nowhere; build support networks beyond the org.
• Self-care and growth: Invest in your own learning and wellbeing—avoid burnout, benefit the org through sustained growth.
• Continuous learning: The industry moves fast; prioritize projects and personal study that foster ongoing relevant development.

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