Jun 01 2025 How I Ship Projects at Big Tech Companies

• Shipping as a Social Construct:
  Shipping isn’t merely deploying code or making a feature live; it’s about ensuring that the key decision-makers and stakeholders within the organization recognize a project as "shipped" based on their expectations and approval.

• Deploy Early and Often:
  Instead of postponing deployments out of fear, push changes—especially the scariest ones—as early as possible. As the engineer with the most end-to-end context, you’re best positioned to handle risky changes; delaying them only shifts uncertainty onto others.

• Build Leadership Trust:
  Cultivate relationships and communication channels with your leadership team. Their trust is essential for allocating resources, securing necessary sign-offs, and ultimately declaring a project as shipped.

• Anticipate Problems and Create Fallback Plans:
  A significant portion of shipping involves foreseeing potential issues (performance regressions, integration conflicts, edge-case failures) and drafting rollback or mitigation strategies well before launch.

• Scale Back Implementation Near Launch:
  As you approach the shipping deadline, reduce new feature work and focus on stability. Freeing bandwidth allows you to respond swiftly to last-minute bugs, operational incidents, or stakeholder concerns.

• Constantly Evaluate Ship-Readiness:
  Regularly ask yourself, "Could I ship right this second?" This mindset encourages continuous validation, early testing, and iterative feedback loops, minimizing surprises as deadlines approach.

• Navigate Interpersonal Dynamics:
  Software engineering is as much a people business as it is a technical one. Aligning cross-functional teams, ensuring documentation clarity, and proactively resolving misunderstandings are crucial to maintaining momentum toward ship day.

The full post is available here.