"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

— Arthur C. Clarke

I’m an enthusiastic reader of fantasy books and particularly magic systems. I’m also an AI enthusiast – who isn’t these days, right? 🙂

After doing a lot of both recently, I noticed something fascinating – there were many parallels between magic systems in my favorite books and AI! So I seized the opportunity to geek out on magic systems and AI in the hopes of finding ChaiTime readers who also enjoy both.

For the examples in this post I’ll focus on the following three fictional magic book series. I’ve indicated below how many books each series has if you are interested in reading some or all of them! I’d rate all of these at 5-star and have read many of them multiple times! There are also many other similar books I’ve read that I haven’t listed here but I’d absolutely recommend them. Happy to share more – just email me if you are interested!

• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (7 books)

• Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (3 Era One books + 3 Era Two books + a few short stories in between)

• Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab (3 books)

Here are seven key similarities I saw between fictional magic systems and AI.

1. Intent Is Everything

Magic: Every spell requires clear, focused intention. In Harry Potter, a half-hearted "Wingardium Leviosa" won't lift a feather. In Mistborn, Allomancers must have precise intent when Pushing and Pulling on metals—Vin learns that vague or unfocused Steel-pushing will send coins flying in random directions, but clear intention allows her to hit specific targets or launch herself with perfect accuracy.

AI: Similarly, AI responds best to clear, specific prompts. Vague requests yield vague results, while detailed intentions produce targeted outputs. Ask AI to "write something about marketing" and you'll get generic advice. Ask it to "write a 500-word email to potential customers explaining how our time-tracking software saves small business owners 2 hours per week" and you'll get a lot closer to your intended goal. The clearer your intent, the more powerful your results.

2. Every System Has a Cost

Magic: All magic usage comes with limitations and costs. Stormlight depletes, metals burn away, and magical energy isn't infinite. Users of the magic need to understand the price and use it wisely. This is often the cornerstone of drama in the various book plots where the protagonists need to manage tradeoffs and decide if/when to use magic. In Mistborn, Allomantic metals are consumed when burned and must be replenished. In Shades of Magic, using magic from the dangerous Black London comes with severe consequences.

AI: AI operations consume computational resources, energy, and often money. Understanding these costs helps users make strategic choices about when and how to deploy AI tools effectively. You shouldn’t use an expensive LLM to sort a spreadsheet alphabetically when Excel can do it instantly.

3. Mastery Requires Practice and Study

Magic: Hermione doesn't become the brightest witch of her age overnight—she studies constantly and practices spells repeatedly. In Mistborn, Vin starts knowing only how to burn pewter and tin, then gradually masters steel, iron, and eventually the more complex metals through dedicated training and experimentation.

AI: Effective AI use is a skill that improves with practice. Learning to craft better prompts, understanding different AI capabilities, and developing workflows all require dedicated effort and experimentation.

4. Know Your System's Rules and Limitations

Magic: Hard magic systems like Sanderson's have strict rules. Understanding these limitations isn't restrictive—it's what makes the magic predictable and powerful. In Mistborn, cadmium creates time bubbles where everything inside moves slower than the outside world—but clever characters like Marasi use this "limitation" strategically, slowing time within her bubble to buy precious moments until help arrives from outside.

AI: AI systems have specific capabilities and constraints. Understanding what AI can and cannot do, its potential biases, and its failure modes makes you a more effective user, not a limited one. For example, knowing that LLMs can hallucinate facts means experienced users ask for sources and verify important claims—but this same "limitation" makes them perfect for creative brainstorming where imagination and novel connections are more valuable than factual accuracy.

5. Unintended Consequences Are Always Possible

Magic: Magic often produces unexpected results. In Shades of Magic, the dangerous Black London serves as a reminder that magical power without wisdom leads to catastrophe. In Harry Potter, Voldemort's pursuit of immortality through splitting his soul demonstrates how using powerful magic without fully understanding the consequences led to unintended results that made him less human and ultimately caused his defeat.

AI: AI can generate biased outputs, hallucinations, or responses that miss crucial context. We have all heard stories of vibe coders faced with security problems or large bills due to unexpected high usage of paid APIs. Like careful spellcasters, effective AI users remain vigilant about unintended consequences.

6. Specialization Beats Generalization

Magic: Different magicians excel in different areas. In Harry Potter, Hermione excels at academic magic while Harry has a natural talent for Defense Against the Dark Arts. In Mistborn, some Allomancers are powerful Thugs (pewter burners) while others are precise Coinshots (steel burners).

AI: Different AI tools have different strengths. Some excel at writing, others at analysis, coding, or creative tasks. The most effective AI users learn to match the right tool to the right task.

7. Foundation and Fundamentals Matter Most

Magic: In all three series, understanding basic principles prevents dangerous mistakes. At Hogwarts, students must master fundamental wand movements and incantations before attempting advanced magic. In Mistborn, Allomancers must understand the basic physics of Pushing and Pulling before they can perform complex maneuvers. In Shades of Magic, magicians must first learn to sense and differentiate between the various types of magical energy.

AI: Understanding AI fundamentals—how these systems work, their strengths and weaknesses, and basic principles of effective prompting—provides a foundation for all advanced applications.

Conclusion: Your AI Spellbook

The next time you're crafting a prompt or exploring a new AI tool, think like a wizard: be clear in your intent, understand the costs, respect the limitations, and always stay curious about what's possible.

Happy New Year! Today is a reflection post for 2025.

A year of pivots

2025 was an unusual year for me. On the work front, I had many job transitions all within a few months after previously being in the same company for 15 years! I left a job that I had joined just 4 months ago (Stripe) after 15 years in another job (Google) to put family first. I had the opportunity to be the first CTO of a seed-stage startup (Glīd). I also started my own business to embark on the solopreneur journey with ChaiTime. Towards the end of summer, I accepted an offer from Capital One for an exciting new role as a Managing VP in CardTech!

Here are some learnings from my year of pivots.

Embrace The Discomfort

I left my job as an engineering director at Google in August of 2024. I was very good at it. I had the opportunity to grow in that role and even had some AI projects on the horizon. But I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and “see the world” after 15 years at Google. I did just that and learned so much more than I ever would had I stayed in my comfort zone. I have previously talked about keeping your career sparkling; 2025 was the sparkliest year for me!

Live Your Values

During my time at Stripe we had multiple health scares, including a personal one that landed me in the ER on my very first day on the job! We lost a beloved family member and faced many other difficult moments as a family. In Jan 2025 I decided to leave my job even though I was just there for a few months because my family and I all needed this time to regroup and recover. I learned that I value my family and when push comes to shove, I will put them first.

Know Thyself

My solopreneur journey was a journey of self-discovery. I had to confront my shortcomings and amplify my strengths. I learned to either overcome my skill gaps or embrace and work around them like never before. I sharpened my voice, understood what I had to offer and defined my story like never before. All of this was useful in figuring out who I was as a leader and what I wanted in my next opportunity so I’d give this advice to any current job seeker to take time to craft your story!

A year of writing

ChaiTime also completed one year as a newsletter and brand! Thank you to all of you ChaiTime readers who showered me with hearts, shares and comments! Your feedback means a lot and keeps me writing! If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to subscribe here so we can continue to stay connected in 2026!

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Here are my top posts from 2025.

A year of guesting

I also had the opportunity to do several guest posts in 2025. Thank you to all my fellow Substackers who invited me to guest-write and coached me to write something interesting for their readers! Here are my top ones!

• Drop The Ball: A Strategic Guide to Letting Go - guest post for the by and

• Being an “Intrapreneur” as a software engineer - guest post for the by

• Powerful Persuasion Methods for Engineering Managers - guest post for the newsletter by

• Lessons Learned Setting Up a Global Engineering Org at Google - guest post for the newsletter by

A year of connections

The most satisfying part of my 2025 was the number of new 1:1 connections I made. Some were email exchanges, some were comment threads on LinkedIn and Substack and some were calls. All were driven by my writing, teaching and coaching work!

I loved sharing my own learnings where I could and I loved even more to hear how I made a difference to someone’s career!

If my writing, teaching or coaching helped you in any way, drop me a comment if you are reading this on Substack or LI. Or reply to this email if you are reading this post in your inbox.

Leave a comment

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, I am excited to see what 2026 has to offer! I will continue to write more here on ChaiTime. I hope to do more collaborations and guest posts. And I’d love to continue making more meaningful connections this year.

Happy New Year again and Welcome to 2026!

A few years ago, this would have been impossible. How do you shift from intense work conversations to being fully present as a host, a mom, a friend? Today I have some answers for this dilemma!

Managing work and life is not about balance. It’s about knowing when to build walls between the different parts of your life, and when to let them spill over into each other.

Compartmentalizing: Why and When

Let me show you two snapshots from my life to explain the concept of Compartmentalizing.

Scenario 1: Valentine’s day during calibrations

Making handmade cards is my hobby and doing it with my daughter is a most joyful experience. I intensely remember one February a few years ago at Google doing this activity in the middle of a difficult performance review season. Layoff rumors swirling. My team looking to me for stability while I’m navigating calibrations and trying to ensure everyone gets fair ratings.

Scenario 2: Sick kiddo and exec reviews

My daughter has been throwing up all night. I’ve slept maybe three hours. She’s finally asleep, curled up in her favorite comfort blanket, and I have an executive review in a couple hours. The kind I’ve been preparing for weeks. The kind that matters for my team’s roadmap and my own visibility.

In both scenarios I had a choice to make — which side to fully be present in? Work or Home? And after that choice, I had to actually switch off the other side in order to stop myself from being pulled into many directions.

Compartmentalizing isn’t about pretending half your life doesn’t exist. It’s about being fully where you choose to be. When I’m making Valentine cards with my daughter, she gets my attention. When I’m in that calibration meeting, my team gets my focus.

The skill isn’t doing everything at once. It’s switching between modes intentionally, completely.

Three Tools for Switching Gears

Here are three strategies I use to switch between work mode and home mode.

1. Transition Cues

Your brain responds to cues. Smell coffee brewing? You start waking up. Hear your favorite song? You’re instantly back to where you first heard it. You can use this for better compartmentalizing.

I’ve noticed it’s easier for me to switch from home to work than the reverse. Professional context pulls me in naturally. The harder shift is coming home after a demanding day and being present for my family—not just physically there, but mentally there.

Two cues that work for me:

The Turkish coffee mug. I have this beautiful mug we bought during a family vacation in Turkey. Every time I use it, I see us exploring Istanbul together—navigating the Grand Bazaar; trying to grab Turkish icecream from the seller doing his tricks; enjoying a delicious dinner. That mug tells my brain: family mode. Work can wait.

The commute ritual. When I was going into the office, I’d use the drive home as transition time. Podcast or music on, brain unwinding. By the time I pulled into the driveway, I’d already shifted from engineering manager to mom.

2. Off Switches

If your work email is one tap away, you’re never really off.

Two strategies that create actual separation:

Android’s work profile. Underrated feature. Toggle your work profile off, and all work apps disappear. No notifications. No “just checking one thing.” When you’re with family, work is invisible.

Two phones. I carry separate devices for work and personal. Yes, it’s cumbersome. But I can physically leave the work phone in another room when I want to. Out of sight, out of mind.

The goal isn’t to be unreachable during emergencies. It’s to stop the constant, draining context-switching.

3. Delegation

Remember that sick child scenario? It has happened so many times that I now have a playbook to manage it. Here’s how I have handled it in different situations.

With a senior direct: I delegated the entire executive review to her. She was ready for this visibility and responsibility. She crushed it. I got to focus on my daughter. Nobody dropped balls. Win-win.

With a junior direct: I delegated the prep work—data gathering, initial analysis. They got us 80% there. I filled in the last 20% and led the review. They learned. I preserved my energy. We delivered.

At home: Sometimes our nanny handled sick day care while I focused on critical deliverables. Other times, my husband and I tag-teamed—he took morning, I took afternoon, or vice versa.

Delegation looks different in different circumstances. But leveraging it can give you a big boost to compartmentalize without dropping balls. Asking is a big part of using delegation; it helps you make sure the other side is willing and ready to receive when you delegate!

A Snow Day in Seattle

Seattle doesn’t get much snow. When it does, schools shut down immediately.

One winter, surprise snow day. My daughter was home, thrilled, wanting to build a snowman. I had important meetings scheduled. The kind you can’t postpone.

How compartmentalization worked:

• Morning: I set her up with coloring sheets and gave permission to watch a movie, explained mom had important work for a few hours. Then office door closed. Meetings got my complete focus.

• Afternoon: Work done. Warm lunch together. Bundled up and went outside. Snowman, snowball fight, hot chocolate.

Neither work nor family got 100% of that day. Both got focused, quality attention when it mattered. That’s the power of compartmentalizing well.

When to Let It All Spill Over

Here’s the paradox: sometimes you should let work and life flow together.

I call this strategic integration.

Halloween at work. I share our family costume every year in work chats. It always sparks a conversation and more photo sharing. My teams connect with me and with each other over a shared family occasion and we get to know each other a little better.

Bringing my daughter to work. I love these days! She sees what I do all day, meets my colleagues, and understands why mom’s work matters. This helps her connect with my professional life in ways compartmentalizing never could.

The difference is intentionality.

Compartmentalizing protects your focus and energy.

Integration enriches both sides of your life by letting them add value to each other.

It’s Not About Balance

Here’s what I wish someone had told me earlier: the goal isn’t perfect work-life balance. That’s a myth that will make you miserable.

The goal is intentionality.

Some days you’ll nail it. Smooth transitions, effective delegation, full presence everywhere. Other days you’ll drop balls. You’ll be mentally at work during dinner. You’ll think about your sick kid during an important meeting.

That’s not failure. That’s being human.

Try the tools I shared above to help you get back on track when possible. You can’t do it all. But you can do what matters most, when it matters most.

That’s what boundaries make possible.

What strategies have you built for managing work and life? I’d love to hear what’s working (or not working) for you. Reply and let me know, or share with someone who needs to hear this.

Your management chain’s internal dialogue is probably something like this — “You are asking for a job you’ve never done before. What if you are a terrible manager and fail at it? Isn’t it better to hire an experienced manager if we need another manager in this team?”.

Your skip is also probably debating whether your manager is ready to become a manager-of-managers which plays into the decision to make you a manager. Because otherwise your manager is going to lose scope as you become a manager and move up to be their peer. Perhaps that annoys your former manager enough to leave the team. Then your skip is stuck with a brand new, untested manager (you) AND they are one experienced manager short (your former manager).

In the "pancake" era of flatter organizations, where the traditional management hierarchy has been compressed into something resembling breakfast food more than a corporate structure, getting your first people management opportunity is even harder.

Today’s article tackles 2 questions a lot of senior ICs have been asking me:

1. How can I get my first people management opportunity?

2. In this age of “AI powered super ICs” and “flat organizations” should I even consider becoming a people manager?

Looking to accelerate your tech career growth?

The next cohort (October 2025) of my popular course Outstanding: Get the Recognition, and Sponsorship You Deserve is now open for enrollment.

This course is rated 4.6/5 after just two cohorts of 20 students each and is one of the top 10 courses in the Leadership & Career category on Maven!

The opportunity hidden in plain sight

My advice to senior ICs considering management today: you can have your cake and eat it too!

If you want to become a people manager to advance your career and gain new leadership skills, you don’t have to wait for a formal people manager role. The opportunity is right in front of you: become a “pseudo manager” manager”!

Here is how the story line goes. Your manager is overloaded with reports. Your junior peers are unhappy that they don’t get much of their manager’s time and attention. You are excited about helping them grow and you are already involved in a lot of their day-to-day work for sprints, code reviews and more. Matching supply to demand, can you become their “pseudo manager” and gain some people management skills without the official title?

The pseudo-manager path offers something genuinely rare in tech careers: the chance to build real leadership experience while maintaining your IC contributions. Unlike formal management transitions, where you immediately lose your technical hands-on work, this hybrid role lets you develop both skill sets simultaneously.

But—and this is crucial—only if you structure it correctly from the beginning.

The hidden dangers nobody warns you about

Before we dive into how to succeed at pseudo-management, let's address the risks that can derail your career if you're not careful.

The Scope Creep Trap: What starts as "helping with a few team processes" gradually expands until you're doing 60% management work for 0% management recognition or compensation. I've seen talented engineers become glorified administrative assistants for their overwhelmed managers.

The Two-Manager Problem: Without clear communication to your team, you create confusion about authority and decision-making. Team members get conflicting instructions from you and your official manager, leading to frustration and reduced effectiveness.

The Promotion Penalty: Counterintuitively, taking on management responsibilities can sometimes hurt your IC promotion case. If you're spending time on people management instead of technical contributions, you might miss the technical achievements needed for senior IC advancement.

The Legal Liability Gap: There are certain management responsibilities—like performance reviews, compensation decisions, and disciplinary actions—that legally cannot be delegated to non-managers. If you don't understand these boundaries, you could find yourself in complicated situations.

The Burnout Accelerator: Managing people is emotionally demanding work. Adding it to your existing technical responsibilities without reducing anything else is a recipe for exhaustion and decreased performance in both areas.

Mitigating Risks

These aren't theoretical risks. I've worked with engineers who experienced each of these problems. Here is why I believe these risks can be mitigated.

Google has a curiosity called the “Tech Lead Manager” role in its engineering organization. These are folks on the IC ladder with direct (or indirect) reports. They are people managers but also ICs themselves. In short they are required to meet all expectations of an IC at their level while also handling their people management responsibilities. The concession they get is their team/org sizes are smaller than eng managers at the same level. So an L6 TLM may have just 5 directs while an L6 EM could have 12-15 directs.

I was a TLM at Google before becoming a full-time eng manager. I have helped many Googlers within and around my organization transition into and out of the TLM role. That taught me a lot about how to handle the “pseudo-manager” conundrum and mitigate the risks associated with it while getting your contributions recognized.

The Four Essential Conversations

I've identified four critical discussions you must have before accepting any pseudo-management responsibilities. Think of these as your due diligence checklist.

Conversation 1: The Performance Discussion

The Question: "How will taking on these management responsibilities help or hurt my own performance? What adjustments do we need to make to my technical work expectations?"

This conversation forces clarity on something that's often left ambiguous. Your manager might see this as pure upside—they get help with their workload while you get leadership experience. But without explicit discussion, you might be inadvertently sabotaging your career.

Here's what to explore:

• If you're on a senior IC track, how will this management experience be evaluated? Will it count as a leadership demonstration, or will it be seen as a distraction from technical excellence?

• If you're considering a transition to an eng manager role at some point, what specific experiences and outcomes will this role provide to strengthen your case?

• What technical responsibilities will be reduced or reassigned to make room for management tasks?

• How will success be measured in both areas?

Red flag responses: If your manager can't articulate how this helps your specific career goals, or if they expect you to maintain 100% of your technical output while adding management responsibilities, you're walking into the scope creep trap.

Conversation 2: The Responsibility Boundary Discussion

The Question: "What specific management tasks will I handle, which ones will you retain, and what are the legal or policy constraints we need to be aware of?"

Without clear boundaries, you and your manager could get caught in complex situations including running into trouble with your company’s policies.

Here are a few suggestions for tasks to discuss and assign explicit ownership to.

People Management:

• One-on-ones and career discussions

• Expectation setting and progress tracking

• Performance feedback (informal vs. formal)

• Conflict resolution between team members

• Hiring and interview processes

Project Management:

• Sprint planning and prioritization

• Cross-team coordination

• Stakeholder communication

• Resource allocation decisions

• Technical architecture decisions

Administrative Tasks:

• Performance reviews and calibration

• Compensation recommendations

• Disciplinary actions

• HR-related documentation

• Budget and headcount planning

Conversation 3: The Priority Conflict Resolution Discussion

The Question: "When I have competing priorities between my management responsibilities and technical work, how do we decide what takes precedence, and what support can I expect?"

A critical bug needs fixing at the same time a team member needs urgent career guidance. A technical design needs finishing when two team members are in conflict. Should you finish writing code for that migration or should you finish writing that next team update?

Conflict between your individual contributor responsibilities and your management work will happen daily. On the one hand, you are not an official people manager so if you end up doing 100% management work, your performance and career could suffer. On the other hand, your manager will think poorly of this arrangement if you always drop your people management responsibilities the minute a priority conflict appears. Having this conversation early with your manager will set the framework for what you should choose when.

Here are some guiding questions to discuss:

• What are the non-negotiable management or technical responsibilities that always take priority?

• What technical work can be delayed or reassigned during management-heavy periods?

• When should you escalate to your manager for help with management tasks?

Conversation 4: The Team Communication Discussion

The Question: "How will we communicate this role change to the team?"

This conversation prevents the two-manager problem that can destroy team effectiveness. Your team members need crystal clear understanding of:

• What types of decisions you can make independently.

• What decisions require your manager's approval.

• How conflicts between your direction and your manager's direction will be resolved.

• Whether you have authority to assign work and set priorities.

• How performance feedback will flow (through you, directly to the manager, or both).

The communication should happen proactively, ideally in a team meeting where questions can be addressed openly. Waiting for confusion to arise organically creates unnecessary friction and undermines your effectiveness.

Division of Responsibilities

When I found myself managing 20 direct reports at one point, I leveraged the opportunity to grow some people managers from within my team. We captured the summary of our conversations described above in a document called “Division of Responsibilities between EM and TLs” and shared this with the team. It helped the team know who was responsible for what and it helped assign due credit when performance reviews rolled around.

Since then I’ve used this “pseudo manager” setup many times to help ICs learn people management skills. Some moved to TLM status and found their comfort zone there, choosing to always balance IC and management work. Others decided to switch to being full-time engineering managers. Some more decided to step back from people management altogether.

But they first started as “pseudo-managers”.

To answer the questions at the beginning: “pseudo-management” is a great way to help your manager while also learning new skills and trying out a potential career path. It allows others (your future reports, your leadership chain) to see you in the role before officially making you a people manager. It also allows you to try out the role before officially deciding if that’s the career path you’d like.

What questions do you have about becoming a “pseudo-manager”? If you’ve tried this before or seen it play out, what's worked (or not worked) in your experience with such an arrangement?

This summer we celebrated our daughter Saanvi's 10th birthday. Here are 10 leadership lessons Saanvi taught me in the past decade that completely changed how I approach engineering leadership and coaching!

1. Journey before Destination

Before Saanvi, I was a fast walker. I just didn't see the point of wasting time dawdling around when there were places to go and things to do!

Toddler Saanvi changed that perspective for me. Simple walks from her daycare to our car in the evenings became magical because we walked at toddler pace. Thanks to her, I noticed the crows that called the daycare roof their home. We saw the trees that changed color every season and the clouds that sometimes appeared in Elmo shape.

The leadership lesson: As an engineering leader, I was rushing my team toward annual goals and quarterly OKRs without celebrating the small wins along the way. I wasn't noticing the "crows on the roof" – the creative innovations we built together, the way junior developers were growing, or the moments when the team really clicked.

Now I build "journey appreciation" into my leadership practice. In our retrospectives, we spend time on what went well, not just what needs fixing. During 1:1s, I ask "What are you most proud of this week?" before diving into blockers.

For mid-career ICs: Take time to document your growth. Keep a "wins journal" – even small ones count. When you solve a tricky bug or help a colleague, write it down. These moments add up to a compelling narrative during performance reviews.

2. Keep Learning

Drinking from a sippy cup, falling asleep on her own, riding a bike, swimming, learning to read English and Hindi… the list is endless.

I've lost count of how many times I think "this is beyond her abilities" only to be very surprised when Saanvi learns that very skill and masters it! These moments have reinforced to me the importance of challenging oneself and immersing oneself in learning environments.

The leadership lesson: I was underestimating my team's capacity to grow into new challenges. I was protecting them from "stretch assignments" instead of creating safe-to-fail learning opportunities.

One of my senior engineers wanted to try people management. My first instinct was "they don't have enough experience." But remembering Saanvi's learning journey, I put them in charge of all the day-to-day responsibilities for 3 junior engineers as a tech lead.

Six months later, that pod not only delivered on their project successfully, they also ranked the happiest pod in my team. This paved the path for a formal people manager role for this engineer as well.

The reframe: Instead of "Are they ready for this?" ask "How can I help them become ready?"

3. Lead by Example

When Saanvi got her first couple of teeth, we got the mandate to start brushing from her pediatrician. We tried to pin her down and brush her teeth at first – this ended in many tears, both from her and us.

We tried songs, screen time, books and so many other distractions. Nothing worked for us until… we started brushing with her!

That was a pivotal moment for me to remember that actions speak louder than words.

At work, this transformed how I stayed hands-on. Instead of just assigning code cleanup tasks to my team, I started picking up small refactoring tasks myself. When we had a critical production issue, I joined the war room and picked up the “low level” tasks like taking notes and helping with debugging alongside everyone else.

The shift in team dynamics was immediate. Engineers started volunteering for the "unglamorous" infrastructure work because they saw me doing it too. Our oncall became more collaborative because people felt safe to admit knowledge gaps when they saw me doing the same.

For ICs looking to build influence: Don't just advocate for better practices – model them. Want better documentation? Start writing great docs. Want more thorough code reviews? Give thoughtful, constructive feedback on others' PRs.

4. Retrospect Often

Business leadership demands we look ahead and set bold visions for the future. But there is also value in looking back often.

We have dozens of pictures of Saanvi climbing structures at all ages. Periodically when these photos show up on our phone, Saanvi will say "wow I'm getting faster/stronger!" Those moments taught me the value of looking back and appreciating how far we have come.

I realized I was terrible at this in my career. I was always focused on the next milestone, the next promotion, the next project. I never paused to acknowledge growth.

Now I do a personal retrospective every few months for myself and also incorporate it into my teaching/coaching sessions. Looking back and seeing how much you’ve grown will immediately motivate you to look ahead and grow some more, especially during the tough times!

5. Hakuna Matata

There are many things Saanvi hated at different times in her life. Diaper changes, ending bath-time, practicing piano, finishing homework… the list was different each year.

As parents it was our job to make her do them anyway. Each time there are protests and tears. But just a little while later, she would forgive us for making her unhappy, forget about the difficult incident and move on to the next fun thing.

Seeing how she chooses to let go and move on has been a powerful lesson and inspiration for me. It's best captured in our favorite Lion King song, "Hakuna Matata" – meaning "no worries."

This completely changed how I handle setbacks at work.

I used to ruminate on failed projects, difficult conversations, or meetings that didn't go well. I'd replay these scenarios for weeks, analyzing what I could have done differently. Saanvi taught me that while reflection is valuable, endless rumination is not.

Now when something goes wrong, I give myself time to feel frustrated, then I do a quick retrospective: What can I learn? What would I do differently? Then I consciously choose to move forward.

I've started teaching this to my students. Many brilliant leaders get stuck in perfectionism loops – afraid to ship code that isn't flawless, afraid to switch roles to pursue that stretch opportunity or afraid to ask for promotions because they feel they are not ready. Learning to "fail fast and move on" has accelerated their growth significantly.

The practice: After a difficult day, ask yourself "What's the one thing I learned?" Then close the mental tab and focus on tomorrow's opportunities.

6. Consistency Builds a Brand

We can't remember when or how it started but at some point on our trips, Saanvi started asking us to take these jumping shots on every trip. Over time she had a collection of all these shots from all our travels that she loves looking at!

Now this jumping shot is her signature brand and she enthusiastically stays true to it.

This is how Saanvi taught me about personal branding.

I realized I was inconsistent in how I showed up professionally. Sometimes I was the "technical deep-dive person," other times the "people manager," occasionally the "strategic thinker." People didn't know what to expect from me or when to bring me into conversations.

Observing Saanvi's consistency with her jumping photos, I did some deep reflections on what defined me as a leader. It has helped me stay authentic in my day-to-day work and also during key moments like all-hands and interviews.

This lesson of consistency building a brand has also helped me grow ChaiTime with planning and purpose. Everything I speak or write — whether it is a newsletter article, a LinkedIn post or a lesson in my course — fits together around this core brand that’s built on my values.

Another lesson I took from this is that just like networking, the right time to build a brand is when you don’t need it. So if you are considering a career move – switching jobs internally or externally anytime in the near future – now is the time to start building your personal brand!

7. Be Macro-Optimistic

I first came across this phrase in Stripe's operating principles, but Saanvi demonstrated this for me long before I found the words to describe it.

Here are Saanvi's photos of learning ballet over the years. She had many hard challenges but always kept at it and believed in the long-term goal. She completed the program all the way up to pre-professional level!

Watching her persist through difficult ballet positions, frustrating recital preparations, and physical challenges taught me about sustained optimism in engineering leadership.

I was micro-pessimistic AND macro-pessimistic. When projects hit roadblocks, I'd assume the worst about timelines, team capabilities, and business outcomes. This negative energy was contagious and became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Saanvi's ballet journey showed me a different way: acknowledge the immediate challenges while maintaining confidence in the long-term outcome.

Now I practice the “Yes, AND” framing regularly:

• "Yes this week is going to be tough, AND we have the right people and plan to succeed."

• "Yes, this bug is frustrating, AND remember how well we handled the last such customer issue."

• "Yes, the feedback from stakeholders is hard to hear, AND it's making our product better."

8. Don't Be Afraid of Change

After finishing the pre-professional level of ballet, Saanvi told us she'd like to stop because she didn't want to get into professional ballet. She liked it recreationally but did not feel she was ready to commit 3-4 days a week of practice.

She also wanted the time to explore other activities like team sports and generally wanted some more weekly free time without any structured activity.

I was impressed at how well she knew her needs, how she was ready to stand up for them and most importantly how brave she was to give up something she had done for years and try something new!

This was also around the time I was considering changing my job after 15 years at Google, and this conversation made her my role model!

Watching an 8-year-old confidently pivot from something she'd invested years in gave me permission to question my own assumptions about career paths. I had been staying in my job at the time partly because of sunk cost fallacy – "I've invested so much time here, I can't leave now."

Saanvi's clarity about her priorities helped me get clear about mine. I wanted to experience building technology at a different scale, work more directly with customers, and take on broader leadership challenges.

For mid-career ICs: Don't let expertise in your current role become a prison. Your skills are more transferable than you think. If you're feeling stagnant, that's data, not failure.

9. Messes Can Always Be Cleaned Up

I hate disorganization and mess. Just like most kids her age, Saanvi periodically made a lot of mess. Sometimes while playing, sometimes while eating, sometimes because she had not learned to be tidy.

My learning from helping her clean up the messes was just that – messes can always be cleaned up!

At work this shifted my perspective completely.

I started taking on more messy problems because I knew they could be better. I stopped being afraid of running towards messy problems. This accelerated my career trajectory a lot!

Running towards problems is also the first principle of Intrapreneurship that I have written a lot about and deeply emphasize in my course.

10. Joie de Vivre

This phrase truly captures the bright and resilient nature that Saanvi personifies! Her ability to always be cheerful in difficult circumstances, her smile even in boring situations, and her enthusiasm even during hard times has been the biggest learning for me.

I get grumpy too easily and lose patience too quickly. One day, when I grow up, I hope to become like Saanvi!

But here's what I've learned about bringing more joy to engineering leadership — Joy isn't about forced positivity or ignoring real problems. It's about finding genuine moments of delight and celebration in the work we do together.

Most importantly, finding joy at work builds your network and helps you collectively weather tough times.

So take the time to connect with colleagues who energize you. Use that break between meetings to go on a small but refreshing walk. And make sure to do at least a little bit of the type of work that energizes you everyday!

ChaiTime readers who are parents — I’d love to hear from you about a lesson your child has taught you! Drop me an email reply or leave a comment!

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If you follow me on LinkedIn or have taken my course, you’d have heard me talk about Intrapreneurship - a style of leadership that I encourage big/mid-tech ICs to embrace. In this series, ChaiTime periodically hosts Intrapreneurs to talk about various aspects of their journey.

Today, my guest is Richa Gupta. Richa is a senior engineer at Google and regularly posts excellent perspectives and tips on LinkedIn related to interviewing and growth in big tech companies. Follow her if you are actively seeking opportunities in these companies!

Richa is an alumni of my course and she first shared her Side Quest success story in one of our live sessions during the course. It was so inspiring that I requested her to share it here on ChaiTime as well! So over to Richa to share how a side quest got her promoted!

Have you ever noticed something broken in your organization—a process, a tool, a knowledge gap—and thought, “Someone should really fix that”? We’ve all been there. But what happens when you decide that someone is you?

The Uncharted Path: When a Waiting List Becomes an Opportunity

It all started for me with a waiting list, but it ended up transforming my career trajectory.

Our industry was being reshaped by a tidal wave of AI, ML, and LLMs. As a ML engineer, I found myself in the eye of this storm. The demand for AI literacy was skyrocketing, and Google offered world-class internal crash courses in Machine Learning – true goldmines of knowledge. However, in our APAC region, supply was completely overwhelmed by demand. Talented, eager colleagues were stuck on endless waiting lists, seeing upskilling opportunities disappear as soon as they arose.

This wasn't my assigned problem to solve. It wasn't on my list of goals or key results. But watching our collective ability to innovate get throttled was a problem I couldn't ignore. I decided to embark on a "side quest."

From Observation to Ownership: The Quest Begins

My first step was to prove the need was real. I launched a detailed survey, not just asking if people wanted training, but what specific ML topics would supercharge their work. The response was overwhelming and gave me a crystal-clear mandate.

Armed with this data, I became a community builder. I reached into my network and found a coalition of the willing—fellow ML experts who shared my passion for teaching. Tapping into that classic Google spirit of collaboration, we decided to build our own solution.

Together, we planned and facilitated a full-fledged ML crash course tailored specifically for our organization. The experience was exhilarating. Seeing the "aha!" moments light up my colleagues' faces and facilitating vibrant discussions was its own reward. Afterwards, I kept the momentum going with recap emails, curated resources, and feedback surveys to make the next one even better.

Scaling the Impact: Beyond Engineers to Empowering Leaders

The success of that first course was thrilling, but I soon realized we had only solved part of the equation. For innovation to truly flourish, managers and leaders needed to speak the language of ML. They were the ones who approved projects, allocated resources, and set strategic direction. They needed to understand the potential and limitations of AI to effectively lead their teams into the future.

This realization sparked the next phase of my side quest. I began facilitating a new set of courses: "ML for Managers and Leaders." These weren't just watered-down technical trainings; they were strategic sessions focused on team-building, project evaluation, and fostering an innovative culture around AI.

The impact was immediate and spread quickly. Word got out, and soon, requests were coming in from other organizations across Google. What started as a small initiative for my own team grew into a cross-organizational effort. I found myself facilitating these sessions for numerous teams, dramatically expanding my network and visibility far beyond my day-to-day role.

The Unforeseen Payoff: Career Momentum When It Mattered Most

Then came the plot twist: a major re-organization.

Just as my promotion packet was being submitted, my manager and reporting line changed. Though my previous and current managers strongly supported me, a new manager who was unfamiliar with my work now had to champion my case to a committee of executives from an organization I had only just formally joined. It was a scenario that, despite strong direct support, could still stall any career.

But my side quest had given me a powerful, unforeseen advantage.

As my case was presented, it turned out that several key members of that promotion committee had personally seen the impact of the ML training. They had either attended a leadership session themselves or had managers on their teams who had. My name wasn't just a line item in a promotion packet; it was connected to a high-impact initiative they already knew and valued. This pre-existing goodwill, this reputation I had built, completely smoothed my path.

The Side Quest Blueprint: Lessons for Your Own Career

This journey reinforced several invaluable lessons that have become my personal career blueprint:

1. Lead Through Action, Not Title: You don't need formal authority to make a difference. Identifying a pressing need and rallying people to solve it is the most authentic form of leadership.

2. Solve the Problems You See, Not Just the Ones You're Given: The most impactful work often lies just outside your defined responsibilities. Demonstrating that you see the bigger picture is a hallmark of a true owner.

3. Attract Powerful Sponsors by Delivering Strategic Value: I didn't have to seek out sponsors; the project brought them to me. When you train managers and directors, you aren't just sharing knowledge; you're demonstrating your strategic value directly to the people who make sponsorship and promotion decisions. They become your champions because they've seen your impact firsthand.

4. Build Your Network Through Generosity: My network grew not because I was asking for something, but because we were collectively giving something of value. This creates robust, trust-based relationships that are far more powerful than transactional connections.

5. Visibility is Gold, and Reputation is Your Unseen Advocate: The positive reputation I built acted as my advocate when I needed it most. It provided a layer of resilience during a challenging career transition and spoke for me in rooms I wasn't even in.

Conclusion: Find Your Uncharted Path

Side quests can feel like extra work, but they’re often the most direct route to deep learning, broad impact, and career acceleration. Look around: what bottleneck or unmet need exists in your context? That “waiting list” might be your gateway to making a difference—and to being recognized for it. Start small, validate quickly, rally collaborators, and share results widely. Your next great adventure—and the growth that follows—may be hiding just beyond your job description.

Is It Time for Your Side Quest? A Quick Checklist

• Do you repeatedly hear colleagues complain about the same roadblock?

• Is there a skill gap on your team that everyone acknowledges but no one is addressing?

• Have you identified a broken process that you have a clear idea on how to fix?

• Are you passionate about a topic that could benefit others?

If you answered "yes" to any of these, you might have found your opportunity.

"Your biggest career opportunities often lie in solving the problems that aren't officially your job. Find a gap, gather allies, and build something. The impact will follow.

Richa - thanks for sharing your thoughts on how to find high-impact good ideas!

Readers - if you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow Richa on LinkedIn for more such thoughtful posts. Here is my article on Side Quests as well to encourage you to think of them as a career growth tool.

Lastly, here is Richa’s review of my course. If you are looking to understand and use more such career catalysts in your career growth, enroll for the upcoming cohort soon!

Why do so many careers stall or regress especially at senior levels?

Asking as a skill

I grew up in India which has a “guess culture”. Many Asian cultures are “guess cultures”. In such a culture you are expected to anticipate and guess others needs instead of making explicit asks. In fact you are encouraged to only ask for something when you are fairly certain the answer will be a Yes. It's considered rude to put someone in a position where they have to say no to you.

Corporate culture however is a “ask culture”. If you don’t ask for what you need, you may never even be considered for it. In fact, asking repeatedly and asking for seemingly big and unreasonable things is expected. Just as a No is a perfectly acceptable answer, no hard feelings either way.

If you are from a “guess culture”, you probably find it difficult to ask for what you need. You may also find it harder to get past a No.

But here is the thing — Asking is a learnable skill. And like any skill, you get better with practice.

This was my motivation behind creating the “21 days of asking” series. Over the past 21+ days, we've practiced asking for many things.

Let’s dive into a recap of the different categories of asks!

This article is best viewed on the website. If you are reading this in your email inbox, head here to read it as intended with links to the different asking posts.

1. Professional Development & Learning

2. Leadership & Growth Opportunities

3. Strategic Moves for Career Advancement

4. Project & Resource Management

5. Work-Life Balance

This post is intended to be a reference post. I hope you will bookmark and revisit here periodically when you need help making asks. In addition, if you haven’t already, I’d love to have you as a ChaiTime subscriber for more such content!

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This shows you care about their development and helps you understand how you might fit into their future.

When Carlos Arguelles asked me this question during his second week at Google, it surprised me. But getting a report’s perspective on my career growth was extremely valuable over the years we worked together and beyond. We stay in touch even today as sounding boards for each other’s careers!

𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Choose a relaxed moment - maybe during a walk or at the end of a productive 1:1 when the conversation feels natural.

𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: "I'd love to understand your career goals and how I can support them. What are you hoping to achieve in the next year or two? Are there ways I can help you get there?"

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Shows you think beyond just your own development
✔ Demonstrates emotional intelligence and relationship building
✔ Positions you as a strategic partner, not just a report
✔ Creates opportunities for deeper collaboration

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹:
• Upcoming opportunities you could be part of
• Skills they value and want to develop in their team
• Changes in team structure or focus
• How to position yourself for future growth

𝗕𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁: Some managers will share immediately, others need time to trust you with their aspirations. Don't push if they're not ready to open up.

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵: If they share specific goals, look for concrete ways to support them. This builds the kind of loyalty that leads to career opportunities.

𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗽: When managers feel genuinely supported by their team, they're more likely to invest in their team members' growth.

Helping your manager grow often leads to more growth for you.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

This flips the typical dynamic and shows you're thinking strategically about their success.

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "I've been thinking about your priorities and challenges. Is there anything I could help you with or take off your plate? I'd love to find ways to support your goals."

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Shows you understand that your success is tied to theirs
✔ Demonstrates leadership potential and service mindset
✔ Reveals stretch opportunities they might not think to offer
✔ Builds trust and deeper working relationship

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿: Managers often have projects they'd love help with but don't know how to delegate effectively. Your offer gives them permission to share real challenges.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝗽: Be specific about what you can realistically take on and deliver excellent results.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁: Keep asking consistently. It takes time to build this level of trust.
The bonus? This conversation naturally leads to better understanding of business priorities, exposure to higher-level work, and positioning yourself as indispensable to your manager's success.

Make their job easier and yours might get a lot more interesting.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

This could be a diversity council, architecture review board, hiring committee, or any group that brings together people from different parts of the company.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘀𝗸: "I'm interested in getting more involved in [specific area - diversity initiatives, technical architecture, hiring, etc.]. Are there any committees or cross-functional teams I could join? I'd love to contribute my perspective and learn more about how these decisions get made."

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿:
• Visibility with senior leadership
• Understanding of business operations
• Networking across different functions
• Experience with organizational decision-making

Choose committees that align with your interests and career goals. Be prepared to actually contribute - these roles come with real responsibility.

This is how you go from knowing your job to knowing the business.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

When our Media Quality lab started seeing increased demand, Denis Tosic raised the request to me for a contractor to manage the lab systems. This investment helped us keep up with the lab operations while letting the team focus on other features and improvements.

𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁: "We have an opportunity to [specific outcome] but we're capacity-constrained on [specific skill/work]. I'd like to explore hiring a contractor for [duration] to help with [specific scope]. I estimate it would cost [amount] and deliver [specific value]."

𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹:
• Specific scope of work and timeline
• Required skills and estimated cost
• How you'll manage and integrate the contractor
• Expected deliverables and success metrics

This ask shows you're thinking about resource management and creative problem-solving. Many managers appreciate when team members identify solutions to capacity problems rather than just complaining about being busy.

Even if the answer is no, you’ve shown initiative and business acumen. Leaders remember that.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "I know your team has a full roadmap, but I wanted to discuss prioritizing [specific work] because [specific business reasons]. This would unblock [specific outcomes] and I think the ROI justifies moving it up in the queue."

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Leads with business impact, not personal preferences
✔ Shows you understand competing priorities
✔ Demonstrates strategic thinking about outcomes
✔ Positions you as someone who thinks beyond your own work

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵:
• Clear business justification and metrics
• Impact on multiple teams or customer experience
• What you're willing to contribute to make it happen
• Timeline flexibility if needed

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲: You've proven you can influence cross-team priorities and think strategically about business needs.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Ask what would make it more compelling or how to phase the work differently.

The best ideas don’t always come from the top but they do need a clear pitch to rise to the top.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: when you speak externally, you're showcasing their work, their culture, and their expertise to potential customers, partners, and future hires. It's a win-win that most people never think to propose.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵: "I'd like to explore speaking opportunities about [relevant topic]. I think sharing our experience with [technology/process/challenge] would be valuable to the community and also raise [company]'s profile. Would the company support me in finding and preparing for speaking opportunities?"

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Builds the company's brand and thought leadership
✔ Creates networking opportunities for potential partnerships
✔ Showcases company expertise to customers and talent
✔ Provides free marketing and industry visibility

𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀:
▶️ Start small - propose a local meetup or industry panel.
▶️ Use any company support you can get for - proposal writing help, slide preparation, travel costs, even media training.
▶️ Focus on unique challenges or solutions your company has developed. That's the content that conference organizers and audiences actually want to hear.

Everyone wins when you speak externally. You grow your personal brand. The company gains visibility. And the community learns something useful.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

This isn’t just about being helpful. It’s about building influence, relationships, and org-wide impact.

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "I've been working with [system/process/area] and noticed you're dealing with [specific issue/opportunity]. I'd love to contribute to a solution if your team is open to collaboration. I have experience with [specific approach] and would be happy to help with implementation."

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Leads with solving their specific business problem
✔ Shows you understand their challenges and constraints
✔ Offers concrete expertise they can leverage
✔ Demonstrates initiative in breaking down silos

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻:
• Broader knowledge of how different functions operate
• Stronger relationships across the organization
• Understanding of different processes and working styles
• Visibility with leadership outside your immediate team

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱: Ask about their workflow and standards first. Integrate with their existing processes rather than disrupting them.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: Ask what future collaboration might look like or how you can stay informed about opportunities.

𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗽: Start small with clearly defined contributions. Whether you're an engineer offering code help, a PM supporting user research, or any role lending expertise - focus on specific, valuable additions.

Cross-team collaboration isn’t extra credit - it’s a smart investment in your career and your company.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

Richa Gupta turned her side quest of teaching an AI course internally into a career catalyst when it made her visible enough to get a promotion even with a major org change!

𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: "I'm working on [side project] that focuses on [relevant area]. I think this could benefit our team/company by [specific ways]. Would there be any way to get support - whether that's time, resources, or just visibility within the company?"

𝗦𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵:
✅ Building your expertise in relevant areas
✅ Raising the company's profile in the community
✅ Attracting talent who share similar interests
✅ Developing skills you bring back to work

Be clear about the value and what kind of support you need. Companies often sponsor conference talks, support open source projects, or give time for initiatives tied to their mission.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿.

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Loveena Sharma sought such feedback when she was leading the GMail developer productivity team. It helped her supercharge her own communication and collaboration skills leading to impactful project landings and strong peer support!

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "I'm working on developing my [specific skill area] and would really value your perspective since you have strong expertise in [relevant area]. Would you be willing to give me some honest feedback about [specific area]? I'm looking for actionable insights to improve."

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Leads with respecting their expertise and experience
✔ Shows you value their professional opinion
✔ Demonstrates commitment to continuous improvement
✔ Builds stronger cross-team relationships

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹:
• Comes from someone doing similar day-to-day work
• More specific and immediately applicable
• Often more candid than formal reviews
• Creates mutual learning opportunities

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲: Be specific about what feedback you want and create a safe space for honest input. Follow up on how you're implementing their suggestions.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁: Suggest a smaller scope or offer to reciprocate with feedback in their area of growth.

𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗽: This positions you as someone who actively seeks growth and values others' expertise - qualities that make you a stronger collaborator and team member.

When you ask for feedback from peers, you’re not just leveling up your skills, you’re making your invisible growth 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

Whether it’s a project you led, a new process you introduced, or lessons learned from a tough challenge, your insights can help others and grow your influence.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘀𝗸: "I'd love to share our learnings from [project/initiative] at the next all-hands. I think the team would benefit from hearing about [specific insights/tools/processes], and it would be great practice for my communication skills."

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:
• Builds your internal brand and visibility
• Demonstrates your ability to communicate complex topics
• Shows you're thinking about knowledge sharing
• Gives you practice with executive communication

Choose a topic you're genuinely excited about and that provides value to the audience. Prepare for questions and practice beforehand.

Even a 10-minute presentation can significantly raise your profile within the organization!

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

When I was managing 20+ directs, Shadi Khalek, PhD raised his hand for this. The pseudo-management turned into a real management opportunity for him which led to multiple promotions to senior manager.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵: "I'm interested in developing management skills and would love to take on some management tasks to help the team and grow my capabilities. Could I help with [specific activities like day-to-day coordination for junior members, team reporting, or organizing team events]? You'd still make all the final decisions, but this would give me great experience."

𝗦𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲:
• Managing daily activities and check-ins for junior team members
• Handling team reporting, metrics, and status updates
• Organizing team morale events and social activities
• Coordinating cross-team communications
• Leading team retrospectives or planning sessions

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲: "This would help me develop skills in delegation, communication, and team coordination. I'd also learn how to balance individual needs with team goals, which I think would make me more effective in any future role."

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝗻-𝘄𝗶𝗻 - your manager gets help with time-consuming tasks, and you get hands-on experience with management responsibilities.

𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆. Even if you decide people management isn’t for you, these skills make you a stronger IC and a more trusted teammate.

Leadership starts before the title. You just have to ask.

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When you surface timeline risks early, you're protecting stakeholder expectations and giving leadership time to make informed decisions.

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "Based on what we've learned during development, I think we need to revisit our timeline for [project]. I've identified [specific risks/blockers] that will likely impact our original date. Can we discuss adjusting the timeline to [new date] or reducing scope to hit the original deadline?"

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Leads with protecting project success and quality
✔ Shows proactive risk management
✔ Demonstrates technical judgment
✔ Gives stakeholders options instead of surprises

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:
• Extended timeline with realistic estimates
• Reduced scope to meet original deadline
• Additional resources to maintain timeline
• Clear trade-offs for each option

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲: You've built trust in your technical judgment and project management skills.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Present the specific risks and their impact. Data beats optimism in these conversations.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Stakeholders appreciate early visibility over last-minute surprises. It shows you're thinking strategically about delivery and sustainability.

𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗽: This positions you as someone who takes ownership of outcomes, not just tasks. Leadership notices when you protect project success proactively.
Early escalation is leadership in action - you're managing up to ensure better business outcomes.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career

When you volunteer for interim leadership, you're solving a real business problem while positioning yourself for future opportunities. Andy Hsu did just that when his manager was out on a rotation. That interim role turned into a permanent one and a major step up in his career.

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "I know you'll need coverage while you're out. I'd be happy to step in as interim lead to make sure the team stays on track and nothing falls through the cracks. This would also be valuable leadership experience for me. Would that work for you?"

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱: "I want to make sure our team has the support it needs during this transition. I'm ready to step up as interim lead if that would be helpful. What would be most useful for covering the critical responsibilities?"

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Solves a real business need
✔ Signals leadership readiness
✔ Shows initiative and ownership
✔ Makes your impact visible

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻:
• Strategic decision-making experience
• Cross-team coordination skills
• Priority and resource management
• Mentoring and team guidance practice

𝗜𝗳 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝘆𝗲𝘀: Be specific about timeline and expectations. Ask for regular check-ins to get feedback on your performance.

𝗜𝗳 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘁: Ask what you'd need to develop first, or suggest supporting in a more limited capacity.

𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗽: Even a few weeks of interim leadership gives you concrete examples for promotion conversations and helps you understand what aspects of leadership you want to pursue.

With this kind of proactive career charting you're providing value while testing your leadership readiness.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career