Enable data collection and feedback loops in your EGF

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If you have been playing along at home, you now have a brand new Engineering Growth Framework (EGF)! A well-implemented framework can transform how your team grows, develops, and understands their path within the company. It can also provide valuable insights for Engineering Managers, VPs and Heads of Engineering.

Here's a good implementation approach to ensure that your EGF works for your company, and not just your ICs. 

Levels of Implementation

There are generally three levels at which companies implement an EGF:

1. The Bare Minimum (sadly, the most common) 

The framework is added to an internal wiki and referred to sporadically, usually when performance issues arise or when there’s confusion about promotion paths. Unfortunately, this approach can lead to inconsistencies and increased subjectivity in managing performance. It generally won't help you achieve what you had hoped to, when defining your measures of success. 

2. Individual Implementation

Each Individual Contributor (IC) completes a self-assessment of how they contribute against the EGF, ideally with help and support from their manager. This occurs just before the performance cycle kicks off, and then feeds into the Performance Review. It is a great tool to ensure the Engineering Manager and IC are on the same page, and expectations are clear. What it does lack, however, is the ability to collect data about skill gaps and strengths at individual, team, and company levels.

3. Company Implementation with Data Collection!

As well as the self-assessment, this implementation includes a data collection mechanism, such as a form or survey. The IC fills this out along with their manager, providing visibility into team and company-level competency strengths and gaps, which informs Learning & Development (L&D) and workforce planning.

Steps for Effective Usage

It is important to integrate the use of your EGF into existing performance cycles of the company. This should complement existing processes: not aim to replace or work adjacent to them. Here is an example of what the process could look like:

Step 1: Self-Assessment 

ICs perform a self-assessment using a templated spreadsheet that allows them to measure their contributions against the framework. This would form the basis of performance and growth conversations with their manager. 

Step 2: Manager Collaboration 

ICs then work with their manager to agree on their contribution level of each skill or competency, and enter it into a survey-style form or another data collection mechanism.

Step 3: Performance Reviews

The IC and Engineering Manager use the collected information as the basis for the Performance Review that gets entered into the HR system. 

Step 4: Individual Development Plans

Now that the IC and Engineering Manager have identified gaps and strengths, they co-create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) that aligns business goals with personal objectives, and helps the person to be effective in their role and grow their career. 

What you can do with your data

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The data collected from your EGF is going to help you identify skill gaps and strengths across teams so L&D initiatives can be targeted to address the most critical areas for development. For example, if a trend shows that many engineers lack advanced knowledge in Security practices, targeted workshops or courses can be organized to uplift the team’s competencies in this essential area. 

This Data also informs workforce planning and talent management. Engineering Managers, VPs, and Heads of Engineering can use the insights to plan team compositions that align with upcoming project needs or business goals. Understanding which teams or individuals possess strong skills in certain technologies can guide decisions about project assignments or even influence hiring priorities to balance out skill distributions.

Finally, the visibility into individual and team competencies helps promote a culture of transparency and continuous improvement within the engineering department. It encourages open discussions about career progression, helping individuals understand exactly where they stand and what they need to work on to reach the next level in their career path. This clarity can enhance job satisfaction and reduce turnover, as team members see a clear, attainable path for advancement supported by their managers and the broader organization. 

It will also help you find any pockets of unconscious bias in your promotion pathways, which is something that most tech organizations suffer from. You will have objective data to compare contributions of everyone, and discover talent in potentially quieter or overlooked individuals. 

Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement

We are Systems Thinkers and love a good feedback loop! Incorporating feedback loops into your EGF process is crucial for ensuring its continuous improvement and relevance. Treat your EGP as a product, and regularly collect feedback from users (both managers and individual contributors) to help identify aspects of the framework that are working well and areas that may need refinement. This feedback should be systematically collected and reviewed after each performance cycle to inform updates and adjustments for the next cycle. 

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By embedding this iterative process, your organization can adapt more dynamically to changing industry trends, internal growth, and the evolving needs of your team, ensuring the EGF remains a robust and effective tool for engineering development.

Other posts in this series:

Part 1: Getting started with your EGF, and defining your measure of success

Part 2: Engage the right stakeholders

Part 3: Create a structure for your EGF

Part 4: Write the content collaboratively

Part 5: Roll out with robust change management practices 

BONUS: Enable data collection and feedback loops

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