Disproportionately impactful engineering teams are distinguished by effectively shipping the right work. System optimization is part of that remit, but only part of it. The larger aspect is shipping the right work, and that’s an aspect where your CEO is actually well-positioned to help you. If your CEO is in the trenches working with you on reducing your build times, then you’re in a lot of trouble (either they aren’t doing their job or they are doing their job and they think you are not doing yours). You should be optimizing the engineering organization’s operations, and should rarely need to surface those details upwards unless you want to occasionally brag (yay, we’re good at this), are asked to provide deeper context, or need to justify an investment.
What does it mean to be a cost center?
from Irrational Exuberance
