Will Larson – författare

Many engineers assume their organization doesn't have an engineering strategy - when in fact, they often have one. It just may not be working. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson (author of An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer) offers a practical, example-rich guide to navigating technical and organizational complexity through structured, intentional strategy.Written for senior engineers, engineering leaders, architects, and curious collaborators, this book walks through a repeatable process for building effective, actionable strategies. With lessons drawn from real-world case studies at companies like Stripe, Uber, and Calm, Larson provides a framework for shaping critical decisions around system migrations, API deprecations, platform investments, and more. Along the way, you'll learn to bridge technical planning with communication, governance, and systems thinking. Whether you're shaping your team's direction or leading a company-wide initiative, this guide will help you make thoughtful decisions that stick.Build durable engineering strategies from first principlesApply methods like Wardley mapping and systems modelingLead strategy as a staff+ engineer or executiveLearn from detailed case studies across industryImprove your strategic fluency and influence over time

As an engineering manager, you almost always have someone in your company to turn to for advice: a peer on another team, your manager, or even the head of engineering. But who do you turn to if you''re the head of engineering? Engineering executives have a challenging learning curve, and many folks excitedly start their first executive role only to leave frustrated within the first 18 months.

In this book, author Will Larson shows you ways to obtain your first executive job and quickly ramp up to meet the challenges you may not have encountered in non-executive roles: measuring engineering for both engineers and the CEO, company-scoped headcount planning, communicating successfully across a growing organization, and figuring out what people actually mean when they keep asking for a "technology strategy."

This book explains how to:

Get an engineering executive job, negotiate the contract, and onboard at your new companyRun an engineering planning process and communicate effectively with the organizationDirect the core meetings necessary to operate an effective engineering organizationHire, onboard, and run performance managementManage yourself and remain effective through many challengesLeave the job when the time is right

Will Larson was the chief technology officer at Calm and the author of An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer. He''s also a prolific writer on his blog, Irrational Exuberance.

As an engineering manager, you almost always have someone in your company to turn to for advice: a peer on another team, your manager, or even the head of engineering. But who do you turn to if you''re the head of engineering? Engineering executives have a challenging learning curve, and many folks excitedly start their first executive role only to leave frustrated within the first 18 months.

In this book, author Will Larson shows you ways to obtain your first executive job and quickly ramp up to meet the challenges you may not have encountered in non-executive roles: measuring engineering for both engineers and the CEO, company-scoped headcount planning, communicating successfully across a growing organization, and figuring out what people actually mean when they keep asking for a "technology strategy."

This book explains how to:

Get an engineering executive job, negotiate the contract, and onboard at your new companyRun an engineering planning process and communicate effectively with the organizationDirect the core meetings necessary to operate an effective engineering organizationHire, onboard, and run performance managementManage yourself and remain effective through many challengesLeave the job when the time is right

Will Larson was the chief technology officer at Calm and the author of An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer. He''s also a prolific writer on his blog, Irrational Exuberance.

As an engineering manager, you almost always have someone in your company to turn to for advice: a peer on another team, your manager, or even the head of engineering. But who do you turn to if you're the head of engineering? Engineering executives have a challenging learning curve, and many folks excitedly start their first executive role only to leave frustrated within the first 18 months.In this book, author Will Larson shows you ways to obtain your first executive job and quickly ramp up to meet the challenges you may not have encountered in non-executive roles: measuring engineering for both engineers and the CEO, company-scoped headcount planning, communicating successfully across a growing organization, and figuring out what people actually mean when they keep asking for a "technology strategy."This book explains how to:Get an engineering executive job, negotiate the contract, and onboard at your new companyRun an engineering planning process and communicate effectively with the organizationDirect the core meetings necessary to operate an effective engineering organizationHire, onboard, and run performance managementManage yourself and remain effective through many challengesLeave the job when the time is rightWill Larson was the chief technology officer at Calm and the author of An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer. He's also a prolific writer on his blog, Irrational Exuberance.

Many engineers assume their organization doesn't have an engineering strategywhen in fact, they often do. It just may not be working. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson (author of An Elegant Puzzle, Staff Engineer, and The Engineering Executive's Primer) offers a practical, example-rich guide to navigating technical and organizational complexity through structured, intentional strategy.Written for senior engineers, engineering leaders, architects, and curious collaborators, this book lays out a repeatable process for building effective, actionable strategiesfrom early diagnosis to rollout. With lessons drawn from real-world case studies at companies like Stripe, Uber, and Calm, Larson provides a framework for shaping critical decisions around system migrations, API deprecations, platform investments, and more. Along the way, you'll learn to augment technical planning with communication, governance, and systems thinking. Whether you're shaping your team's direction or leading a company-wide initiative, Crafting Engineering Strategy will help you make thoughtful decisions that stick.Build durable engineering strategies from first principlesApply methods like Wardley mapping and systems modelingLead strategy as a staff+ engineer or executiveLearn from detailed case studies across industriesImprove your strategic fluency and influence over time

Many engineers assume their organization doesn't have an engineering strategywhen in fact, they often do. It just may not be working. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson (author of An Elegant Puzzle, Staff Engineer, and The Engineering Executive's Primer) offers a practical, example-rich guide to navigating technical and organizational complexity through structured, intentional strategy.Written for senior engineers, engineering leaders, architects, and curious collaborators, this book lays out a repeatable process for building effective, actionable strategiesfrom early diagnosis to rollout. With lessons drawn from real-world case studies at companies like Stripe, Uber, and Calm, Larson provides a framework for shaping critical decisions around system migrations, API deprecations, platform investments, and more. Along the way, you'll learn to augment technical planning with communication, governance, and systems thinking. Whether you're shaping your team's direction or leading a company-wide initiative, Crafting Engineering Strategy will help you make thoughtful decisions that stick.Build durable engineering strategies from first principlesApply methods like Wardley mapping and systems modelingLead strategy as a staff+ engineer or executiveLearn from detailed case studies across industriesImprove your strategic fluency and influence over time

This is an LLM-optimized version of Crafting Engineering Strategy. Many engineers assume their organization doesn't have an engineering strategywhen in fact, they often do. It just may not be working. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson (author of An Elegant Puzzle, Staff Engineer, and The Engineering Executive's Primer) offers a practical, example-rich guide to navigating technical and organizational complexity through structured, intentional strategy. This digital companion comes with a Markdown file of the original book that's optimized for use with large language models (LLMs). It shows you how to collaborate with the LLM of your choice as you work through the book (and why you should), starting with configuring an environment.