Gut-based engineering leadership is failing

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Picture this: You’re in the boardroom, presenting your team’s progress to executives.

A question comes up: “Why are our feature releases slowing down?”

You respond with something like, “The team has been busy handling some backend priorities.” It feels like a reasonable answer, but without specifics. It doesn’t land. The room grows quiet, and the conversation moves on, but you can tell they’re not fully convinced.

If you’ve been in this position, you’re not alone. Modern engineering is:

• Faster: Products are expected to evolve rapidly, with weekly or daily releases becoming the norm.
• More competitive: With competitors just a click away, even small delays or missteps can have significant consequences.
• More complex: Tech stacks, dependencies, and global user demands have grown exponentially, making it harder to track progress intuitively.

Many engineering leaders rely on gut feelings when explaining team performance. But in today’s world, instinct isn’t enough, especially in front of stakeholders who need clear, actionable answers.

Relying on instinct often goes unnoticed

Most engineering leaders don’t realize they’re making gut-based decisions. It doesn’t look like guesswork, it feels like common sense. You trust your experience, spot patterns, and make quick calls. That’s normal.

But today’s engineering teams and systems are complex. What worked in the past might not work now, and relying on instincts alone can lead to blind spots. Let’s look at how this happens without you even noticing.

1. Deadlines make everything seem fine

Your team hits every deadline this quarter. That feels like a win, right? But have you asked how those deadlines were met?

Sometimes, deadlines get hit because your team is working long hours, pushing rushed code, or ignoring technical debt. If you’re not tracking metrics, it’s easy to miss the bigger picture: was the delivery sustainable, or are you setting yourself up for problems later?

What to Look For:

• Are developers working after hours or on weekends to meet deadlines?
• Is the codebase becoming harder to maintain because of quick fixes?

2. Stability can mean stuck

Production is stable, bug counts are low, and incidents are almost nonexistent. Sounds great, but are you sure that stability is helping the business?

Sometimes, teams avoid taking risks to keep things stable. That might mean fewer bugs, but it could also mean fewer features being shipped or slower progress on the roadmap.

What to look for:

• How often are you shipping new features?
• Are customers seeing regular improvements, or has the team slowed down?

3. Busy doesn’t always mean productive

The team closed hundreds of tickets this sprint. That’s a good thing, right? Not necessarily. Ticket volume doesn’t always equal impact. If most of the tickets are small, low-priority tasks, the real value to the business could be minimal.

Stakeholders don’t care how many tickets you close. They care about whether the work is solving problems, driving revenue, or improving the product.

What to look for:

• Are the tasks being completed tied to business goals?
• Is the team balancing quick wins with more meaningful work?

What it costs to lead without data

When decisions are based on instinct instead of metrics, here’s what happens:

1. Lost credibility
   It’s hard to explain your decisions in the boardroom without data. Even if your choices are sound, they might not land well with stakeholders if you can’t back them up.
2. Drifting priorities
   Gut instinct often focuses on what feels urgent, not what’s actually important. That can lead to time and resources being spent on low-impact work.
3. Problems show up too late
   Without metrics, issues like technical debt, bottlenecks, or burnout tend to go unnoticed until they’ve already caused damage.

Gut instincts aren’t bad, they’re a valuable tool. But when it comes to leading a team, metrics are what keep you grounded and help you make better decisions. They show you what’s really happening, even when it doesn’t match what feels right.

How to win in the boardroom

When you’re in the boardroom, the stakes are high. It’s where you’re expected to explain how your team’s work is moving the business forward. And while gut instinct might guide your day-to-day decisions, it doesn’t cut it in front of stakeholders.

Metrics are your way to connect the dots showing what’s working, where things can improve, and how engineering supports the company’s goals. Here’s how to use them effectively.

1. Focus on the results, not the numbers

Stakeholders don’t want to know how many tickets your team closed last sprint or the percentage improvement in deployment frequency. What they care about is what those numbers mean for the business.

For example, instead of saying:

“We’ve improved deployment frequency from once a week to twice a week.”

Say:

“By deploying twice as often, we’re delivering customer feedback faster, which helps us stay competitive in the market.”

Always bring it back to impact; it keeps the conversation relevant to what stakeholders care about.

2. Be honest about challenges

The boardroom isn’t the place to sugarcoat problems. What matters is showing that you understand the issues and have a plan to address them.

For example, if your team is struggling to deliver features on time, you could say:

“Cycle time data shows tasks are getting stuck in code review, which is slowing us down. To fix this, we’re redistributing reviews more evenly across the team and adding automation where we can. We’re already seeing some improvement and expect review times to drop by 30% next quarter.”

This approach does two things: it shows you’re in control and builds trust because you’re being transparent.

3. Translate metrics into business terms

Metrics like lead time or PR review time might mean a lot to you, but they’re just numbers to stakeholders. Always explain them in a way that ties back to business goals.

For example:

• Instead of: “We reduced lead time by 15%”, try: “By reducing lead times, we’re delivering features faster, which helps sales close deals sooner.”

Framing metrics like this makes it easier for non-technical stakeholders to see the value of what your team is doing.

4. Don’t overlook team well-being

Yes, speed and delivery matter. But so does the health of your team. Metrics like after-hours work or sprint spillover can help you show whether the team is working sustainably.

For example:

“We’ve seen a 25% increase in after-hours work recently. While this helped us hit an important deadline, it’s not something we want to make a habit. We’re adjusting sprint commitments to keep workloads manageable.”

This signals that you’re thinking long-term and prioritizing the team’s health, which ultimately benefits the business too.

5. Use metrics to look ahead

Metrics aren’t just about tracking the past, they’re also great for planning what’s next. Use trends to show stakeholders how you’re addressing challenges or improving efficiency over time.

For instance:

“Right now, 20% of our team’s time is spent on maintenance tasks. By focusing on technical debt reduction, we aim to lower this to 10% by next quarter, freeing up more time for new feature development.”

Forecasting like this reassures stakeholders that you’re not just solving today’s problems but setting the team up for future success.

How it all comes together

To make an impact in the boardroom, metrics aren’t enough on their own. They need to tell a story. Here’s the formula:

1. Start with the business goal: Focus on the outcomes that matter to stakeholders, like faster delivery or happier customers.
2. Be clear about challenges: Share what’s slowing your team down and explain what you’re doing to fix it.
3. Translate metrics: Always connect technical metrics to business impact this makes it relatable.
4. Advocate for your team: Use data to highlight when workloads aren’t sustainable and propose adjustments.
5. Show the bigger picture: Use metrics to set expectations for future improvements.

When metrics are part of a clear story, they don’t just explain what’s happening, they show that you’re leading with confidence and clarity.

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