As an engineering leader, I can assure you that 10X engineers most certainly exist. I have seen them at play in the wild... (software and mechanical)
Step back from the tactical metrics and take a strategic view of an individual's contribution to team performance:
- % of major tasks completed within agreed-upon dates?
- # of emergency patches / roll-backs due to their code?
- # hours of management time needed for briefing & QA?
- % likelihood of exceeding expectations on design tasks
- % likelihood of expediting a major change successfully
- Support hours required for their code (zero is ideal)
- # team hours lost from dealing with random BS / drama
Look at your engineers; you will definitely see outliers. There will be an 80 / 20 in terms of who you should be watching and a handful that you need to let roam free...
Step back from the tactical metrics and take a strategic view of an individual's contribution to team performance:
- % of major tasks completed within agreed-upon dates?
- # of emergency patches / roll-backs due to their code?
- # hours of management time needed for briefing & QA?
- % likelihood of exceeding expectations on design tasks
- % likelihood of expediting a major change successfully
- Support hours required for their code (zero is ideal)
- # team hours lost from dealing with random BS / drama
Look at your engineers; you will definitely see outliers. There will be an 80 / 20 in terms of who you should be watching and a handful that you need to let roam free...