6 Lessons I learned while implementing technical RFCs as a decision making tool - Deepstash
Upskilling: Preparing For The Future

Learn more about career with this collection

Identifying the skills needed for the future

Developing a growth mindset

Creating a culture of continuous learning

Upskilling: Preparing For The Future

Discover 78 similar ideas in

It takes just

11 mins to read

Making decisions in a bubble = 🤬

Making decisions in a bubble = 🤬

In the process of building our apps I received a private Slack message:

Why was the data dashboard built using React if our front-end stack is based on Ember? — a not very happy front-end engineer

  • 💀 I didn’t know we had added a new tool to our stack. 😳
  • 💀 Other team members who should’ve known about it, didn’t know either.
  • 💀 Someone made an important decision on behalf of our entire team, but the team wasn’t included in it.
  • 💀 No one, including myself, appreciated the surprise.

12

98 reads

Goals of an internal RFC

Goals of an internal RFC

We needed a way to make decisions as a team that would allow us to:

  • enable individual contributors to make decisions for systems they’re responsible for
  • allow domain experts to have input in decisions when they’re not directly involved in building a particular system
  • manage the risk of decisions made
  • include team members without it becoming design by committee
  • have a snapshot of context for the future
  • be asynchronous
  • work on multiple projects in parallel

12

40 reads

Deciding when to RFC is difficult

You should write an RFC if you:

  • are building something from scratch. New endpoint, component, system, library, application, etc.
  • the need rewrite has crossed your mind
  • will impact more than one system or other team members.
  • would like to define a contract or interface between clients or systems.
  • are adding a new dependency.
  • are adding or replacing languages or tools to the stack
  • are in doubt of whether you should write one

11

27 reads

Participation in RFCs

If you see a low participation rate, you team members may be dealing with the following challenges:

  • 😵 They have too much going on.
  • 😱 They are not interested.
  • 🔨 Tools used for process management are not providing them great UX.
  • 🕰 They may need better personal time management.

11

23 reads

The newbie tag enables psychological safety

The newbie tag enables psychological safety

As a team, we agreed that any comment or proposal tagged with [newbie] indicated that its author was coming from a vulnerable place. Whether motivated by lack of expertise, context or confidence, this tag allowed for us to make mistakes while knowing we were in an environment of psychological safety , that was supportive of learning for both senior and junior members.

11

26 reads

Trust issues become more evident

We’ve found RFCs increase visibility into who is making decisions in a system and has helped managers identify situations where trust issues are preventing ICs from making decisions.

11

26 reads

CURATED BY

datsquire

Tech enthusiast, engineering leader, family guy, podcast listener, market enthusiast, binge watcher, 🍕🍕🍕 lover

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving & library

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Personalized recommendations

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates