The 2 breeds of 10x engineers
Street Fighters and Martial Artists.
I have worked with 2 types of 10x engineers so far.
Martial Artists
Street fighters
Martial Artists:
They are specialists in specific problem domains like scaling backends, optimising web/app performances, improving search etc.
They take an artistic pride in their skill and pursue it for its own sake.
They usually want to be left alone with the specific problem. So, they shine in a sanitised work environment. An environment where the rest of the problem space (business, adoption etc) is abstracted away from them.
A sanitised work environment:
Like in combat sports, a sanitised work environment needs referees (managers) who keep score and reward accordingly.
There are basic ground rules (clear requirements) which the opponents (problems) are NOT allowed to break. eg: below the belt punches, (changing priorities every week) etc.
Street Fighters:
They are generalist problem solvers and have a more well rounded skill set like Fullstack engineering, product ownership, people skills etc.
They are attached to the skill to the extent that it is useful to survive ( solve a problem).
They are motivated by survival (product’s survival or company’s itself) and a reputation in a closed group.
They have a good understanding of the nearby environment and will take advantage anything that can help them.
A sanitised environment will mean limiting their advantage. They thrive in a more uncertain work environment.
An uncertain work environment:
Like in street fights, there is no one over seeing your work closely and the cost of slacking off can be fatal.
There is no guarantee of opponent sticking to the rule book (problems arising outside your domain like alignment, adoption) and they too will take a cheap shot or leverage the environment when needed (hacky implementations, launching quick v1 with ops etc).
So do you need a martial artist or street fighter ?
Ask yourself the following:
Do you have a reasonably predictable roadmap for next 6-12 months.
Do you have an effective and stable management in place which takes care of career and personal growth of the engineers.
Do you have a scaling problem or a technically challenging system to refactor or maintain.
if you have answered NO to more than 1 question above, you need a street fighter.
How to recognise them ?
Martial Artists can have demonstrable honours like belts (open source contributions, recognisable works in recognisable organisations, proud technical achievements etc. ). They may even have skill/technology name in their title with a decent work experience.
The street fighters mostly have scars and reputation in closed groups. To find them you have to talk to folks in that closed group.
Both are equally valuable and rare.
Note: Engineers can also be anywhere in the spectrum between these two types.