Software Engineering, the next frontier?

Where to go next?

Since I started this newsletter I’ve internally debated whether to cover Software Engineering topics more generally. So far the focus has been engineering leadership, but what is leadership without engineers?

My main drive has been to niche down and focus on an area I feel is not readily covered, and to force myself to grow as a leader by covering only topics related to leadership whenever possible. This is why I have articles where I help you Improve Your Audio because I force myself to think: How can I be a more effective leader? How can I help others be more effective leaders? Improving your audio may not seem useful, so I felt like that one, while not huge, was a big win.

This is why my focus has been on building a course, to help new and aspiring managers. I wanted something I could give to someone who was feeling nervous/anxious about stepping into the role, and they would have everything they need to become a confident leader. Not someone who has all the answers, nobody has those, but someone who’s able to say “I don’t know the answer, but we’ll figure it out”.

But in the back of my mind is the nagging question, am I too focused? I will always cover leadership topics in this newsletter, but I feel very limited in my brand. I spend almost my entire week in 1:1s with Software Engineers, helping them grow, unblocking them, keeping them happy, etc. I do meet with other leaders, and I mentor them as well, but an order of magnitude less. The team I’m responsible for is all engineers.

I also love software engineering as a craft. Most people on LinkedIn rage against algorithms and data structures, and complain about pull requests and AI tools, but I love everything related to software. It’s something I would do full time if I had unlimited money.

So here I sit, blinking cursor staring me in the face, wondering, do I un-niche? What would that look like? Should I write multiple newsletters? Should I constrain those thoughts and ideas to YouTube instead, and keep the newsletter focused?

The sun is coming up and the kids are starting to wake up, and I don’t have an answer, but I think I need to make a change somewhere. I’ve always had a YouTube itch, so that may be where I expand my brand. For now Lead Kindly will remain a resource for leadership growth in Software Engineering. If you have any thoughts, please share them with me :)