I’ve worked with plenty of talented devs who could debug gnarly logic, optimize slow queries, and write clever abstractions—but struggled to see why their work mattered beyond the next ticket.
Early in my leadership journey, I assumed it was enough to just assign tasks and let people do their thing. After all, I trusted the team. But over time, I realized something was missing. People were shipping code, but they weren’t invested. They didn’t feel like owners. They were solving technical puzzles, not business problems.
And that’s when it hit me: we were shipping features without context.
Why Context Matters
When people understand the why behind their work—how it connects to customers, revenue, or product direction—they make better decisions. They also care more. They ask smarter questions. They challenge assumptions. They propose better solutions.
Without that context, even the best engineers become task robots.
What Helped Me Turn the Corner
It wasn’t a grand strategy. Just a shift in how I communicate:
- Start with the goal. Every task or project starts with a short narrative: what we’re doing, who it helps, and why it matters now. This isn’t just for PMs—it’s for everyone.
- Connect to user impact. Even a backend caching change can be tied to how fast a user sees search results. Engineers light up when they realize they’re shaping experience, not just writing code.
- Regularly share progress at the business level. Not just burndown/burnup charts. Share “what this release unlocked” for the team or customer. Celebrate not just commits, but outcomes.
Seeing the Shift
Once you start being more intentional with sharing context, you’ll see something surprising: junior devs will begin asking product-level questions. QA will start offering UX feedback. Engineers will volunteer to talk directly with users (or maybe not, but hey… who knows). It’s not because you asked them to—it’s because they care.
Giving people the bigger picture doesn’t dilute focus. It deepens it.
Devs Want Purpose, Not Just Process
We underestimate how hungry smart people are for purpose. When all they see are feature requests and sprint boards, they can lose sight of why they got into tech in the first place: to build things that matter.
Helping your team see the bigger picture is a leadership multiplier. You won’t just ship features—you’ll grow people. And in my book, that’s the better metric.