Own A Graph

"If you are a senior engineer or PM or designer, you should own a graph. One of the quickest ways to get better at your job is to own a graph. There are many ways to do work that don't matter and there are many ways to do work that matters but fail to articulate that value well. Owning a graph solves both of these problems."

"They might say something like "I reduced pages by 15%." If you send that to your leadership, good leaders will immediately have 20 followup questions. 15% from what to what? Over what time period? Did it happen all at once or steadily? Was it already declining or did your actions clearly impact it? Graphs show all of this information right away. You see scale, history, volatility."

Senior engineers, product managers, and designers should own at least one operational graph that demonstrates multi-quarter impact. Graph ownership surfaces high-leverage problems such as reducing pages, improving performance, saving money, driving revenue, and reducing churn. Graphs make impact visible by showing scale, history, and volatility, and they remove ambiguity that prose often creates. Leaders can quickly assess context and ask focused questions when presented with data-linked graphs. Graphs enable concise communication, easier feedback, and better prioritization by revealing whether the work is producing meaningful results over time.

Read at Stay SaaSy