From Geek to Star #9 - The Business-Savvy Engineer

If you missed the previous episodes, you can access them online here.

🗓️ This Week – Episode 9: Industry knowledge to become a driver to your business

🧠 Engineers Who Drive Business

When you hear “engineer,” you may think: problem-solver, builder, optimizer.

But here’s a question: does your work just support the business, or can it drive it?

In too many companies, the business leads and tech follows. Business stakeholders throw over requirements, tech executes. That’s the norm. But in forward-thinking organizations, tech doesn’t just serve, it shapes direction. And engineers aren’t just implementers, they’re partners.

💡 Imagine this:

• At Amazon, engineers know their customer metrics better than anyone else. Prime, AWS, the recommendation engine: all born from engineering teams deeply immersed in business context. There, as CEO Andy Jassy quotes, "Builders are not limited to technical people”, showing the importance of technical people in building the business.
  

• At Booking.com, experimentation and A/B testing are core to both business and tech cultures. Engineers there don’t wait to be told what to build, they bring the ideas backed by data.
  

• At Stripe, engineers are empowered to meet directly with users (other developers and businesses), identify pain points, and shape the product roadmap.

These are places where engineers speak the language of the business – and are heard because of it. This may not be the culture and the dynamic in your company (yet). But this should not deter you from starting to have this posture individually, at your own level. That's how you will start to be noticed as “not just a technical person”

🎙️ Do You Know Your Industry? The Elevator Test

Let’s make it practical.

You meet someone at a dinner, or you’re stuck in a lift with a curious executive working somewhere else. They ask:

“So, what’s unique about your company’s business model and make it challenging?”

Can you answer in a clear, compelling, jargon-free way?

Here’s mine, based on a position I had in hospitality as Chief Technology Architect::

In hospitality, major hotel groups like Accor, Hilton, and Marriott don’t usually own hotels – they operate them on behalf of owners. So the business is B2B2C: we must attract guests (B2C), but also serve hotel owners (B2B) who are the ones actually paying us. The competitive edge lies in strong brands (with strong marketing) and loyalty programs, which drive bookings. Tech, therefore, must deliver both world-class guest experiences specific to B2C and efficient and integrated operations for hoteliers on the B2B side - while the world of hospitality is poorly standardized and quite specific across geographies. A main challenge is that we need to convince dozens of different owners to align with new initiatives when they touch the thousands of hotels in our network, which can affect the time to rollout and therefore business impact expected.

Now your turn. Can you explain your industry model and its challenges in one minute?

🛠 3 Ways to Start Growing your Business Awareness Today

1️⃣ Talk Beyond Tech

Say hello in your workplace to a colleague in marketing, finance, operations - not a tech colleague. Have some casual chit chat such as:

• What are you currently focusing on?
  

• What’s one big challenge your team is facing this quarter?

Do this regularly, just casual conversations of 5-10 min at the desk, around a coffee/tea… but do it regularly. Ask yourself “What’s one thing I didn’t know about their role?” after each conversation. It turns this small talk into micro-learning.

You will be amazed to see how much business understanding and perspective you start to have at some point.

2️⃣ Lunch Outside the Tech Bubble

Set up casual lunches with someone outside your team. No agenda. Just curiosity. You’ll be surprised again how much you learn – and how much they appreciate it. It will also be a good opportunity to shed light on your work as well. 

3️⃣ Attend That Townhall

Don’t skip business all-hands or townhalls. Take notes. Look up terms you don’t understand. Then ask someone, starting with your manager: What did they mean by “net revenue retention”? You’ll quickly close the knowledge gap.

🔍 Why This Matters

If you want to grow your impact, your ideas must resonate with decision-makers. And they speak the language of business.

When you understand your industry deeply:

• You suggest better ideas
  

• You ask smarter questions
  

• You gain credibility faster

That’s what separates engineers who are just good from those who are irreplaceable.

📌 Reflection

What’s your elevator pitch for your company’s business model?

Hit reply and share – I’d love to hear how you’d explain it. I read every note.

Also, follow me on LinkedIn for behind-the-scenes reflections between newsletters.

✨ Stay curious, stay connected!

From Geek to Star by Khang | The Way Forward