Lessons learned on the journey from IC to VP of Engineering

What does it take to grow from an IC to a VP of engineering?

Zayna Shahzad, VP of Engineering at OneSignal, shares her insights and experiences in managing and scaling engineering teams. Her experiences highlight the importance of motivation, strong feedback mechanisms, and fostering a sense of ownership and accountability within a team. 

Finding confidence as a new leader

Early in her career as a leader, Shahzad recalls struggling with a couple of key aspects of performance management — having difficult conversations with employees and making tough decisions. 

She shared that within her first few months as a manager, she was tasked with letting someone go but didn’t feel she was equipped with the necessary skills to have such a difficult conversation — a challenge faced by many new to leadership

“It ultimately came down to setting expectations of what was reasonable and what was expected out of the responsibilities of a particular role,” Shahzad says. 

Setting these expectations — and setting them early on — became a standard of her leadership technique and a key component to managing how often difficult conversations arise. 

The goal is to avoid creating a space where employees can say they don’t know what success looks like for them or where they do things that are unaligned with what leaders would want by establishing clear expectations. Once expectations are set, leaders can move on to fostering motivation, ownership and accountability. 

“Apart from learning that expectations need to be set on day one, I also learned that you can’t really save everyone. Set your expectations, but from there, it’s on them to do their piece as there’s only so much you can do as a manager,” Shahzad says. 

Tackling decision-making and aligning goals amidst reorganization

“As we scaled up, we found we had extremely tightly coupled dependencies. There were too many people coordinating across different areas with too many different priorities, which created unalignment,” Shahzad says. 

These dependencies became too convoluted and complex and caused there to be unnecessary limitations on what could be done and where. Employees were unable to become experts in what they worked on as a result of inconsistency and a lack of depth. 

“One of the realizations I came to was every organization I had worked at previously had very vertical teams who were fully autonomous and could independently drive their own roadmaps,” says Shahzad. These teams had clear goals, clear KPIs, ownership and continuity. 

This realization was the catalyst for overall reorganization toward a vertical structure where teams could establish autonomy and begin making their own decisions.

Cultivating ownership, motivation and accountability for impactful work

Keeping morale and productivity high can be difficult, especially in times of reorganization. Shahzad found maintaining open communication during the shift to a vertical structure boosted morale and drove productivity. 

One of her preferred methods to open the line of communication between herself and her team was hosting a weekly ‘Coffee and Questions’ session where employees could submit anonymous questions or come speak with her in person. 

“They ask me all sorts of interesting and challenging questions they would have no other avenue of asking. It helps to provide perspective so they can understand how they should be incorporating that into their daily work,” Shahzad says. 

She found that hosting these sessions creates an opportunity for follow-ups regarding things that might otherwise go unnoticed and gives the space to start new conversations or have deeper discussions. 

Other ways to engage with employees and keep up morale

• Mechanisms for feedback: surveys, polls, etc. designed for people to share their feedback, concerns, or accomplishments
• Office hours: setting up a regularly designated time for open communication and giving/receiving feedback
• Regular skip levels: meetings between senior-level leaders and team members to discuss feedback and goals
• Frequently recognizing wins: giving shout outs or other recognition to employees for wins and accomplishments 

“Giving employees all these avenues to share their perspective and give feedback is incredibly vital for people to feel like what they do and say has meaning and results in outcome for the business,” says Shahzad. 

Fostering a sense of meaning in your work allows employees to take ownership and accountability for their outcomes. It makes them feel like they have an impact, which boosts morale and keeps productivity moving. 

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