Balancing Business Value: Motivating Engineers Through Meaningful Impact

Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a panel where we tackled a topic that resonates deeply with me: business value and how to keep engineers motivated by connecting their work to impact. The conversation sparked so many insights that I wanted to share some key takeaways here. (Panel link below!)

The Challenge: Connecting Work to Business Value

🐉 Dragons aren’t just protectors of treasure; they are also architects of balance, guarding their hoards while ensuring their lairs thrive. Similarly, every team, including backend teams like logistics and warehouse systems, plays a role in maintaining and building the “hoard” of business value.

It’s easy for these teams to feel far removed from the treasure chest of business value. But the truth is, every initiative, whether it’s compliance updates, migrating technology, or streamlining processes, can and should be translated into business value.

The key is recognizing that business value is like a dragon’s hoard; it’s multifaceted. It’s not just about shiny gold (commercial value) but also includes the strength of the lair (efficiency value), loyalty of the realm (customer value), realm newcomers from other lands(market value), and preparation for future quests (future value). The challenge is balancing these treasures without sacrificing one for the other.

Examples of Balancing Business Value

1. Commercial Value vs. Customer Value

Scenario: A premium-tier feature boosts revenue (commercial value) but introduces paywalls that frustrate long-time users (reducing customer value).

Balance: Adjust the paywall design to ensure core functionality remains accessible while reserving exclusive perks for premium users. This approach respects both revenue goals and user satisfaction.

2. Efficiency Value vs. Future Value

Scenario: Automating manual workflows saves hours of effort (efficiency value), but the chosen tech stack lacks scalability, creating future technical debt (hurting future value).

Balance: Deliver short-term automation benefits while reserving resources for building a more scalable solution over time.

3. Customer Value vs. Efficiency Value

Scenario: A logistics team focuses on addressing critical C-3 vulnerabilities to meet compliance standards and protect customer data (customer value). However, this pulls resources from automation projects that could save time and reduce costs (efficiency value).

Balance: Prioritize the most urgent vulnerabilities while maintaining some capacity for smaller efficiency gains. Communicate how compliance work prevents legal risks and protects the company’s reputation, making it a long-term investment.

Backend Teams Are the Unsung Dragons

🐲 Teams working behind the scenes, like logistics, warehouse, or infrastructure, might feel like they’re guarding a hidden cave, far from the treasure chest of business value. But their work is the backbone of everything else:

💚 Optimizing inventory systems ensures products are always available for customers (customer value).

💚 Streamlining delivery processes lowers costs and boosts profits (efficiency and commercial value).

💚 Migrating systems to modern tech stacks prepares the business for future growth (future value).

Leaders must actively translate these initiatives into business outcomes, making the connection clear and meaningful to the teams creating them.

The Role of Leaders and POs

⚔️ Like a wise dragon guiding its realm, leaders and Product Owners ensure balance by:

❤️‍🔥 Weighing Trade-offs: Evaluating which value types to prioritize based on current needs and long-term goals.

❤️‍🔥 Aligning Teams: Helping engineers see how their work connects to impact, even when the value isn’t immediately visible.

❤️‍🔥 Communicating the “Why”: Framing technical efforts in terms of the value they create, whether it’s protecting data, improving efficiency, or delighting customers.

Dragon Wisdom 🐉

Balancing business value isn’t just a technical exercise; it’s a leadership art. By weighing trade-offs and translating impact, we inspire teams to see the purpose behind every line of code. And just like dragons guarding their treasures, backend teams ensure the hoard grows stronger with every effort.

❤️‍🔥💚🔥🔥🔥🐉

What trade-offs have you encountered between different types of value? How do you navigate these in your teams? Let’s share insights!

P.S.: Don’t forget to check out the panel discussion in the comments: it’s packed with great insights!