Scope Better At Work

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/scope-better/

For a successful tech lead, there are four steps: scope better -> do better -> look better -> connect better.

Scoping work effectively is one of the hardest skills I’ve learned as a tech lead. I frame scoping around four core challenges:

1. Identifying high-leverage problems.
2. Setting boundaries and protecting focus.
3. Aligning stakeholders and expectations.
4. Align early, iterate fast.

Using LLMs To Scope Better

I use LLMs to address each core challenge efficiently:

• Challenge #1: Identifying high-leverage problems

  • LLM Use: Summarize strategy documents, leadership updates, past project data to highlight gaps or opportunities.
  • Sample Prompt: “Summarize key priorities from the last 3 leadership updates and highlight conflicts or dependencies for model serving infra.”

• Challenge #2: Aligning stakeholders & clarifying ownership

  • LLM Use: Map dependencies, trade-offs, and responsibilities across teams; highlight potential misalignments.
  • Sample Prompt: “Compare three ML infra designs and list technical and organizational trade-offs, including team dependencies and approval requirements.”

• Challenge #3: Managing execution complexity

  • LLM Use: Summarize recurring failures, generate checklists, simulate outcomes, propose mitigations.
  • Sample Prompt: “Analyze the last 3 SEVs, summarize recurring failure patterns, and suggest automated mitigation strategies.”

• Challenge #4: Scaling influence and aligning early

  • LLM Use: Draft proposals, mock scenarios, polish communications, extract repeatable lessons.
  • Sample Prompt: “Create a mock SEV scenario for IC5, highlighting operational risks. Draft a proposal showing why early alignment and iterative experiments reduce delivery risks.”

Core Challenge #1: Identifying High-Leverage Problems

• Problem: It’s easy to spend time on low-impact tasks or local optimizations.
• Bottlenecks: Difficulty assessing org-wide impact, repetitive small pain points, ambiguous opportunities.
• Principle: Focus on system-level, multi-team, or multi-user problems where my expertise creates leverage.
• How I Address It: Score candidate work by scalability, visibility, and alignment with org goals; validate assumptions early; run lightweight experiments.

Core Challenge #2: Setting Boundaries & Protecting Focus

• Problem: Workload grows faster than capacity; distractions from minor requests or low-leverage tasks.
• Bottlenecks: Social pressure, fear of missing opportunities, unclear prioritization.
• Principle: Clarify P0s, say no strategically, and avoid firefighting on unimportant tasks.
• How I Address It: Explicitly define P0s, communicate priorities, delegate or defer non-critical requests, revisit alignment quarterly.

Core Challenge #3: Aligning Stakeholders & Expectations

• Problem: Misalignment leads to wasted effort, repeated clarifications, and delays.
• Bottlenecks: Complex org structures, unclear ownership, conflicting incentives, leadership signals not fully transparent.
• Principle: Ensure everyone understands “what” and “why,” and map dependencies proactively.
• How I Address It: Use concise one-pagers, map trade-offs, preempt conflicts, tap existing leadership structures, and seek authentic feedback from stakeholders.

Core Challenge #4: Align Early, Iterate Fast

• Problem: Delays or misaligned work occur when assumptions go untested or communication is late.
• Bottlenecks: Pressure to deliver fast, unclear expectations, fragmented focus.
• Principle: Align early on assumptions and goals; iterate quickly based on feedback.
• How I Address It: Summarize assumptions in one-pagers, run lightweight experiments, seek early feedback from stakeholders, adjust course weekly.

Principles for Scoping Better

Protect my time and focus on what truly matters:

• Clarify and limit P0s

  • Scenario: Choosing between system-level vs. local improvements, prioritizing multi-team features.
  • Bottlenecks: Estimating org-wide impact, stakeholder pressure, fear of missing smaller opportunities.
  • How: Score candidate work by org-wide impact, scalability, and personal leverage; confirm alignment with stakeholders; revisit quarterly.

• Say no strategically

  • Scenario: Requests outside my domain, minor performance tweaks, firefighting, conflicting stakeholder requests.
  • Bottlenecks: Social pressure, judging relative importance, risk of appearing uncooperative.
  • How: Communicate P0 alignment clearly, delegate or defer non-critical requests, document boundaries to avoid repeated interruptions.

• Validate early and iterate

  • Scenario: Ambiguous feature proposals, unclear data requests, untested process changes, or missed deadlines due to over-scoping.
  • Bottlenecks: Uncertainty about feasibility, pressure to deliver fast, overconfidence in assumptions, lack of reflection time.
  • How: Summarize assumptions and expected impact in a one-pager; run lightweight experiments; align early with stakeholders; do weekly reflection capturing successes, bottlenecks, and missed P0s; adjust focus and communicate updates.

• Focus on systemic leverage

  • Scenario: Spending time on low-leverage tasks or local optimizations instead of multi-team or multi-user improvements.
  • Bottlenecks: Difficulty assessing cross-team impact, repeated small pain points, ambiguous opportunities.
  • How: Prioritize tasks where technical expertise creates outsized impact; skip low-value or doomed-to-fail problems; continuously check alignment with org goals.

My Desire & Strength

My Desire I aim to establish myself as a tech lead in ML infra with two main objectives:

• Work with market value: focus on skills and outcomes recognized externally.
• Minimize mental stress: maintain well-being while delivering high impact.

My Core Strengths

• Self-Accountability: Own work and choices, ensuring clarity in outcomes.
• Resiliency: Adapt strategies and maintain focus under obstacles.
• Impact-Driven Execution: Prioritize opportunities with measurable business wins.
• Collaborative Partnership: Align effectively with peers and cross-functional teams.

Recent Key Learnings

I’ve distilled key lessons into a few rich-context examples:

• Leverage leadership and structures

  • Scenario: Attempted bottom-up charter building, but XFN teams had dedicated roles (reliability, efficiency, DevX).
  • Learning: Tap existing leadership and structures early to avoid prolonged struggles.

• Set bigger, strategic goals

  • Scenario: Focused on incremental HD feature cleanup instead of holistic improvements.
  • Learning: Aim for system-level impact over local optimizations.

• Focus on high-impact technical challenges

  • Scenario: Spent energy on low-leverage issues like headcount conflicts or minor operational inefficiencies.
  • Learning: Invest where technical expertise creates the most difference; skip low-impact or doomed-to-fail problems.

• Be confident and assertive in requests

  • Scenario: Accepted deprioritization of output validation and serving checks.
  • Learning: Advocate confidently for necessary changes rather than acquiescing passively.

• Generalize problems and share knowledge

  • Scenario: Solved problems in isolation, missing repeatable patterns across teams.
  • Learning: Step back, find patterns, and share insights broadly for systemic improvement.

• Engineering
• Leadership
• Selling