Economic Thinking

At Level 3, economic thinking becomes part of your default approach. You routinely factor in cost, complexity, and timing when evaluating options. You're not just building things right—you're helping decide the right things to build. You balance short-term wins with long-term impact. You know that technical debt isn't always bad—and shipping too slowly can be. You don't need to be in charge of prioritization to speak up when effort and value feel out of sync.

Key Behaviors

  • Proactively flags scope or investment mismatches
  • Suggests lower-effort alternatives that still meet goals
  • Helps teams avoid gold-plating or overfitting solutions
  • Encourages pragmatic sequencing—build now, polish later
  • Uses cost/value framing when making technical decisions

Common Struggles

  • Can appear overly skeptical or risk-averse if not careful
  • May struggle to align with stakeholders who value polish over speed
  • Occasionally underestimates long-term costs of "quick wins"
  • Still learning when to push back and when to align

Success Indicators

You know you're successful when you:

  • Consistently make thoughtful, cost-aware decisions
  • Influence product and technical direction by highlighting ROI
  • Spot poor investment early and steer efforts back to value
  • Frame trade-offs clearly in docs, meetings, and reviews

Mindset Shift

From:

"Let's make smart trade-offs."

To:

"Let's design systems that make smart trade-offs easier for everyone."

Questions to Ask Yourself

  • Where do we repeatedly waste time or overbuild?
  • What feedback loops exist between cost and decision-making?
  • How can I influence how we evaluate impact more broadly?

Build These Habits

  • 1
    Encourage economic thinking in teammates through questions and modeling
  • 2
    Identify recurring patterns of poor investment or misaligned scope
  • 3
    Propose delivery models that support leaner iteration and faster feedback

Seek Feedback

  • "Where have I helped the team deliver better value?"
  • "Where do I default to over-optimizing or under-scoping?"
  • "Am I contributing to smart, sustainable decision-making?"

Signals You're Ready to Level Up

  • You shape delivery conversations through a value lens
  • Teammates reference your clarity when evaluating options
  • You help teams spend their time like it matters—because it does

Focus Summary

  • Think big
  • Ship smart
  • Maximize the return on your team's time

Level 3 is where engineering wisdom meets product impact. You know that good code isn't enough—good investments build good products.