Throughout my career, I have heard so many times a story from failed startups where VPs of Engineering describe their team as "the best engineering team ever." While I have never doubted the quality of the people, I have felt very uncomfortable with the assumption that an engineering team can do a great job while the company fails.

In this talk, I will share from my vast experience why it is important for engineering managers to understand what the business needs from their team, how to do it, how it will impact your career, and what happens when you don't. It is a call to action to look at the bigger picture and make sure that your team is working to implement it, and not just follow the engineering best practices.

We always have to remember that R&D teams don’t exist because it is fun to write code and build staff; they exist in the service of delivering on the business metrics.