>> The little secret no one mentions is that most of the time you're not needed.
That should be true of every individual.
If you mean role (i.e., "what if we had no staff engineers (or equivalents) at all?"), ye-es, but only for a time, else the company will likely be, at best, inefficient.
Every higher level role on the team, be it a staff eng, a tech lead, an EM, etc, is a multiplier role; they should behave as basically a glorified plate spinner. When the plates are all spinning they can step away and you'll never notice their absence. When the plates are wobbly, you should feel their presence more. The ideal workflow is a series of barely perceptible touches to add a little more inertia across a variety of plates.
That should be true of every individual.
If you mean role (i.e., "what if we had no staff engineers (or equivalents) at all?"), ye-es, but only for a time, else the company will likely be, at best, inefficient.
Every higher level role on the team, be it a staff eng, a tech lead, an EM, etc, is a multiplier role; they should behave as basically a glorified plate spinner. When the plates are all spinning they can step away and you'll never notice their absence. When the plates are wobbly, you should feel their presence more. The ideal workflow is a series of barely perceptible touches to add a little more inertia across a variety of plates.