The Pyramid of Motivation 🔺

A practical guide on motivating your engineering team, and yourself.

An investor of mine once told me that most startups fail when founders run out of motivation.

On the outside, it looks like all sorts of practical reasons: cash is over, product-market-fit can’t be found, wrong hires — but these things mostly happen as a consequence of founders not trying anymore

These days, I still think about this often.

Engagement and motivation makes or breaks teams, which in turn makes or breaks products. That’s why, when you hear advice from seasoned CTOs or VPEs, it is often about ethereal things like momentum, bias for action, and making people look forward to their job.

All these things may look fluffy… until they don’t.

So, in this article, we will explore the intricacies of motivation in engineering teams.

We'll dive into both theory and practice, drawing from my personal experiences, insights from leaders in the community, and proven strategies from successful tech companies.

The goal is to give you actionable advice to transform your team's motivation and performance, and possibly your own, too.

Here is the agenda:

• 🧭 What is Motivation — understanding the core elements that drive engineers and how they vary from person to person.

• 🌟 Beyond Productivity — exploring the second and third-order benefits of a motivated team.

• 🔺 The Pyramid of Motivation — my own framework and guide to creating an environment where motivation can flourish, including key strategies and common pitfalls to avoid.

• 🏢 Examples from Successful Tech Companies — learn how Microsoft, Twilio, and Atlassian, and more, have tackled motivation challenges and their results.

Let's dive in!