Tech leaders pursuing staff engineer or engineering manager promotions typically overindex on past accomplishments while missing two critical components: timing and potential future impact.
Yue Zhao, former product leader at Meta and Instagram who now coaches 19,000 executives through The Uncommon Executive, argues that promotion cases at senior levels require three distinct elements. Past performance demonstrates capability—necessary but insufficient. Timing articulates why the business gains by promoting now versus in six months. Relative impact positions the promotion against competing budget priorities.
The timing trap most engineers fall into: Working harder after a promotion miss actually reduces promotion likelihood. "By showing you can do the work without the promotion, you are giving the business less incentive to promote," Zhao notes. This particularly affects staff engineer candidates who absorb principal-level scope without the title.
The timing case should focus on what becomes possible post-promotion: hiring more senior team members, peer leveling for leadership forums, or external representation requiring the higher title. For VP-track roles, external brand building becomes essential.
Why your promotion vs. someone else's: Enterprise promotion budgets are capped, especially with current margin pressure. VPs fight for limited slots. The winning case connects directly to revenue or company-critical goals—explaining why high-visibility projects accelerate promotion paths and certain functions advance faster.
Zhao's framework reflects Big Tech realities where senior promotions depend on cross-chain advocacy and strategic influence. The alternative view: emphasis on "business cases" can overlook manager biases or incomplete advocacy networks. Senior promotions fail due to relationships outside direct reporting lines.
What this means in practice: Staff engineer promotion readiness isn't just technical scope—it requires articulating business criticality and demonstrating why the investment happens now. For engineering managers moving to senior EM or director roles, the same logic applies: how does the promotion accelerate impact beyond current output?
The trade-off: This approach requires political sophistication some engineers resist. Zhao reframes politics as strategic influence—harder work alone signals low ROI to organizations making promotion decisions.
Worth noting: This model works in large organizations with formal promotion cycles and budget constraints. Startups and smaller tech shops operate differently, though the principle of demonstrating future value over past achievement still applies.