03. The Truth About Prioritization in Engineering Leadership

Here’s the ugly truth no one tells you early enough in your leadership journey:
There will always be more tasks, projects, and ideas than you can possibly handle.

No matter how organized or hardworking you are—your team, your stakeholders, your company will generate more demands than there are hours in your week. You’ll be constantly facing new features, bugs, people issues, tech debt, architectural decisions, meetings, hiring, mentoring, and “quick chats” that are never really quick.

Trying to do it all will burn you out.
Trying to say yes to everything can make your team less effective. Ignoring important things because they aren’t urgent will sabotage long-term success.

That’s why prioritization is not just a helpful skill—it’s a critical leadership responsibility.

Aligning Priorities with Your Supervisor

Before you even start color-coding your backlog or starring items in your to-do list, here’s step one:
Get aligned with your manager on what actually matters.

This might sound obvious, but many engineering leaders (especially new ones) fall into the trap of assuming what’s important—without verifying.

Ask yourself:

• What are my top three priorities right now?
• What does my manager think my top three priorities are?
• Are those lists the same?

If they’re not, you’re probably investing time in the wrong things.

A quick habit: the “Monday sync” check-in

Every week include a line in your status update or check-in:

“Here’s what I see as my current top priorities. Let me know if you’d rank these differently.”

It’s a simple way to reduce misunderstandings and stay aligned—even as business goals shift.

Introducing the Eisenhower Matrix

So once you’re aligned on high-level direction, how do you manage the load of incoming tasks?

One of the most effective and reliable tools is the Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix. It’s a simple 2x2 grid that can radically clarify where you should focus your time and energy.

Quadrant 1: Urgent + Important → DO NOW

These are your firefights:

• Production outages
• Critical security vulnerabilities
• A team member having a personal crisis
• A last-minute executive ask before a board meeting

They need your immediate attention. But if your entire day lives here, something’s wrong.

Goal: Handle them quickly and move out of this quadrant.

Quadrant 2: Not Urgent + Important → SCHEDULE IT

This is where long-term success lives:

• Building team culture
• Designing scalable architecture
• Hiring great people
• Coaching and developing your team
• Writing technical strategy
• Paying down technical debt

These things rarely scream for attention, but neglecting them leads to future fires.

Goal: Proactively block time for these. Protect it like a meeting. These tasks build leverage.

Quadrant 3: Urgent + Not Important → DELEGATE IT

These feel urgent but aren’t the best use of your time:

• Meeting invites where you’re not a decision-maker
• Status updates that someone else can deliver
• Repetitive tasks you’ve done 10 times already
• Low-impact interruptions

This quadrant is tricky. It feeds your sense of progress, but often just drains your focus.

Goal: Ask, “Who else can do this?” Delegate or automate aggressively.

Quadrant 4: Not Urgent + Not Important → ELIMINATE

Be ruthless. Some things simply don’t matter:

• Scrolling through Slack for the 12th time
• Tinkering with a side tool that never ships
• “Just in case” documentation no one reads
• Over-polishing internal presentations

Goal: Don’t do them. Say no. Hit delete.

Applying the Eisenhower Matrix as a Leader

Now you may be thinking: This is fine for personal productivity—but I lead a team. What about them?

Great point. The Eisenhower Matrix can be a team-level decision-making tool too.

Here’s how:

• In retrospectives, identify which quadrant recent tasks lived in. Are you stuck in firefighting mode (Quadrant 1)? Are you investing enough in Quadrant 2?
• In sprint planning, ask: What items here are truly important? What’s noise?
• In career development talks, use it to show your team members what “high leverage” work looks like (hint: Quadrant 2).

When you teach your team to think this way, you multiply the benefits. They’ll start managing their own time more effectively, escalating better, and pushing back on distractions.

Saying No (Gracefully)

Even with the matrix, prioritization means making hard choices. And hard choices often mean saying No.

But “no” doesn’t have to be a dead end.

Try these alternatives:

• “That sounds valuable, but we’re currently focused on X. Can we revisit this next month?”
• “Let’s check with [name]—this may fit better on their roadmap.”
• “I’m concerned this would push out [important project]. Is that acceptable?”

You’re not blocking ideas—you’re protecting focus.

Final Thoughts

You can’t do it all. That’s the reality of leadership.
But with clear alignment, a strong prioritization system like the Eisenhower Matrix, and the courage to say no, you can lead your team to do what truly matters.

Remember:

Urgency gets attention. Importance drives results.

The work of great engineering leaders happens when the two are not confused.

Want a printable Eisenhower Matrix template for your team? I’m working on one—sign up for updates here.