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Crafting Engineering Strategy: How Thoughtful Decisions Solve Complex Problems
Many engineers assume their organization doesn't have an engineering strategy—when in fact, they often do. It just may not be working. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson (author of An Elegant Puzzle, Staff Engineer, and The Engineering Executive's Primer) offers a practical, example-rich guide to navigating technical and organizational complexity through structured, intentional strategy.
Written for senior engineers, engineering leaders, architects, and curious collaborators, this book lays out a repeatable process for building effective, actionable strategies—from early diagnosis to rollout. With lessons drawn from real-world case studies at companies like Stripe, Uber, and Calm, Larson provides a framework for shaping critical decisions around system migrations, API deprecations, platform investments, and more. Along the way, you'll learn to augment technical planning with communication, governance, and systems thinking. Whether you're shaping your team's direction or leading a company-wide initiative, Crafting Engineering Strategy will help you make thoughtful decisions that stick.
Build durable engineering strategies from first principles
Apply methods like Wardley mapping and systems modeling
Lead strategy as a staff+ engineer or executive
Learn from detailed case studies across industries
Improve your strategic fluency and influence over time
Written for senior engineers, engineering leaders, architects, and curious collaborators, this book lays out a repeatable process for building effective, actionable strategies—from early diagnosis to rollout. With lessons drawn from real-world case studies at companies like Stripe, Uber, and Calm, Larson provides a framework for shaping critical decisions around system migrations, API deprecations, platform investments, and more. Along the way, you'll learn to augment technical planning with communication, governance, and systems thinking. Whether you're shaping your team's direction or leading a company-wide initiative, Crafting Engineering Strategy will help you make thoughtful decisions that stick.
Build durable engineering strategies from first principles
Apply methods like Wardley mapping and systems modeling
Lead strategy as a staff+ engineer or executive
Learn from detailed case studies across industries
Improve your strategic fluency and influence over time
307 pages, Paperback
Published November 18, 2025
60 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 17, 2025
Another very insightful book and although it felt like there are too many references to The Engineering Executive's Primer: Impactful Technical Leadership still really worth reading even when you aren't an exec like me.
Tackling the problem of creating an understandable strategy is a huge undertaking and this books helps with concrete examples and also ways to find a start.
Tackling the problem of creating an understandable strategy is a huge undertaking and this books helps with concrete examples and also ways to find a start.
December 28, 2025
Introduction
"Strategy" is often an overloaded term in the tech industry—nebulous and difficult to pin down. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson cuts through the noise to provide perhaps the best articulation of what engineering strategy actually is and how leaders should thoughtfully create one for their organizations.
Larson speaks from direct experience, guiding the reader through the entire lifecycle of strategy—from the initial diagnosis to articulation and, finally, implementation. For those who enjoyed Larson's previous work on management, An Elegant Puzzle, this book serves as a slice of wisdom extending from that foundation. It is, without a doubt, a must-read for any engineering leader.
Context and Prerequisites
To fully absorb the wisdom in this book, I highly recommend reading Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy, Bad Strategy and The Crux as prerequisites. Larson effectively expands Rumelt’s "strategy kernel" into a fully operational bible for engineering leaders.
Ideally, one might read Larson and Rumelt in parallel to compare and contrast insights. While Rumelt provides the theoretical foundation, Larson provides the engineering-specific application.
The Framework: From Diagnosis to Operations
Larson demystifies the process by breaking strategy down into actionable phases. He argues that strategy is, at its core, problem-solving. The book lays out a clear path:
1. Exploring: Finding options and thoroughly understanding the landscape.
2. Diagnosing: Identifying the specific challenge you are trying to solve. This is the critical first step.
3. Refining: This is a crucial step that extends Rumelt’s work. Larson emphasizes iteratively testing and building conviction in your strategy. It encourages a "fail fast" mentality so you can arrive at the right strategy before committing significant resources.
4. Setting Policy: Establishing coherent actions to achieve the goal.
5. Operations: The tactical ways to implement the policy on the ground.
Tools and Mental Models
One of the gems of this book is its practical toolkit. Larson introduces a template to succinctly express strategy, which is invaluable for clarity. He also introduces Wardley Maps, a concept I intend to deep dive into further.
Furthermore, Larson champions systems thinking. He demonstrates how modeling systems is key to confirming your diagnosis and strategy. He even details a simple tool he wrote that readers can leverage to express and model the systems they are analyzing.
Communication and Execution
A strategy is only as good as its execution, and execution depends on communication. Larson shines here, addressing the reality that communicating strategy is key to its success, especially as an organization scales.
Conclusion
Through numerous real-world examples drawn from his own career, Larson ties everything together, providing the reader with written strategy examples that serve as a blueprint. Simply put, he doesn't just tell you what strategy is; he demonstrates what good strategy looks like in practice, shares the real-world outcomes, and ultimately prepares you to craft your own.
I anticipate coming back to this book again and again. Crafting Engineering Strategy transforms a complex, often abstract concept into a concrete operational guide. If you are looking to move beyond buzzwords and truly understand strategy as a method of high-level problem solving, this book is essential reading.
"Strategy" is often an overloaded term in the tech industry—nebulous and difficult to pin down. In Crafting Engineering Strategy, Will Larson cuts through the noise to provide perhaps the best articulation of what engineering strategy actually is and how leaders should thoughtfully create one for their organizations.
Larson speaks from direct experience, guiding the reader through the entire lifecycle of strategy—from the initial diagnosis to articulation and, finally, implementation. For those who enjoyed Larson's previous work on management, An Elegant Puzzle, this book serves as a slice of wisdom extending from that foundation. It is, without a doubt, a must-read for any engineering leader.
Context and Prerequisites
To fully absorb the wisdom in this book, I highly recommend reading Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy, Bad Strategy and The Crux as prerequisites. Larson effectively expands Rumelt’s "strategy kernel" into a fully operational bible for engineering leaders.
Ideally, one might read Larson and Rumelt in parallel to compare and contrast insights. While Rumelt provides the theoretical foundation, Larson provides the engineering-specific application.
The Framework: From Diagnosis to Operations
Larson demystifies the process by breaking strategy down into actionable phases. He argues that strategy is, at its core, problem-solving. The book lays out a clear path:
1. Exploring: Finding options and thoroughly understanding the landscape.
2. Diagnosing: Identifying the specific challenge you are trying to solve. This is the critical first step.
3. Refining: This is a crucial step that extends Rumelt’s work. Larson emphasizes iteratively testing and building conviction in your strategy. It encourages a "fail fast" mentality so you can arrive at the right strategy before committing significant resources.
4. Setting Policy: Establishing coherent actions to achieve the goal.
5. Operations: The tactical ways to implement the policy on the ground.
Tools and Mental Models
One of the gems of this book is its practical toolkit. Larson introduces a template to succinctly express strategy, which is invaluable for clarity. He also introduces Wardley Maps, a concept I intend to deep dive into further.
Furthermore, Larson champions systems thinking. He demonstrates how modeling systems is key to confirming your diagnosis and strategy. He even details a simple tool he wrote that readers can leverage to express and model the systems they are analyzing.
Communication and Execution
A strategy is only as good as its execution, and execution depends on communication. Larson shines here, addressing the reality that communicating strategy is key to its success, especially as an organization scales.
Conclusion
Through numerous real-world examples drawn from his own career, Larson ties everything together, providing the reader with written strategy examples that serve as a blueprint. Simply put, he doesn't just tell you what strategy is; he demonstrates what good strategy looks like in practice, shares the real-world outcomes, and ultimately prepares you to craft your own.
I anticipate coming back to this book again and again. Crafting Engineering Strategy transforms a complex, often abstract concept into a concrete operational guide. If you are looking to move beyond buzzwords and truly understand strategy as a method of high-level problem solving, this book is essential reading.
December 21, 2025
Kinda disappointed. Thought it would be a nice read, but did not enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews