Apple or Orange? Engineering Leadership and the Art of Choosing Both
Don’t accept false dichotomies, embrace the power of &
Leadership, especially in engineering, is often framed as a game of trade-offs. We’re taught to pick between speed or quality, innovation or stability, execution or exploration—as if choosing one somehow negates the importance of the other. But real leadership, much like life itself, doesn’t always offer such clean distinctions.
Sometimes, you don’t get to pick between the apple and the orange. You have to take both.
Science tells us that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" and that "an orange a day reduces dementia risk by 20%". Which one do you choose? The truth is, you shouldn’t have to. Both contribute to a healthier, longer, and more sustainable future. This same principle applies to engineering leadership—where the best outcomes come from balancing seemingly conflicting priorities.
The Engineering Leadership Dilemma: Constraints vs. Productivity
In my career, I’ve had to make decisions that weren’t neatly laid out as "either-or" choices. At Amazon, when we built the future of Prime Video Recommendation Engine, the challenge wasn’t just about building a better algorithm. We had to scale it globally, optimize for engagement, and make it adaptable for different cultures and content preferences—all while keeping infrastructure costs in check. It wasn’t a choice between innovation or efficiency; it had to be both.
At Visible, as CTO, I was tasked with driving AI-powered automation in customer service while maintaining human-like empathy in interactions. Cutting costs without degrading customer experience wasn’t an option. It wasn’t a matter of choosing between productivity and quality; we had to find a way to maximize both—and in doing so, we reduced the cost-to-serve by 73% while improving engagement.
The Illusion of Trade-Offs in Leadership
Many engineering leaders fall into the trap of believing they must always trade one good for another. This is where leadership maturity kicks in. The best leaders don’t accept false dichotomies; they seek out third options that incorporate elements of both.
Speed vs. Quality? Build strong automation and testing frameworks so you can ship faster without sacrificing reliability.
Innovation vs. Stability? Develop a core platform team that ensures infrastructure robustness while enabling experimentation at the edges.
Execution vs. Exploration? Allocate 80% of resources to delivering roadmap priorities but leave 20% for forward-looking, disruptive ideas.
In engineering, like in health, it’s never just the apple or just the orange—it’s about building a balanced diet that sustains long-term success.
The CTO’s Role: Balancing Constraints and Gains
As an engineering leader, I’ve learned that embracing constraints while finding a way to push productivity forward is what separates good leaders from great ones. At Property Finder, restructuring the engineering organization wasn’t a question of whether we should focus on scalability, compliance, or AI adoption—we needed all three. That meant launching:
Core Platform (for scalability and compliance)
Data Platform (to enable AI-driven automation)
Enterprise Productivity (to optimize infrastructure and internal tooling)
This wasn’t about making a single “perfect” choice—it was about designing a system that allows multiple necessary priorities to coexist effectively.
Final Thoughts: Engineering Leadership is an Endurance Game
If you only eat apples, you might avoid the doctor, but you risk dementia. If you only eat oranges, you might have better cognitive health, but your body may need other nutrients. The same applies to leadership. You can’t always afford to over-index on one metric while ignoring others.
Leadership is about knowing when to push, when to balance, and when to embrace the paradoxes that define success. The best leaders don’t pick a side; they create a system where both sides thrive together.
So the next time you’re faced with an impossible engineering decision, ask yourself: Do I really need to choose? Or can I build a system where I get the best of both? Because, in the end, apples and oranges together make for a much better future.
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