What It Means to 'Own It' in Tech

Every company I’ve worked for has "ownership" as a core value. Initially, I assumed this simply meant working very hard. It took me a long time to realize that ownership means breaking social norms and enduring others' wrath to do the right thing for the business.

Below are three stories that formed my thinking:

Redemption Through Follow-Up

During an interview I conducted, a candidate performed poorly, and we sat in silence for nearly 40 minutes. The next day, the candidate sent me an email with a solution and detailed optimizations we could make for specific outcomes. I wasn’t impressed by the initial interview, and we didn’t end up hiring them, but their email changed my mind from scoring that candidate as a "hard no" (meaning we definitely shouldn’t hire them) to a "soft no" (someone should double-check their work in this area).

Years later, I found myself in a similar position. I had just bombed an interview and felt the urge to redeem myself. I decided to send a follow-up email, articulating my thoughts and addressing points I had missed during the interview. Although my email was never read—I used an email tracking service—I have no regrets. The act of sending that email was a form of ownership; it demonstrated my commitment and reaffirmed my belief in my own abilities, even when my on-the-spot performance wasn't perfect.

Advocates for a Lead

As a product manager, I hold my engineering team to deadlines. On one occasion, one of team member was struggling to meet the timeline they had previously committed to, citing unexpected new tasks and tech debt. To my surprise, another team member stepped in and firmly reminded the team of our commitment to the timeline. This team member, an individual contributor, emphasized the importance of meeting our deadlines to ensure the success of our new product, despite the challenges posed by tech debt.

I’d never seen an engineer take it upon themselves to uphold the lead’s standards and potentially face backlash from another team member. I also had really appreciated their gesture, as it showed that others owned our commitments like I did (and also relieved me from being the bad guy this time).

Prioritizing Customer Commitments

One of the many jobs of product is to handle customer requests. One time, during a customer call, my manager was providing a vague answer regarding the delivery of a commonly requested feature that was not yet on our roadmap. Our new department head, who was also on the call, interrupted and addressed my manager directly: "That's too broad, [manager's name]. That's a non-negotiable; we just have to get this done for you, [customer’s name].”

This moment was a striking example of ownership. The new head could have waited to make that comment after the call, but it was a decision that set a powerful message to the customer and our team about product delivery. It almost certainly wouldn’t be popular with the internal team, but it made it extremely clear where our priorities and roadmap should be.