Aaron Held Engineering & craft

The North Star: Why Engineering Teams Need a Vision to Navigate By

I’ve watched talented engineering teams burn out not from working too hard, but from working without direction. The pattern is always the same: leadership announces a new strategic pivot every quarter, teams scramble to adjust, morale craters, and your best people start updating their LinkedIn profiles. The problem isn’t the changes themselves. It’s that without a guiding vision, every shift feels like a complete reversal rather than a necessary course correction. ...

November 30, 2025 · 7 min · Aaron Held