How Great Engineers Catch Gaps Before They Ship
The scope of what engineers need to know keeps growing.
It's not just writing code anymore. You're expected to understand system design, security risks, accessibility, how to track user behavior, and maybe even weigh in on product strategy. The work is more complex. The teams are more cross-functional. The expectations don't always come with extra support.
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That pressure to know everything can leave you feeling stuck — like you're supposed to have all the answers or at least act like you do.
But the engineers I've seen grow the most aren't the ones who try to be experts in every domain.
- They pay attention.
- They ask good questions.
- They understand how their work fits into the rest of the system.
You don't need to master every area. But you must stay aware of how your decisions impact those around you.
You Don't Have to Be an Expert to Spot a Problem
You don't need to be a domain expert to recognize when something isn't quite right.
A query may pull more data than it needs to. A form doesn't support keyboard navigation. A test may fail for the third time this week. You don't have to know exactly what is wrong, but if something feels off, that's usually enough reason to stop and ask.
Sometimes, the next step is obvious, and you can handle it yourself. Other times, looping in someone who knows the area well is better. When you do, don't just treat it like a handoff. Stay involved. Ask to do some paired programming or have them walk you through the fix. Watch how they work through the problem.
The immediate benefit is obvious: better outcomes and fewer issues. But there's a longer-term benefit, too. The more you engage with other disciplines, the more familiar those patterns become.
How to Learn What to Look For
Noticing when something's off doesn't happen automatically. It takes exposure. You have to see enough patterns to recognize what's normal and what's not.
Here are a few ways to build that awareness without burning yourself out:
- Review incident postmortems — they expose the edge cases and failure modes a tutorial won't teach you.
- Sit in on design or planning meetings — even just listening helps you connect decisions to downstream effects.
- Ask teammates to walk you through their thinking — especially when your work overlaps theirs.
- Skim code outside your department — not to nitpick, but to understand how your piece fits into the rest of the platform.
You're not trying to learn every detail. You're trying to understand how your work affects the rest of the system.
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How This Skill Builds Trust and Visibility
It's easy to focus only on the thing you were assigned. Write the code. Push the commit. Move the ticket. But that's not what makes someone stand out.
The engineers people trust and rely on most are the ones who think beyond their immediate scope. They:
- Flag problems early, even when they're outside their domain
- Follow up when something looks off
- Stay involved when an issue spans teams
- Ask practical questions that make the work better
You don't need a formal leadership title to do this. Most people who grow into those roles start by noticing and following up on what others miss.
That's what gets you pulled into conversations. That's what builds trust over time.
Trust Your Experience
A while back, I worked with an engineer who didn't think they had much to contribute outside of writing code. They stayed quiet when we'd review product flows or talk about UI changes. They assumed user experience wasn't their lane.
But I reminded them: you use software every day. You know what's frustrating. You know what's confusing. That perspective matters.
Once they saw that, they started speaking up more, not about design systems or layout grids — just what made sense and what didn't. Over time, their feedback got sharper. They asked better questions. They caught issues earlier. And they became a regular voice in product reviews.
You don't need formal training to notice what feels broken. You need to care enough to say something.
That's how you build awareness. That's how you build trust. And that's how you grow, even without knowing everything.
Spotting gaps takes more than experience with a specific tool or framework. It requires you to stay engaged with the work beyond your own tasks. That means asking questions when something doesn't add up. It means following through when a bug points to a deeper issue. And it means staying connected to what other teams are doing, even if you're not directly responsible.
The best engineers I've worked with don't stop at the commit. They look at how the whole thing fits together. They ask the questions that others skip. And when something seems off, they take the time to understand why.
You won't catch everything. But if you build the habit of looking closer, you'll see more than most.