Stratechgist

The SHIELD Framework: How to Handle User Escalations Without Breaking Your Team

Practical framework for your next user escalation

Dec 29, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

October 2025

Don't Ever Forget to Challenge the Status Quo

Some timeless and cliché advice.

Oct 10, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

1

August 2025

Why Product Engineers Who Don't Use Their Product Are Setting Themselves Up to Fail

The missing skill that separates good product engineers from great ones

Aug 18, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

The Gap-Finder’s Advantage

How spotting what’s missing accelerates careers and grows leaders

Aug 6, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

2

July 2025

Your PM is Gone, What Now?

The tactical playbook for engineering managers suddenly doing product management too (spoiler: it's terrible, but survivable)

Jul 17, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

5

The Strategic Art of Half-Assing (And Why Your Team Needs It)

When to deliberately take the quick path && how to do it without career damage

Jul 11, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

3

May 2025

Scalability Under Scrutiny: Will the Technology Crumble Under Growth?

A technical deep-dive into evaluating startup scalability: what to check, what to ask, and when to walk away

May 9, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

1

April 2025

Fix it, Flag it or Forget it? A Practical Technical Debt & Bug Triage Framework

A hands-on framework for engineering leaders for classification and prioritization of bugs and issues

Apr 22, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

1

How I Balanced Technical Debt and Delivery Pressure in a High-stakes Launch

Making deliberate choices when speed trumps perfection

Apr 8, 2025 • Ilija Eftimov

September 2024

The Shortest Path to User Value in Product Engineering Projects

A set of questions and mental models I've found useful to challenge the status quo and ship value to users faster

Sep 27, 2024 • Ilija Eftimov

May 2024

Why Skipping 1:1s as a Manager is a Terrible Idea

A list of 6 non-obvious side-effects of managers skipping 1:1s with their reports.

May 1, 2024 • Ilija Eftimov

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April 2024

Why Reorganizations are the Kryptonite of Productivity, Product Engineering and well-gelled Teams

Stable organizations might appear slow. But smooth means fast.

Apr 23, 2024 • Ilija Eftimov

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