Staff Engineer OS

A personal operating system for engineers stepping into Staff+ roles.

Zero dependencies. No build step. Just open index.html.

Track your 30/60/90 plan · Collect evidence · Catch impulses · Grow as a multiplier

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Why This Exists

The hardest part of becoming a Staff Engineer isn't the technical work — it's the behaviour change. You go from being the strongest individual contributor in the room to someone whose impact is measured through others.

This dashboard helps you:

• Stay accountable to your 30/60/90 day plan with visual progress tracking
• Collect evidence from day one, categorised for 1:1s, quarterly reviews, and EOY — no more last-minute scrambling
• Catch impulses — every time you almost jumped in and coded it yourself but delegated instead, that's evidence of growth
• Map stakeholders — know who needs what from you and how to engage each person
• Reflect weekly — structured prompts that build self-awareness over time
• Use the PAUSE Framework — a mental model to check yourself before falling back to Senior habits

Quick Start

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/rameshreddy-adutla/staff-engineer-os.git
cd staff-engineer-os

# Open in your browser
open index.html
# or: python3 -m http.server 8080

Then edit data.js with your own name, role, phases, action items, and stakeholders. That's it.

What's Inside

Section	What It Does
📊 Overview	Day count, phase progress, urgent actions, impulse scorecard, daily reminder
📋 30/60/90 Plan	All action items by phase with progress bars and inline status updates
✅ Actions	Kanban board (In Progress / To Do / Done) with phase and urgency filters
📓 Weekly Journal	Structured entries with priorities, daily notes, and reflections
🏆 Evidence	Categorised portfolio — coaching, architecture, standards, risk, delivery
🛑 Impulse Log	Track impulse catches with a Staff Behaviour % score
👥 Stakeholders	People cards filtered by ring — Coach, Peer, Leadership
⏸️ PAUSE Framework	The impulse catcher reference card with the Rule of Three

The PAUSE Framework

When you feel the urge to jump in and do it yourself:

	Step	Ask Yourself
P	Problem	Is this truly urgent? Or does it feel urgent because I want to solve it?
A	Available	Who else can handle this — even if slower? Is this a growth opportunity?
U	Upside	If I step back: team gets stronger. If I jump in: done fast, nobody learns.
S	Standard‑Setting?	Am I setting a new pattern (OK), or retreating to comfort? Rule of Three.
E	Evidence	"I fixed 50 bugs" = Senior story. "I coached 3 engineers" = Staff story.

The Rule of Three

1. 1st time — Do it yourself to set the standard. Document what and why.
2. 2nd time — Pair with someone. They drive, you guide.
3. 3rd time — If you're still doing it, you've failed to multiply. Delegate fully.

How to Use

Editing Your Data

All your data lives in data.js. It's a single JavaScript object with clear sections:

const STAFF_DATA = {
  config: {
    name: "Your Name",
    role: "Staff Engineer",
    area: "Your Area",
    startDate: "2026-04-01",
    phases: [ /* your 30/60/90 phases */ ]
  },
  todos: [ /* action items with phase, priority, status */ ],
  stakeholders: [ /* people and engagement strategy */ ],
  weekly: [ /* weekly journal entries */ ],
  evidence: [ /* evidence items for EOY */ ],
  impulses: [ /* impulse catches */ ],
  pause: { /* PAUSE framework prompts */ }
};

Quick Captures

Click the 🛑 Log Impulse or 🏆 Add Evidence buttons anywhere in the dashboard. These save to localStorage instantly — no commit needed.

To persist them permanently, click 📥 Export in the sidebar footer, then merge the JSON back into data.js.

Updating Action Item Status

Click any action item in the Plan or Kanban view to change its status. Changes are saved to localStorage and reflected immediately.

Weekly Workflow

1. During the week — log impulses and evidence via the UI
2. End of week — add a new weekly entry to data.js
3. Commit and push

Hosting

GitHub Pages (recommended for private use)

1. Fork this repo and make it private
2. Edit data.js with your personal data
3. Go to Settings → Pages → Source: main branch, / (root)
4. Your dashboard is live at https://<you>.github.io/staff-engineer-os/

Local

Just open index.html in any modern browser. No server required. Works from file://.

Tech

• HTML + CSS + vanilla JS — no framework, no build, no dependencies
• Light/dark theme with system preference respect
• Responsive — works on mobile
• localStorage for quick captures — export anytime
• ~70 KB total — loads instantly

Customisation

Different Role Transition

While built for Senior → Staff, the framework applies to any leadership transition. Edit the phase names and PAUSE prompts in data.js to fit your context:

• Senior → Staff Engineer
• Staff → Principal Engineer
• IC → Engineering Manager
• Individual contributor → Tech Lead

Evidence Categories

The default categories are: coaching, architecture, standards, risk, delivery, cross-team, foundational. Change them in both data.js (evidence entries) and app.js (the filter list in renderEvidence).

Contributing

Contributions welcome! This is a personal tool that many engineers could benefit from.

• Bug fixes — always welcome
• New features — open an issue first to discuss
• Design improvements — PRs with before/after screenshots
• Framework additions — if you have mental models that helped your Staff+ transition, share them

License

MIT — use it, fork it, make it yours.

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Built by an engineer going through the Staff transition, for engineers going through the Staff transition.