The Five Pillars of Business

In this first module, we explore the essence of individual contributor roles through the lens of core business functions. This sets the stage for understanding how management fits into the bigger picture.

• We break down IC roles across the five pillars of business (from Josh Kaufman): value creation, marketing, sales, value delivery, and finance—clarifying how each function contributes.
• The essence of software engineering is to create value by building software that solves problems for customers.
• Marketing professionals focus on raising awareness of that value, while salespeople focus on exchanging value, usually closing deals.
• Roles in value delivery, like customer support or DevOps, ensure that users receive and benefit from the value created.
• Finance professionals ensure business sustainability, tracking what’s working financially and what isn’t.
• This clarity of purpose—knowing what success looks like—is often missing in management, which leads us to part two: defining the true essence of a manager’s role.

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