Building Business Fluency for Engineering Leaders

Engineering leaders today are expected to be more than strong technologists. They are also called to operate as strategic business partners. Business fluency is about connecting technical decisions to the language of growth, customer value, and business agility or efficiency. This roundtable will explore why this skill set has become essential for engineering leaders who want to expand their influence and impact.

We will talk about how to translate engineering work into meaningful business outcomes, and share both successes and lessons learned along the way. Too often, success is defined narrowly by delivery, uptime, or scale, measures that do not always resonate with executives or customers. By framing trade-offs, technical debt, and system investments in terms of ROI, risk, and customer value, engineering leaders can better align their teams’ work with the priorities of the organization. Finally, we will look at how engineering leaders can strengthen their influence through cross-functional collaboration. Business fluency does not grow in isolation. It depends on close partnership with product, design, finance, and other stakeholders. Together, we will explore practical ways to build trust across functions, create healthy tension when priorities diverge, and communicate technical perspectives in ways that resonate with business stakeholders.