
I just watched [this presentation](https://www.annashipman.co.uk/jfdi/people-process-tech-business.html) from Anna Shipman:

<div style="align:center">
  <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-5QwJeawSdc?si=zRF452glvd1qMcHF" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>

Alex Ewerlöf presents it as [t-pop](https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/t-pop) framework:

<div style="align:center">
  [![T-Pop](/assets/posts/2025-08-05-4-pillars/t-pop.webp)](https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/t-pop)
</div>

And this is also how Patrick Kua defines the [engineering manager archetypes](https://www.patkua.com/blog/5-engineering-manager-archetypes/):

<div style="align:center">
  [![engineering manager archetypes](/assets/posts/2025-08-05-4-pillars/patkua.png)](https://www.patkua.com/blog/5-engineering-manager-archetypes/)
</div>

When I started as [a manager in 2019](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamatti/), one mentor explained to me those 4 pillars. You can't focus in just one or two to grow as manager. Neither as tech lead or software engineer.

I used it a lot to interview people and conduce team retrospectives.

Things leaders should keep in their radar

People, process, technology, business


Today I received the [Refactoring newsletter](https://refactoring.fm/p/on-design-sweet-spot-threat-modeling) (which strongly recommend to sign in), and one of the sections caused me some reflections, the "Pyramid of Needs".

While I had previously heard of [Maslow's hierarchy of needs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs), this pyramid is specifically relevant to one's career.

This is the image from the post:

![Pyramid of Needs](/assets/posts/pyramid-of-needs.webp)

... and I strongly recommend you (reader) to go to the [original post]((https://refactoring.fm/p/on-design-sweet-spot-threat-modeling) ) to check all the details.

- The majority of the professional that I knew were more interested (or stuck) in the *individual* layer. 
- The best ones (that I know, IMHO) passed the *Teamwork* layer.
- I was 200% in the item *I have opportunities to learn and grow*. But it doesn't work if the *teamwork* layer (and the ones bellow) aren't fulfilled.

People, process, technology, business

The Pyramid of Needs