The First 90 Days: Prioritize Real Problems Over Perceived Needs

About a year ago, I jumped into a major modernization project at a Fortune 500 apparel brand. Shortly after I joined, we went live with a new layout for their e-commerce site. We had high hopes for it, but within the first week, the page load times spiked from 2 seconds to 8 seconds, thanks to overly aggressive caching strategies combined with a poorly configured CDN. The net result? A significant drop in conversions — 30% in sales from their online channel during peak hours.

This situation highlighted something I’ve believed for years: the first 90 days in a new position as a senior engineer should focus on understanding real, underlying problems instead of diving headfirst into high-level improvements that may not yield quick returns. I see too many engineers getting swept away by the allure of new technologies or shiny features, instead of addressing the core issues that are impacting performance.

Diagnosing the Real Issues

Determining the root cause of that 8-second load time became my immediate focus. It wasn’t about implementing new features or modernizing the tech stack right away — it was about identifying where our underlying architecture was falling short. Here’s what I found:

A caching layer that was misconfigured and causing cache stalls.
Underestimating the load on the database during peak hours due to simultaneous user spikes.
Not accounting for the intricate relationships between third-party scripts that were overly complicating the rendering process.

Instead of rolling out the latest headless approach or integrating a random AI solution for cross-sell recommendations, I focused on mitigation: optimizing database queries, revamping the caching strategy, and revisiting how we load third-party scripts. Each of these changes alone reduced our load time back to an acceptable 2.5 seconds within two weeks. This reduction dramatically improved our user experience and directly led to a 15% increase in sales over the following month.

The Trade-offs of High-Level Changes

In contrast, if I had prioritized high-level changes, we could have wasted weeks spinning our wheels on new tech without fixing these critical areas first. While advancements in tech stacks like Laravel or cutting-edge applied-AI methods can improve workflows, they won’t save a sinking ship.

At the end of the day, the key takeaway for anyone stepping into a senior engineering role is this: before doing anything else, make sure the system you’re managing is sound. You want to avoid high-tech solutions to low-level problems. The real gain comes from solidifying your foundation; it makes any subsequent enhancements far more impactful.

So as you head into your first 90 days, remember that you won't gain credibility by introducing the latest trends — your best bet is to ensure the crucial issues are addressed first.

Quote for Monday: "Focus on solving the core problems before seeking flashy solutions; that’s how you build lasting credibility."