A few months ago, a peer gave me a piece of well-meaning career advice. He said, “John, now that you’re managing engineers and leading teams, you need to stop looking at the code. That’s below your pay grade.”

I respectfully disagreed. Then I opened my IDE.

In our industry, there is a dangerous misconception that “moving up” means “checking out.” We have created a generation of “Clipboard Architects” and Agile Practicitioners who haven’t committed a line of code to a repository since the days of Subversion. They speak in high-level abstractions about “synergy” and “velocity,” but they have lost touch with the actual reality of building software.

This disconnect is the root cause of most failed digital transformations.

If you don’t understand the friction your developers feel when their CI/CD pipeline breaks, or the complexity of refactoring a monolithic legacy app into microservices, your “strategic roadmap” is just a fantasy. You cannot lead what you do not understand.

The Era of the “Practitioner-Leader”

This is why I founded Perimeter Designs.

We operate on a simple, non-negotiable principle: We practice what we teach.

When I stand in front of a room to teach a SAFe® class or consult on a mobile strategy, I am not reciting a textbook I memorized ten years ago. I am sharing the patterns (and the scars) from the code I reviewed yesterday. I am teaching the architectural decisions I had to make this morning.

In 2026, with AI-assisted coding changing the landscape every week, the gap between “strategy” and “execution” is narrowing. Leaders who can bridge that gap—who can speak the language of the boardroom and the language of the backlog—are the ones who will win.

Why “Hands-On” Matters

Does this mean I’m writing production code 8 hours a day? Of course not. My job is to clear paths, not lay every brick. But staying “hands-on” allows me to:

1. Detect BS: I know when an estimate is padded and when a technical challenge is genuine.

2. Earn Respect: Engineers follow leaders who understand their craft, not just leaders who sign their timesheets.

3. Make Better Bets: When we pivot our product strategy, I know exactly what that pivot costs in terms of technical debt.

My Promise to You

Perimeter Designs is not a “slide deck” consultancy. We are an engineering firm that understands agility.

If you are tired of consultants who offer nothing but theory, let’s talk. Whether we are certifying your team in SAFe® or building your next mobile application, you will get guidance that is technically sound, practically applicable, and battle-tested.

Stop listening to people who haven’t been in the arena. Get experienced.