Contrary to conventional wisdom, a distinguished engineer advises senior engineers to delegate the most challenging, interesting work. They should instead take on necessary but unglamorous tasks, which builds immense credit and allows junior engineers to grow faster on high-impact problems.

When you lack personal authority to challenge a senior stakeholder, leverage external expertise. Instead of presenting your questions as your own opinion, frame them using research or insights from established experts. This "borrowed credibility" makes your challenge more persuasive and encourages senior leaders to engage with the idea rather than dismiss your lack of experience.

To bypass subjective debates and gain influence, junior engineers can build prototypes for all competing technical approaches. By presenting concrete, comparative evidence after hours, they demonstrate immense value and can quickly establish themselves as technical authorities, accelerating their path to leadership.

Instead of directly opposing a decision, surface the inherent dilemma. Acknowledge the desired goal (e.g., speed), then clearly state the cost ('If we do X, we trade off Y'). Then ask, 'Is that a tradeoff we are comfortable making?' This shifts the conversation from confrontation to collaborative risk assessment.

Escalating a conflict by attacking an individual will likely backfire on your career. The correct approach is to escalate the systemic issue. Frame the problem as a broken or unclear decision-making process, and ask leadership for clarity on how such disagreements should be resolved.

Instead of escalating disagreements, Atlassian's founders operated on a simple principle: if one couldn't be persuaded that an idea was good, it was likely not worth pursuing. This served as a critical decision-making filter and prevented major conflicts.

For data-less decisions, PhonePe's co-founders have a simple rule: the partner with deeper historical strength in that domain makes the final call. The other commits fully, and they never revisit the decision, ensuring they learn and move forward without blame.

When a senior stakeholder proposes a potentially disruptive idea, direct resistance ('pushing') is counterproductive and strengthens their resolve. Instead, 'pull' them into a collaborative exploration. Acknowledge the idea, discuss the underlying problem it solves, and then gently steer the conversation back to how it aligns with the agreed-upon North Star, defusing tension.

When a critical technical decision is stalled, force a resolution with a timed design competition. Split all relevant tech leads into two competing teams and give them a few hours to independently architect a solution. This quickly reveals areas of consensus and isolates points of disagreement.