If you want to be seen as relevant, you have to start now to collect the evidence that tells the story of the things you do, the value that you bring.

You need Objective Evidence

1. Track Impact

• Track metrics that will allow you to show the impact you bring. (The changes you made increased click-through by X%, increasing revenue by Y.)
• Cross team impact. /you built a tool or library that streamlined others work, increasing their efficiencies./

2. Document difficulty

• Before starting a long-term task, write a design doc or project plan discussing different possible approaches, and get feedback on it. Docs written after the fact are obvious to spot, rather than real evidence of difficulty. Capture the inherent difficulties in diagrams and tables for quick review. Make sure the docs have your name on them!
• Ensure your bugs and changelists clearly show the difficulties and design trade-offs.

3. Exhibit leadership

• Interact with and help guide other teams.
• Give internal or external talks.
• Meet with outside vendors.
• Write “getting started” guides.
• Find ways to share your expertise.
• Propose new ideas or build a proof-of-concept system, and get buy-in from stakeholders.
• Evangelize best practices.
• Mentor junior team members.
• Host interns.
• Volunteer for work that benefits everyone