Beyond a certain level, you are required to come up with new ideas and do something innovative to get promoted, but how exactly?

At some point in your career, you are required to propose some potential projects that your team or your organization can take up. Coming up with project ideas is a sign of a good senior engineer.

It indicates that you are actively looking at potential gaps in your product and thus solving them can lead to an increase in revenue, cost reduction, or an improvement in user experience. To come up with new projects, here are a few things you should actively do

1. talk to your customers and understand potential gaps
2. keep exploring new things, every single day
3. prototype to build a practical understanding
4. watch conference talks, explore new GitHub projects
5. understand the nuances by going deeper through source code and papers

It takes one paper, one blog, one talk, or one conversation, to come up with one insight that will change your trajectory. So, instead of waiting for your manager to give you that magical project, pitch yours.

Remember, a senior engineer finds their own work.