The Senior IC vs. Manager fork and how to architect the choice.

In Lesson 7.7 of GROW Course 7 (Practice Management), Doug Liles works through it with you. A framework for making the IC-vs-manager decision deliberately.

What you'll take away

- The fork

- Senior IC path

- Manager path

Chapters

(0:00) Cold open & the promise

(5:19) The fork

(10:38) Senior IC path

(15:57) Manager path

(21:16) Architecting the choice

(26:35) Revisiting it

(31:54) The artifact & what to do Monday

Study guide, slide deck, blog companion, infographic (free)

- https://fde.goodcombinator.ai/lessons/FDE_Lesson_7_7

Audio companion is AI-narrated using NotebookLM. Explainer video is human-produced.

Public release

This full FDE Certification audio lesson is available publicly as part of GROW by Good Combinator.

Continue in GROW Skills Library: https://goodcombinator.com/grow/library

Episode metadata

Show: GROW by Good Combinator

Course: Course 7 - Practice Management

Lesson: 7.7

Season/Episode: 7/7

Runtime: 37:13

Access label: public-full-lesson

Source channel: spotify

Source audio: app/lessons/assets/course-7/7.7/7.7 Deep Dive Audio.m4a

Taxonomy: Domain=Practice Management; Career stage=Manager / Senior FDE; Skill level=Advanced; Asset type=Lesson; Outcome=Lead

CRM events: course_started, lesson_completed, cert_enrolled

Transcript and accessibility

Final transcript required before launch: https://goodcombinator.com/grow/courses/course-7/lesson-7.7/transcript

Accessibility requirement: reviewed audio, clear title, descriptive show notes, and transcript availability before launch.

Audio companion is AI-narrated using NotebookLM and disclosed here.

Credits

Host: Doug Liles

Producer: Good Combinator

Audio: NotebookLM AI narration (disclosed)