Learning by fixing - the value of triage engineer rotations

The piece opens with a vivid story about a broken robotic dog that forced the author to confront how painful breaking things can be and how fixing them creates deep learning. That personal moment frames the argument that intentional exposure to failure is a powerful teacher for engineers.

Intercom solved this by instituting a triage engineer rotation. Each week one engineer acts as the sole point of contact for alerts, prioritizes incidents, and shields the rest of the team. The rotation creates a protected block of time for developers to focus on building, while the triage person gains hands-on exposure to the system, learns debugging skills, and understands where fragilities lie.

The process is codified with clear priority levels - P1 for broken primary workflows, P2 for secondary issues, and P3 for minor defects - and a weekly hand-off meeting that transfers knowledge to the next on-call. This structure not only speeds up incident response but also turns routine firefighting into a deliberate learning loop, reducing the hidden cost of constant context switching.

By rotating the distraction shield, teams see lower burnout, higher productivity, and a culture where engineers respect the cost of breaking things. The article shows that a simple scheduling change can turn on-call duties into a strategic lever for both personal growth and overall team performance.