Now that you understand competence and commitment as separate dimensions, let's explore the first development stage: the Enthusiastic Beginner.
This person has high commitment but low competence. They're excited and motivated but lack the technical skills to succeed.
Engagement Message
Can you think of a time when you were really excited to learn a new technology or framework but didn't know how?
Enthusiastic Beginners are easy to spot. They volunteer for challenging technical tasks, ask lots of questions about implementation details, and show genuine excitement about learning new technologies.
But they write buggy code, need frequent code reviews, and don't yet understand architectural trade-offs.
Engagement Message
What are some signs someone is eager to tackle technical challenges but still developing their engineering skills?
Why does this stage exist? When developers start working with new technologies, they naturally feel optimistic. They haven't yet hit the reality of debugging complex issues or handling edge cases.
Their enthusiasm is genuine - they just haven't experienced the technical difficulties yet.
Engagement Message
Think back to learning your first framework—how did your confidence change from reading the tutorial to building something real?
Here's what Enthusiastic Beginners typically say: "I'm excited to implement this API!" or "How do I set up the CI/CD pipeline?" or "I want to learn microservices architecture!"
They ask genuine technical questions and seem grateful for any code examples or guidance you provide.
Engagement Message
How does this sound different from someone who's been shipping production code for years?
The challenge with Enthusiastic Beginners is that their eagerness can mask their actual technical gaps. They might say "I can handle the database migration!" when they really can't.
This can lead to production bugs or system downtime if you don't provide enough technical oversight and guidance.
