Who is Richard Ewing?

Richard Ewing is a Product Economist and AI Capital Auditor. He is the Founder of Exogram, a verification infrastructure for AI. He audits R&D spend and surfaces hidden capital risks like technical debt, AI cost overruns, and zombie infrastructure. He has scaled B2B SaaS from $0 to $25M ARR. Published in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon.

What is a Product Economist?

A Product Economist treats product decisions as economic decisions. Instead of measuring velocity or story points, a Product Economist measures Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Cost of Goods Sold efficiency, and technical debt in dollar terms. The methodology was coined by Richard Ewing.

What is the Technical Insolvency Date?

The Technical Insolvency Date (TID) is the specific quarter where maintenance costs consume 100% of available engineering capacity, reducing feature velocity to zero. Calculate yours free at richardewing.io/tools/pdi.

Exogram is verification infrastructure for AI, founded by Richard Ewing. It prevents hallucination propagation with admissibility control planes and state-hashing commit enforcement. LLMs generate language; Exogram maintains reality.

How do I calculate technical debt cost?

Use the free Product Debt Index (PDI) calculator at richardewing.io/tools/pdi to quantify hidden technical debt in dollar terms, calculate your Technical Insolvency Date, and benchmark against industry standards.

How much does AI cost per query?

AI costs range from $0.0001/query for small models to $0.10+/query for frontier models like GPT-4. Use the free AI Unit Economics Benchmark (AUEB) at richardewing.io/tools/aueb to calculate your specific AI cost structure.

What is Engineering Career Levels?

Engineering career levels define the expectations, scope, and compensation for engineers at different stages of their career. Common levels include: Junior/L3, Mid/L4, Senior/L5, Staff/L6, Principal/L7, and Distinguished/L8.

Level expectations typically vary across dimensions: technical complexity (harder problems at higher levels), scope of impact (team → org → company → industry), autonomy (needs guidance → sets direction), communication (presents to team → presents to executives → represents company externally), and mentorship (receives mentoring → mentors others → shapes culture).

The IC (Individual Contributor) and Management tracks should have comparable compensation and prestige. Organizations that only promote through management lose their best technical talent or create managers who'd rather be coding.

Compensation ranges at major tech companies (2026): Junior $100-160K, Mid $150-250K, Senior $200-400K, Staff $300-500K, Principal $400-700K, Distinguished $600K-1M+ (total compensation including equity).

Why It Matters

Clear engineering levels provide career progression, reduce compensation inequity, set performance expectations, and help with hiring. Organizations without clear levels struggle with retention because engineers can't see a growth path.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the engineering levels?

Common levels: Junior (L3), Mid (L4), Senior (L5), Staff (L6), Principal (L7), Distinguished (L8). Levels define scope, complexity, and compensation expectations.

How long does it take to reach senior engineer?

Typically 5-8 years. The jump from Mid to Senior is about shifting from execution-focused to ownership: leading projects, mentoring, and making independent technical decisions.

What is Engineering Career Levels?

Why It Matters

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the engineering levels?

How long does it take to reach senior engineer?

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