The title is mostly a permission slip. People expected my opinion to carry more weight — which mattered more than any technical change. The work was already familiar; the new skill was knowing when to step back and let someone else figure it out.
Three things I underestimated: how much of the role is writing (PR descriptions, design docs, async updates), how much it's about creating context for other people, and how often the right answer is 'let's not build that yet'.