Couldn't agree more. Engineering managers that have removed themselves from the ability to contribute will also lose touch with: design, build systems, archite

Couldn't agree more. Engineering managers that have removed themselves from the ability to contribute will also lose touch with: design, build systems, architecture, qa, etc. At that point they are just a bad PM. When I was a vp eng. what helped me the most was having ONE feature that I owned. I was forced to use the build system, go through qa, fight with design. It was never something massive, or hindered other groups, but if someone on the team bitched: "this framework sucks because.." -- I was able to jump in.