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As a manager you are the primary firewall between the world of distraction and the world of getting shit done. Most places these days have institutionalized som
by dasmoth 9y ago
As a manager you are the primary firewall between the world of distraction and the world of getting shit done. Most places these days have institutionalized some amount of distraction -- the various recurring "ceremonies" -- but anything beyond that, it's essential that the manager can protect the engineers from being distracted when they're working on hard problems.
While I agree with the general point here, I'm not convinced priorities are necessarily the right was around. Talking to customers/users usually seems to end up paying off in the long run, even (perhaps especially) if it's a bit rambling. On the other hand, it's the regular ceremonial stuff that leaves me agitated and unable to focus afterwards.
- cat199 9y agoFor me, this would mean not that managers should prevent interaction, but that managers should work to structure that interaction so that it is productive and well organized rather than a constant distraction/interruption..
- EpicEng 9y agoI think the intent is to have a "question by default" mentality. I'm a lead and my default answer is almost always (in my head) "no" when asked for something from the team that doesn't have direct development value. I then try to get the requestor to demonstrate why e.g. a meeting is needed. More often than not we end up solving the issue via email.