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I believe the author of the article is confusing "manager" and "tech lead/senior developer". I think the author has projected things they think are important in

I believe the author of the article is confusing "manager" and "tech lead/senior developer". I think the author has projected things they think are important in a manager onto the roll and those things probably don't align with what senior stakeholders think are important. I would certainly expect the technical lead to do a good amount of coding in addition to design and mentoring, but expecting the CTO to code as the article suggests seems wrong. I guess this might be true at a 25 person startup, but I think this is an unrealistic requirement for larger organizations. By a similar argument, would the COO be reasonably expected to work on the assembly line and repair hvac on a regular basis? Again, perhaps at a company of 25 but seemingly (to me at least) absurd at a larger company.

lanecwagner 6y ago
I'm certainly blurring the lines a bit, but I would argue that in most cases there isn't a need for both. The tech lead can be the "manager". "Managing people" isn't a full time job in most cases. It all depends on how the organization is structured and how many non-technical tasks are being assigned to the "manager". Sometimes a manager is responsible for product, marketing, or HR tasks and all that will be dependent on the company in question.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- LeoTolstoyJr 6y ago
  A managers job isn’t necessarily to manage people but outcomes. People are essential for that, of course, but there’s often a lot of other moving parts to it that warrant a full time manager. The problem is often that building a good management structure is not only extremely difficult but also exceedingly rare, meaning many of us have either worked with bad managers or with managers that were poorly equipped to do their jobs effectively.
autarch 6y ago
To echo what lanecwagner said, this can be a single role. I'm a Team Lead at my current employer. My job involves coding, being the Tech Lead, _and_ managing the (small) team as a people manager.

lanecwagner 6y ago

I'm certainly blurring the lines a bit, but I would argue that in most cases there isn't a need for both. The tech lead can be the "manager". "Managing people" isn't a full time job in most cases. It all depends on how the organization is structured and how many non-technical tasks are being assigned to the "manager". Sometimes a manager is responsible for product, marketing, or HR tasks and all that will be dependent on the company in question.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
LeoTolstoyJr 6y ago
A managers job isn’t necessarily to manage people but outcomes. People are essential for that, of course, but there’s often a lot of other moving parts to it that warrant a full time manager. The problem is often that building a good management structure is not only extremely difficult but also exceedingly rare, meaning many of us have either worked with bad managers or with managers that were poorly equipped to do their jobs effectively.

autarch 6y ago

To echo what lanecwagner said, this can be a single role. I'm a Team Lead at my current employer. My job involves coding, being the Tech Lead, _and_ managing the (small) team as a people manager.