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I still don't buy this. You talk about scaling the team: how can a manager says to HR "I need N new hires in 2022 because we have projects X Y and Z" if you don

I still don't buy this. You talk about scaling the team: how can a manager says to HR "I need N new hires in 2022 because we have projects X Y and Z" if you don't have the technical knowledge and experience to know how complicated those projects can be? How are you going to protect your team from extra work or starting a stupid project if you cannot recognize it? Those are tech skills and a good manager must have them.

marcinzm 5y ago
I'm very confused, is your team made of nothing but juniors? Or are senior engineers not trusted at all? I simply ask my tech leads and senior engineers to give me an estimate. Then I trust them. In my experience engineers hate it when an out of touch manager makes an estimate on their behalf and then they are forced to do crunch time to meet it. edit: Also most projects come via the PM who would coordinate with the tech leads directly for planning and scoping.
- darkwater 5y ago
  Obviously you ask the team but many times you might be in some meeting and it's just you because you don't want to drag an engineer in yet another meeting... isn't what they all hate? I don't really see technical knowledge in an engineering manager as a bad thing, really.
  - marcinzm 5y ago
    There should be a process for project planning other than "a manager was in a meeting and agreed to it." That process should not require people to show up in meetings. This brings up my overall view that being technical can often make a manager take short term shortcuts. That works right until it no longer does and then you have a broken team and culture and processes. Not thinking technically means you are forced to implement good long term processes and not keep monkey patching things. For example, if the managers keeps making these decisions in meetings then senior engineers will wonder how they can have their voice heard except by going into management.

marcinzm 5y ago

I'm very confused, is your team made of nothing but juniors? Or are senior engineers not trusted at all? I simply ask my tech leads and senior engineers to give me an estimate. Then I trust them. In my experience engineers hate it when an out of touch manager makes an estimate on their behalf and then they are forced to do crunch time to meet it. edit: Also most projects come via the PM who would coordinate with the tech leads directly for planning and scoping.

darkwater 5y ago
Obviously you ask the team but many times you might be in some meeting and it's just you because you don't want to drag an engineer in yet another meeting... isn't what they all hate? I don't really see technical knowledge in an engineering manager as a bad thing, really.
- marcinzm 5y ago
  There should be a process for project planning other than "a manager was in a meeting and agreed to it." That process should not require people to show up in meetings. This brings up my overall view that being technical can often make a manager take short term shortcuts. That works right until it no longer does and then you have a broken team and culture and processes. Not thinking technically means you are forced to implement good long term processes and not keep monkey patching things. For example, if the managers keeps making these decisions in meetings then senior engineers will wonder how they can have their voice heard except by going into management.