4 ms·

Ask HN: Advice on becoming a first-time manager overnight?

• MilnerRoute 4y ago
  This was the first thing that came to my mind. "Tales from a Red Had quality engineering manager." https://thenewstack.io/tales-from-a-red-hat-quality-engineering-manager/ https://thenewstack.io/tales-from-a-red-hat-quality-engineer...
• Jugurtha 4y ago
  I post this from time to time, incluing here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28422944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28422944 with some editing. Recycling some replies. More context on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 (understanding codebases, etc.) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26591067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26591067 (testing pipelines, scaffolding, issue templates) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 (making the most out of meetings, leveraging your presence) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 (product development) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 (giving a damn) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 (If I disappear, what will happen) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 (about consulting and clients, but you can abstract that as "stakeholders", and understanding the problem your "client", who can be your manager, has.) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 (on taking notes. When you're told something, or receive a remark, make sure to make a note and learn from it whether it's a mistake, or a colleague showing you something useful, or a task you must accomplish.. don't be told things twice or worse. Be on the ball and reliable). - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 (product, architecture, and impact on the team) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 (onboarding new hires to a codebase, what if it were you, improve code) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 (being efficient learning from video, hacks. Subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 (communication with the team, and subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 (template for taking minutes of meetings to dispatch to the team. Notes are in GitHub/GitLab so the team can access them, especially if they haven't attended). - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 (communication, alignment) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 (useful things for the team and product that add leverage) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 (more meeting notes. Reply to a person who had trouble talking in corporate meetings) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 (management involvement as a spectrum) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 (researching topics) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 (keeping up with a firehose of information) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 (fractal communication: communication that can penetrate several layers of management and be relevant to people with different profiles and skillsets) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 (remote work, use existing tooling and build our own. Jitsi videos, record everything, give access to everyone so they can reference them and go back to them, meetings once a week or two weeks to align) Write better. Always.
  • abbadadda 4y ago
    WOW. That is a lot to take in.... I'll have a read through!
    • Jugurtha 4y ago
      That's really targeted to individual contributors starting out. If they follow this, they'll be way ahead than they would be without guidance and. These tips put them in a good position to become a manager by co-optation as you become so useful to the team. Be useful. Communicate clearly. Maintain your composure and don't lose your head. Listen to everyone but make a decision and own it: if it's right, celebrate the team and, if it's wrong, own the mistake, shield them, and correct course. Get yourself out of a job daily: make sure to groom your team members to take your place. Delegate gradually and increase the complexity of what any team member does and increase your complexity by gradually taking things off the plate of your mananager. It doesn't make sense to have your manager do something you can do, so do it and let them do things you cannot do. Same goes for your team members. Be in tune with how they're feeling. Ask them how they are. Observe carefully if there's something on their mind. Don't let an infection linger and if it does, drain the pus and treat it as soon as possible. Be on the ball every day to keep your team members: speak freely with them about finances. You want to have conversations with them before they start looking for another job and you want to establish a trusting relation so they can freely speak with you about what they're frustrated about. Reduce information asymmetry to the best of your abilities. If you're in a meeting and they were not present, take notes and disseminate. Keep them informed. They'll have some of the most valuable input you'll have and they'll bring things you didn't see to your attention (code level, system level, incompatibilites, integrations, ideas). Get involved with the business side and involve them as well. You want to feed off each other: they'll make you a better manager than you could have on your own. Push them to be better. They'll push you to be better. Never hesitate to state you fucked up. Establish that soon. They won't have a problem to do it after that. Always get to the truth. It will speed up everything, from a simple incident on a production machine, to correcting course on a project in a split second. It will save you all. Transparency. Never be vague or cryptic or create an information void; it will be filled by the worst interpretation possible. Never say "Can we have a meeting at 1400?" (this causes stress). Always say "I'm having trouble understanding this part of this sub-system and I need you help to understand it better. What time works for you to have a chat about it?". The first may lead someone to think [insert the worst reason for a meeting they can think of]. Never do that; even when it's bad. Then again, I'm biased as I was trained in feedback and control systems/theory, so I see things in terms of desired state and current state and errors to be corrected. It makes conversations easier (our system produces some output and I'd like it to produce a different output, how can we improve that system to reduce that error). Put it that way to an engineer and you'll be amazed at how fast you could optimize while minimizing disagreable feelings: put brains to work, not thyroid glands. If you're in an office environment or you make stints at the office, a great way to have "one-on-one"s is to get out of the office and take a walk with your team member. Just walk around town or something. You'll have conversations you would never have had if you were in the office. Just completely different conversations. Get to the truth every single time. Always keep your promises and never promise what you cannot deliver. Always do right by your team members. Always push to get your team members more of everything; there are many who will shy away from asking so make sure to be their voice. Never miss an occasion to give credit with "higher ups" and acknowledge the work of your team. As I said, be a shield: if there's a screw up, say you'll fix it. Don't get into details on "who" messed up: your team messed up therefore you messed up therefore you say you will fix it. If it gets down to chewing someone on your team, don't let anyone chew one of your team members. It's between you and your team member. Be very protective of your team cohesion: get involved in hiring and get your team involved in hiring and filter like a motherfucker. Weed out anyone who is not fit to join your team. Always ask your team members to validate candidates. If you don't have a say in it and your team complains about someone, handle it as soon as possible: get very close to the person and train them to work well with your team, then ask for feedback from your team on the evolution of the new hire. Rinse, repeat. If they find it unbearable to work with the new hire and you couldn't train them to work well with the team, do whatever you can to get them out of the team. If not, it will destroy your team. If someone leaving the team is unavoidable, hook them up elsewhere and look after them when they leave. Ask to be listed as a reference and praise them with future employers. I suppose you work with people who are damn good because if they're not, you would have trained them to be or pushed them out in the first place. I keep in touch with people who have left (for reasons we could do nothing about) and send them things to improve their life (better job offers, information about new things they might be interested in). Institutionalize everything. Make sure you're replaceable. Make sure your team members can do your job, then do something else (reinvent your job). Make sure they always see a bigger picture (if you're involved in sales an learn things, teach them to them. If you're writing copy, do that as well. Be sharing. Be useful.)