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This makes sense. What are some examples of things that a manager can do which will save time for an IC? A mature team will hopefully have implemented efficie

by Siecje 3y ago

This makes sense. What are some examples of things that a manager can do which will save time for an IC? A mature team will hopefully have implemented efficient workflows.

TheCoelacanth 3y ago
Most teams aren't mature and the ones that are didn't get that way by overextending their managers.
nostrademons 3y ago
The biggest one I've encountered is just scouting out problems before handing them off to an IC, to ensure they're framed correctly and the IC will be able to make rapid progress on them. Some of the levers a manager can pull to make the IC's job easier are: 1) negotiating with PM/UX to accept a solution that might have 80% of the user benefit but is 10x easier to implement 2) lining up commitments from partner teams before committing their own resources 3) lining up schedules so that all the people on a project are working on it at the same time, regardless of which team they're from 4) arranging to colocate people from different teams who will be working on the same project, to cut communication overhead 5) doing #1 to change the architecture and eliminate the need for partner teams altogether, avoiding #2-4 and cutting communication overhead 6) pointing the report at a potential solution early so they waste less time hunting around 7) answering simple questions from other teams so that it doesn't take your own engineers out of flow 8) buying off-the-shelf solutions when appropriate to scale down the project 9) killing infeasible projects before they get to the engineers. All of these require time and technical knowledge, though. An engineering manager with 16 directs is unlikely to have time to do anything other than performance reviews, meetings, and reassigning work that comes down from product/UX/sales. A tech-lead manager with 4 directs can devote some of their time to architecture & design, which then feeds back into resourcing and project assignments.

by Siecje 3y ago

This makes sense. What are some examples of things that a manager can do which will save time for an IC? A mature team will hopefully have implemented efficient workflows.

TheCoelacanth 3y ago

Most teams aren't mature and the ones that are didn't get that way by overextending their managers.

nostrademons 3y ago

The biggest one I've encountered is just scouting out problems before handing them off to an IC, to ensure they're framed correctly and the IC will be able to make rapid progress on them. Some of the levers a manager can pull to make the IC's job easier are: 1) negotiating with PM/UX to accept a solution that might have 80% of the user benefit but is 10x easier to implement 2) lining up commitments from partner teams before committing their own resources 3) lining up schedules so that all the people on a project are working on it at the same time, regardless of which team they're from 4) arranging to colocate people from different teams who will be working on the same project, to cut communication overhead 5) doing #1 to change the architecture and eliminate the need for partner teams altogether, avoiding #2-4 and cutting communication overhead 6) pointing the report at a potential solution early so they waste less time hunting around 7) answering simple questions from other teams so that it doesn't take your own engineers out of flow 8) buying off-the-shelf solutions when appropriate to scale down the project 9) killing infeasible projects before they get to the engineers. All of these require time and technical knowledge, though. An engineering manager with 16 directs is unlikely to have time to do anything other than performance reviews, meetings, and reassigning work that comes down from product/UX/sales. A tech-lead manager with 4 directs can devote some of their time to architecture & design, which then feeds back into resourcing and project assignments.