3 ms·

Engineering Management is hard and there's not a lot of help out there. You go from dealing with deterministic software to very much non-deterministic humans. A

Engineering Management is hard and there's not a lot of help out there. You go from dealing with deterministic software to very much non-deterministic humans. And you’re sort of expected to just figure it out. If you're lucky your company may have leveling guides and job descriptions, but that’s it. If you’re really lucky you may be able to find a great mentor but they are few and far between. So my colleague and I wrote this to fill in some gaps. It’s the quickstart we wish we'd had when we started our management journeys over 10 years ago each. And we will keep building this. If you’d like to contribute, have feedback, or topic requests we want to hear them!

chiefalchemist 3y ago
Good idea. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing. I'd like to suggest a chapter of two be devoted to not-yet-managers with management aspirations. What they should be aware of? What skills are important to develop? How to balance an obcession with shiny new tech objects with working on other skills that good managers depend on (e.g., comms that lack ambiquity). (Tech) Managers often assend to the position and then are hit with a bad case of, "Now what?" And then they scramble. It not a good look.
- brentbarkman 3y ago
  Oooh love this, thanks for suggesting! We are already planning a more structured "first 90 days". We should also do a "Negative first 90 days" or something like that. For now though there is a bit of stuff in https://www.getkata.com/handbook/first-time-direct-managers https://www.getkata.com/handbook/first-time-direct-managers but not as structured as you're suggesting. Completely agree on the "Now what". Such a harsh surprise more often than not...
  - chiefalchemist 3y ago
    You wanna have an impact? Do a minus 90 weeks, or similar. Some sort of "program" that someone can volunteer for and follow as a "side project". Maybe it's a book one week. A YT video the next. A series of blog articles. And so on. I don't feel it needs to all original content. There's plenty of content. The problem is, "What's good? And Where TF do I start?" I suppose it could be crash-course'ed but a good manager / leader has a plan ;) If nothing else, it could help those decide if they really want to be managers. Obviously the pay is better, but that doesn't mean it's worth it.
    - brentbarkman 3y ago
      Agree in spirit but I think the magnitude (and meaning) of that can only be done on the job, not academically. And of course herein is the problem. It's company by company but what we built at my last one is built a hybrid role that allowed people to "try" being a manager without negatively affecting their own career timeline, or others. We defined the role as one where you were effectively a manager, but had clear oversight from your manager (who had to agree to this to start). You can figure out all of those definitions easily enough, the big one was in the promotion/leveling guides it didn't penalize you for going down this road and switching back to being an IC. I think that's actually one of the biggest gotcha's is that it is perceived as either an ego or career hit (or worse both) to flip back that no one does and people try to grit it out. And no one wins. It has to be company specific implemented but I think we should all be advocating for "interim" types of this role for 1st time managers.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

Good idea. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing. I'd like to suggest a chapter of two be devoted to not-yet-managers with management aspirations. What they should be aware of? What skills are important to develop? How to balance an obcession with shiny new tech objects with working on other skills that good managers depend on (e.g., comms that lack ambiquity). (Tech) Managers often assend to the position and then are hit with a bad case of, "Now what?" And then they scramble. It not a good look.

brentbarkman 3y ago
Oooh love this, thanks for suggesting! We are already planning a more structured "first 90 days". We should also do a "Negative first 90 days" or something like that. For now though there is a bit of stuff in https://www.getkata.com/handbook/first-time-direct-managers https://www.getkata.com/handbook/first-time-direct-managers but not as structured as you're suggesting. Completely agree on the "Now what". Such a harsh surprise more often than not...
- chiefalchemist 3y ago
  You wanna have an impact? Do a minus 90 weeks, or similar. Some sort of "program" that someone can volunteer for and follow as a "side project". Maybe it's a book one week. A YT video the next. A series of blog articles. And so on. I don't feel it needs to all original content. There's plenty of content. The problem is, "What's good? And Where TF do I start?" I suppose it could be crash-course'ed but a good manager / leader has a plan ;) If nothing else, it could help those decide if they really want to be managers. Obviously the pay is better, but that doesn't mean it's worth it.
  - brentbarkman 3y ago
    Agree in spirit but I think the magnitude (and meaning) of that can only be done on the job, not academically. And of course herein is the problem. It's company by company but what we built at my last one is built a hybrid role that allowed people to "try" being a manager without negatively affecting their own career timeline, or others. We defined the role as one where you were effectively a manager, but had clear oversight from your manager (who had to agree to this to start). You can figure out all of those definitions easily enough, the big one was in the promotion/leveling guides it didn't penalize you for going down this road and switching back to being an IC. I think that's actually one of the biggest gotcha's is that it is perceived as either an ego or career hit (or worse both) to flip back that no one does and people try to grit it out. And no one wins. It has to be company specific implemented but I think we should all be advocating for "interim" types of this role for 1st time managers.