Newsletter #28: Engineering Manager Building Blocks and More.
Welcome to the 28th edition of Software Leads–a monthly newsletter on software engineering and leadership.
Welcome to the 28th edition of Software Leads, a monthly newsletter dedicated to software engineering and leadership. It compiles content from technical leaders on difficulties, tips, and practices for building and leading successful software teams in the twenty-first century.
This month’s edition includes thoughts from leaders on onboarding, designing technical strategy, how not to fail individual contributors and tips for engineering managers who want to climb the ladder to become engineering directors.
Engineering Manager Building Blocks
An engineering manager would, most of the time, drive impact in the areas of people, technology, product, execution, and branding. The more an EM develops capabilities in these areas (i.e., people, technology, product, execution, and branding), the better she will be able to meet the needs of various software teams and be adaptable in a range of circumstances. This article presents a framework on how to develop capacity in order to function and meet the needs of the team in a range of situations.
7 Effective Practices to Onboard Yourself in Your New Job
Employees who own their onboarding experience stand out, and catch people’s attention. Instead of letting the onboarding process in their organization determine where they end up, they get into the driver’s seat, buckle themselves up and get to work. When onboarding to a new team or company, you should:
Identify the gap between “what exists” and “what you need” to work well in your role.
Put your learnings into practice as you onboard.
Identify people you can count on to give you advice.
Share your ideas and opinions with others not to prove your smartness but with the attitude to add value, and learn from others.
Prioritize building relationships.
Be kind to yourself when the going gets tough.
The Best Advice for Newly Hired Staff Engineers
Once in a while, we find ourselves wanting to replicate processes and practices from a previous job in a new job at the get-go without first observing, listening, and learning how things came to be and the context behind them. “For leaders and people with a lot of experience, it is easy to assume a link between the new problems and older solutions. It is easy to overlook a company’s uniqueness and blindly throw the baggage at the new job”. To be able to contribute meaningful values to a new job, it’s crucial to listen, observe and learn first. I enjoyed reading this post and the framework documented on starting a new job and setting yourself up for success.
Advice for Engineering Managers Who Want to Climb the Ladder
This is a good post for engineering managers who want to climb the ladder to become directors.
“Directors run the business ... so you CAN NOT be seen as a blocker. People just want to come to you of their own accord to get shit done and break through the blockers. If they ask other people for advice on breaking through you, you're not a good director candidate.”
Leadership Journal: Become an Inspiring Leader in 10 Minutes a Day
This post provides a template for self-reflection for leaders who want to improve their crafts. At the end of each day, sit back, write and reflect on:
Creations: What did you create today?
Decisions: What were the top decisions you made today?
Insights: What interesting ideas did you or others raise today?
Challenges: What were the main challenges you faced today?
Tomorrow: How do you make the most of tomorrow?
How to Design a Good Technical Strategy
A technical strategy is a plan of how engineering enables the product and company's respective strategies and drives them forward. To design a good technical strategy, it’s important to reflect on three elements:
Company: What can engineering do to support the company’s mission?
Product: How can engineering support your product strategy to deliver a superior experience that drives the company mission forward?
Team: How can you leverage your engineering team's strengths to create something that benefits your company long term?
How New Managers Fail Individual Contributors
TLDR: If you’re a new manager, ensure you aren’t trying to be a senior engineer who has direct reports. If your heart is in the code and systems, perhaps you should be on that technical track yourself! Otherwise, remember that your job is now about generating leverage by developing your team, which means delegating the technical work to them while helping them identify other skills they will need to successfully grow as an engineer.
The key takeaway from this post is to avoid the following ways new managers fail individual contributors.
Doing all the technical design work yourself
Doing all of the project management yourself
Neglecting to Give Feedback
Hoarding information
Focusing too much on your personal output
Six Ways to Become a Better Manager
In this post, Andy Osmani shares six ways to be a better manager drawing on his day-to-day experiences navigating challenging situations as a manager. Key takeaways:
Be a great communicator
Share quality feedback
Approach help in a healthy way
Run effective 1:1s
Manage with empathy
Create a sense of belonging
Cheers,
Illustration by Liam Moore from Ouch!