Journey to engineering management
We explore my playbook to help engineers grow into engineering managers.
Hi, this is Peter with the next edition of the Professional Manager newsletter. I publish this newsletter to illustrate what decent, seasoned, professional engineering management could look like.
So you want to be an engineering manager?
I hope this article will help aspiring engineering managers (EMs) and leaders looking to grow engineers into great EMs. I developed a playbook to guide folks through this exciting career transition.
Many do NOT want this path
Before we dive in, let’s establish that engineering management should not be the only path to the upper echelons of careers in engineering. Companies must provide a career path for top individual contributor talent to reach senior leadership level impact without going into management. Some of the most brilliant engineers I have ever worked with were wholly committed to the individual contributor path; they wanted to continue doing what they were best at, mastering their craft and delivering business value through the power of technology. There is no sense in pressuring these folks into management!
As previously discussed, being a top EM takes a unique set of skills, and most don’t want to hone those skills.
There is a playbook for growing EM’s
Throughout my career, I coached over a dozen fledgling managers who successfully grew into EMs of all levels. Equally importantly, I ran my playbook with a handful of engineers interested in becoming a manager, yet were not cut out for “dealing with people” - more on this later. I have had the opportunity to help some grow from an intern to Director of Engineering, from Sr Engineer to Sr Director of Engineering. Unlocking this potential and participating in impressive career growth are among my top reasons to be an engineering leader. It is very satisfying to help an EM grow into their own!
Following my playbook allowed me to recognize the potential for engineering management in some of my team members. Growing folks into EMs has always been my preference over outside hiring. Although sometimes, you need to go out to the market to hire outstanding engineering leadership because you do not have the talent pool or experience that your team and business needs require.
Need for a bench
There was always a need to grow the next layer of engineering management in any team I have ever been on. Some reasons I experienced for this need
Business as usual, growing a bench - I have always demanded a contingency (aka “bus-factor”) plan for EMs on my team. Without one, business continuity is at risk, and EMs struggle to unplug when they go on holiday.
Hypergrowth - we were growing incredibly quickly and needed to have capable leaders navigating this growth.
Culture shift - sometimes, the engineering culture is on the wrong track. EMs need to be leveled up or coached out. Admittedly, this is a challenging but very much necessary transition.
Whatever my reasoning was behind growing EMs, it has always been essential for me to build and maintain a healthy bench of engineering leadership.
Recognizing engineering management potential
As a front-line manager, I developed an eye for detecting EM potential in an engineer. There are some common traits to look for:
Appetite to take on the end-to-end implementation of a feature
Proactively mentors other engineers, looks out for their professional development
Interest in coordinating with other teams to ensure smooth delivery of features
A voice for the entire team’s continuous improvement
Displays extreme ownership across all work
Independent measurement of PROD performance
Becomes the subject matter expert the product manager consults with
Wants to drive ceremonies when the EM is unavailable
Suggests and then consequently implements process improvements for the team
When an engineer exhibits some of these and expresses interest in trying on engineering management, you know you’ve got a potentially qualified candidate!
The wrong reasons
I have also encountered a few instances where an engineer wanted to grow into an EM for the wrong reasons. I wish I had recognized this ill-advised motivation at the moment; I could have spared trouble for everyone involved. Some of the wrong reasons I have seen:
Thinking that you cannot advance your career as an individual contributor
Believing that engineering management will be a comfy “retirement from engineering.”
Desire to access more influence around technical decisions
Deep down, knowing that you’re not cut out for the job and still wanting the challenge to prove otherwise
An underqualified person intends to enter engineering by jumping straight to engineering management
Thinking that they have to pursue management for the success of the team
The journey
Now that you spotted a motivated and capable engineer on your team, how do you give this person a chance at team leadership and perhaps becoming an EM? Meet Coder Carla. We worked together for a year. Carla exhibited almost all of the above qualities. Let’s walk through Carla’s journey.
Gauge interest
One day Carla came to me and said that she was interested in exploring becoming an engineering manager. I carefully evaluated the above criteria to ensure that Carla checked most boxes.
I was lucky because Carla recognized her potential in engineering management. In most cases, this kind of self-selection, verified by the manager, is the best route.
Sometimes engineers exhibit the above criteria, but they do not think about the possibility of growing into an engineering manager. In these cases, you must have a no-pressure conversation with this talented engineer to see if there is interest. Through this conversation, I sometimes found out that the person was not interested in management.
First steps as a team lead
Once Carla and I agreed that it would be worthwhile for her to try team leadership, we devised a plan for her to lead the implementation of increasingly more significant features. The critical component of this strategy was that she would work with a couple of team members and several adjacent teams.
Formalize the team lead arrangement
Carla successfully led the implementation of these more minor features. At this point, I casually checked in with her team members to see how they thought she was doing. When I confirmed that Carla was doing well both with the “what” and with the “how,” it was time to formalize the arrangement, and we
Announced to the team that Carla is going to try out a formal team lead role
That Carla would be leading ceremonies for parts of the team
That Carla would be negotiating requirements with the product team
That Carla would have project-focused 1:1’s with her small team
That any HR-type of issues would come to me
That I would continue to have 1:1’s with the team members
At this point, everyone was “in the know.”
You may ask why we didn’t have an Associate EM role to formalize this arrangement. I felt that any team leader should be able to lead without the manager's title. I also believed that keeping the reporting chain intact made this trial period far lower stakes for everyone.
Monitor progress
Carla was off to the races! I kept a close eye on her performance in many ways
Watched her team’s metrics
Paid close attention to her incremental deliverables
Gauged team happiness with surveys and 1:1’s
Monitored her contentment with the new responsibilities
I occasionally attended team ceremonies to feel out the mood in the room
It was essential to receive favorable feedback across all these dimensions. For Carla, this period lasted eight months. I recommend the team lead trial last six months, ideally closer to a year.
This career transition becomes more accessible when a company has a well-defined rubric for the manager track. Unfortunately, most companies do not, making it much more difficult for individual contributors to understand what they are signing up for when wanting to make a career shift.
The great waffle
Once Carla cleared all of these hurdles, and it was time for us to make The Big Decision, Carla experienced The Inevitable Great Waffle. Carla has been an engineer all of her professional career. She was passionate about coding, constantly learning new technologies, and mastering her craft in a contained, well-defined manner. She feared becoming an EM would make her a pointy hair, disconnected manager. This hesitation further indicated that Carla had the appropriate amount of technical curiosity and dedication I would expect from any good engineering leader. We spent a lot of time working through this topic and ultimately agreed that Carla had the unique skills required to be an engineering manager.
Carla is now a Director of Engineering at a large tech company.
Summary
This edition covered the need for an EM bench, the ability to discover EM potential in engineers, and the playbook to grow engineers into the EM role.
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