Engineering Manager 101
Top Responsibilities
Team Plan
An EM is directly responsible for the long-term health and sustainability of the organization they manage; in terms of both people and product. This requires managing the day-to-day work and planning ahead. Let’s start with the day-to-day responsibilities.People Management
The largest part of an EM’s role is to develop the careers of the people they manage - this responsibility is the main difference between a manager and an individual contributor. An EM jointly sets clear expectations with each direct report, and together they come up with a plan to get to where the report wants to go. The EM supports the employee by providing resources, opportunities, guidance, coaching, feedback, and tracks their progress over time. The EM also monitors the individual’s performance and provides instructive feedback, as needed. EMs manage a wide spectrum of direct reports: junior employees and long-tenured experts, generalists and specialists, high performers and low performers, introverts and extroverts - everyone is different and the EM must adapt to individuals’ needs and goals. Aligning each person’s strengths and interests with their work and fostering growth are keys to well functioning and motivated teams.Project Management
Project management is the day-to-day work required of an EM, the nuts and bolts of ensuring the team executes effectively on the roadmap. The EM instills good technical hygiene, establishes efficient processes as necessary, and highlights best practices. The EM reviews project plans to ensure technical correctness, feasibility, and long-term viability. The EM must also balance new feature development with existing system maintenance (i.e. technical debt). Ultimately, the EM owns the team’s deliverables, and is accountable for project estimates and timelines.The EM must be responsive to team needs and unblock any stage of the pipeline that has become a bottleneck, whether it’s an edge case in the product spec that needs to be accounted for, making tough decisions, getting project support, or managing external team dependencies. Communicating progress is essential, and the EM is the default point of contact for all engineering stakeholders.
The EM manages the team’s rhythm of project kickoffs and regular team meetings that cover: project statuses, new/upcoming projects, the learnings and results of past projects, team goals, and reprioritization. The EM is also responsible for driving clarity within the team around long term goals, and how their projects work toward those goals. The EM should lead the team through empowerment and guidance, not authority.
…back to the Team Plan
The EM is responsible for the organization, and, as such, is the Catch-All to fill in any gaps that need to be filled, whether it’s providing technical leadership, if the team doesn’t have any senior engineers, or planning team offsites to boost morale. To do so effectively, the EM must plan ahead and avoid getting caught in a reactionary loop.The EM also acts as a health monitor, constantly checking the health of the system, and must be able to identify the needs of the team. Is the team happy/motivated? What are the major pain points the team faces? Once identified, the EM takes action. For example, recruiting more engineers if the team is understaffed, or working with the Product Manager to ensure the roadmap is full of well-defined projects.
The EM must understand the broader organization they operate within. Is the team well-positioned in the organization to succeed? Can the team adapt to changing priorities? Will engineers be properly recognized and rewarded for their contributions? The health check can become a valuable immune response for the organization, if the EM escalates issues appropriately and proposes viable solutions. For example, changing the interview process to ensure diversity, or pushing back on unrealistic deadlines that would otherwise demoralize the team.
The more the EM can prepare for the change ahead, the better they can shield the team from distractions and focus on the team’s growth and impact.
Top Skills required to be an effective EM (in MRU order):
Communication
A EM must be a skilled communicator across many different mediums, including: one-on-one meetings (1:1s), email, in person discussions, technical explanations, meetings, and presentations. A few keys to being a good communicator include clear and concise writing, fast response times, detailed explanations, and knowing who to loop into the conversation, and when.Emotional Intelligence
The ability to understand your coworkers, build trust with your reports (through 1:1s, etc.) and organization, and be responsive to their needs is critical to success. Many of the solutions to the situations an EM encounters are common sense, in hindsight. The challenge is to apply rational decision making throughout the emotional roller coaster; the ability to adapt quickly, keep calm, and make the right decision, while context switching, is difficult.Prioritization
There are many competing forces that demand an EM’s attention, and a good EM is able to sort through them and focus on the important things while eliminating distractions.Technical Skills
While coding may no longer be a regular EM activity, sound technical judgment is necessary to ensure the team is designing the right system for the job, has the tools and resources to execute effectively, can help the team avoid pitfalls down the road, and accelerate progress by leveraging an EM’s industry knowledge.---
