Dumped into the fire — now what?
💬 The following is a short reflection from a recent conversation with an engineering manager friend as they on-board with their new employer. “Dumped into the fire” is how they described the feeling — a feeling I can relate to. I have faith my friend will come out unscathed, and so can you.
I recall experiencing this feeling a few times before. A feeling that is in part buyers remorse and in part like the house is on fire.
In one instance, I had just started a new position as an engineering manager. I expected a slow ramp up with an on-boarding buddy to help me understand how things worked. It was a mirage.
Then, reality hit me — there was no 30–60–90 day plan or buddy. There was only a nebulous vision, and a minimal execution plan. Everybody was busy frantically building the train as it was moving, and I needed to hop aboard — I had been dumped into the fire.
My younger self may have been paralyzed, waiting to be spoon fed some direction. Thankfully, I had baked sufficiently enough, and knew I had to get problem-solving immediately. There was no time to waste and no question too dumb for my ego to ask.
I created a checklist for myself to serve as my on-boarding plan. Here’s a snippet pieced together from fleeting memory:
- Meet the team and set up 1:1s
- Meet functional partners (product and design leads, marketing folks, sales, business partners, HRBPs, etc)
- Understand the end-state vision clearly
- Understand the customer persona
- Define a north star metric
- Meet the key stakeholders
- Understand the timeline
- Understand the single, most-important thing I must to deliver to above stakeholder
The final point was the most critical one — I had been hired to lead development for a new consumer product. I needed to hit the ground running, understand in-flight changes, understand hiring plans, understand the domain and the tech, understand the organizational dynamics, etc. I needed a lot! And I needed it yesterday. And I had to make some quick decisions, and own their outcomes.
A key learning
During this onboarding phase the checklist above really helped me combat that dumped into the fire anxiety, and allowed me to get oriented quickly. So what can you do if you find yourself in the same boat?
- Well, if a 30–60–90 day plan hasn’t been created for you, make one yourself. Get your manager to look at it and align on that.
- Figure out your team’s north star. Put it on a dashboard and look at it today. What is the baseline today? What’s the target? You won’t even be asking the right questions without this.
- Find out who are the key stakeholders are. If you got nothing done, who would be pissed off? Who’s workflows would be disrupted?
- Dont hide (related to the previous point) — create regular check-in with key stakeholders — present to leadership, and collect feedback early.
- Meet people and establish trust.
Remember, even if it feels like you’re being swept away by the current, you do have some control. Some decisions are yours to make. The challenge is figuring out which ones they are, and finding the courage to make them.
Hope this was helpful to someone experiencing the same dumped into the fire feeling. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments ❤️.
The learning continues in…
- All chapters — The Engineering Manager’s Pocket Guide
- Chapter 15 — Beyond the Feature Factory
- Chapter 16 — Empowering independent thinking
- Chapter 17 — Managing managers — what changes?
- Chapter 18 — Manager of managers — Leverage is a double-edged sword
- Chapter 19 — Manager of managers — Outcomes over output
- Chapter 20 — Code ownership in flux
- Chapter 21 — Tech debt days
- Chapter 22 — Dumped into the fire — now what?
If you have any thoughts or experiences to add, let me know! Respond to this post or let me know on LinkedIn. I’m happy to talk about anything software engineering related.
