How to decide if you should become an engineering manager
Don’t over-index on how much (or little) coding you think you’ll be doing as a manager.
There are lots of articles written about what to do after you’ve decided to transition from engineer to engineering manager (see below), but not so many about how to make the decision in the first place. (I did find this one which was a great read)
The conventional wisdom is to ask yourself the question “When I get to work in the morning and open my laptop, do I want to see an IDE or a spreadsheet?” In other words, do you want to continue writing code or not?
This is a dangerous way to decide since it puts the most traumatic part of the transition front-and-center: not writing (as much) code. Each new manager has to come to terms with writing less (or no) code in their new role, but it doesn’t need to happen right away.
Personally, I made my peace when I realized that management is a form of leverage (this’ll sound familiar to folks who’ve read High Output Management): writing software is a high-leverage way to solve problems at scale, and when done well it can solve a lot of problems. Managing a team of software engineers — creating an environment where they can do their best work together — is much higher leverage, when done well.
So instead of focusing on whether or not you want to continue coding, instead focus on whether you want to learn and grow in the key skills of managing a team:
- hiring, training, and mentoring your team
- fostering an environment of psychological-safety
- providing clear measurements of — and tools for — success
- constantly and consistently setting expectations
You don’t need to be any good at this stuff right away. You do need to dedicate yourself to setting goals, failing, learning from failures, and being vulnerable as you take on a new role.
Think this is your path? Here are some great resources:
- New Managers: The complete guide: An incredible guide for new managers who seek to better understand their new role. Take the “New Manager Preparation Checklist” and follow up with your current manager, making sure you’re getting the support you need (this path can feel lonely sometimes) while you set clear and explicit expectations from the get-go.
- What your boss isn’t telling you but still expects of you: as a team lead, it’s your job to enable your company’s scalability.
- Cheat-sheet for new leaders: quickly build trust and keep the team engaged
- The New Manager Death Spiral: management isn’t a promotion
- Measuring Manager Success: the biggest difference between being a manager and being a developer is in how you measure your success. The key to making processes work is to make incremental changes, measure them, and then improve them.
- Common mistakes new leaders make: covers mistakes in Performance Management, Career Development, Hiring, and much more.
- Read the book “The Manager’s Path”
