{"id":2575,"date":"2024-06-10T08:35:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T14:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontendmasters.com\/blog\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2024-06-12T10:08:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T16:08:55","slug":"how-to-decide-if-engineering-management-is-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontendmasters.com\/blog\/how-to-decide-if-engineering-management-is-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Decide if Engineering Management is for You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cShould I transition into engineering management?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWill I like it?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAm I qualified to be a manager?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat if I miss coding?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have asked yourself these questions at one point when trying to determine whether engineering management is the next step in your career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to know whether engineering management (EM) is right for you before jumping into the role, however there are a few aspects to the job that can help you determine whether or not you\u2019ll enjoy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Skills That Make You A Great Engineer Can Hold You Back As A Manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s suppose you\u2019re the top-performing engineer on your team of six at a startup. You\u2019ve just found out that not only is your manager leaving the company, but you\u2019ve been asked to step up as the interim manager. You\u2019re the top performing engineer, it makes sense you\u2019d pursue a leadership role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the areas you excel at is autonomy. You pick up any ticket, regardless of subject matter, and deliver great code. You take this sense of autonomy and \u201cyes\u201d mentality with you into the EM role. You say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. You say yes to every stakeholder asking your team to do work for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You quickly find yourself on the edge of burnout from committing to too many things at once and not having enough focus time to achieve it all. In order to accomplish all the tasks you committed to, you start canceling one on ones with your team and forget to complete the \u201csmaller\u201d tasks you agreed to do for them, like chatting with HR about a team member who wants to move locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your team also starts to burn out from having too much work in their sprint. They can\u2019t possibly complete it all, let alone to a high standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now your team members lose trust in you and begin to get frustrated. Team morale is down and it continues in a negative spiral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skills that served you well as an engineer won\u2019t always hinder your ability to thrive as an EM, but it’s possible that the skills that helped you land this role end up holding you back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we compare skills that serve you well in an engineering role we can see they\u2019re focused around collaboration with team members and ability to complete tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Engineering Skills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Autonomy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to write code and complete tasks on their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Perseverance<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to finish long-running tasks and workstreams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Attention to Detail<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to implement a feature with consideration for design, accessibility, performance, etc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Problem Solving<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to architect a new feature, debug an issue, migrate legacy code to a newer framework, etc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Collaboration<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to mentor team members, pair program effectively, and work with others to achieve a common goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Engineering management skills focus on a combination of people skills and technical competence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Engineering Management Skills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Accountability<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to complete the tasks you promise your team you’ll complete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Technical Competence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to understand the technical solutions and limitations, dependencies, and improvement areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Context Switching<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to remember the state of many projects and jump from meeting to meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Conflict Resolution<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to resolve differences between team members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Communication<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The ability to convey information horizontally (EM peers), and vertically (leadership and direct reports).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Each skill on the engineering list can be used as an engineering manager (and vice versa), however which skills you leverage on a daily basis will shift from more task-focused to more people and results focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being A Great Manager Doesn\u2019t Mean Everyone Will Think You\u2019re A Great Manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As an EM, you will encounter situations that require you to make difficult decisions and potentially upset one of your team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, let\u2019s suppose you\u2019re having a one-on-one with Ryan. She\u2019s telling you that she\u2019s working on building a new feature with Carmen but Carmen isn\u2019t making a lot of progress during the week. Ryan has offered to pair program with her, but Carmen doesn\u2019t seem interested. Ryan wants your help to address the situation. How would you handle it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, I would encourage Ryan to give this feedback directly to Carmen and support her if she needs assistance wording the feedback constructively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, I would check in with Carmen during our 1:1. When I do meet with her I can ask: \u201cYou and Ryan have been pairing. How has that been going?\u201d Notice I asked her an open ended question. I want to understand her experience working with Ryan. There are always two sides to every story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s suppose Carmen says \u201cit\u2019s going well.\u201d That doesn\u2019t leave me with a lot to continue with right? So I might follow up with \u201chow\u2019s the development progressing? Is there anything I can support you with?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully Carmen may open up about the challenges she\u2019s facing. But in the event she doesn\u2019t open up you need to be comfortable bringing up the dissonance in their working relationship. \u201cRyan mentioned that things are going more slowly than anticipated. You tried pairing right? How did that go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal with this conversation is to gather information and coach each person into building a stronger and more effective working relationship. Your job is not to place blame on any one person. However it\u2019s a possibility that Carmen has a different opinion about her performance and if that is the case you must be very clear with her about the expectations for the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAs a senior engineer you\u2019re expected to be mostly autonomous. If you feel stuck you should ask your team for help. If you don\u2019t feel comfortable or safe doing that let\u2019s discuss it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Carmen may leave your 1:1 feeling defeated, angry, and micro-managed. She may even talk badly about you to her colleagues. But it\u2019s more important that you have communicated clear expectations for the job as well as an accurate picture of how your team member is performing towards those expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you fail to address difficult situations, such as low performance, you will lose the trust of your other team members. And it also puts the low-performing team member at a disadvantage come performance and compensation review season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a great manager means delivering the tough constructive feedback your engineers need to learn and grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling Productive Doesn\u2019t Come As Easily<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As an engineer you can close some tickets and merge some PRs and walk away feeling productive at the end of the day. As an EM you don\u2019t measure productivity in the same way, which can cause you to feel more unproductive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a manager you do work through other people. In part, your success is an aggregation of the success of your team. If your team is meeting their milestones and delivering what you committed to, that\u2019s a great sign that you\u2019re being productive. But this isn\u2019t something you get at the end of each work day. Your timeline for feeling productive shifts from daily to weekly or monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, you\u2019re context switching throughout the day. Your meeting cadence might look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Team standup<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. EM\/PM\/Design sync<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. 1:1<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Product area tech leads weekly<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. 1:1<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Workstream review<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Jumping around from one meeting to another can deplete your sense of productivity. Most of your time is spent in meetings and discussions, which don\u2019t always produce tangible results like a pull request or block of code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are four groups that I use to track my work which help me feel more productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Tracking Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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    Finite Tasks<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Have a clear definition of done and have an external impact.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Administrative Tasks<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Help you operate day to day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n
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    Self-Improvement Tasks<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Help improve yourself as a manager and a human.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n

    Collaborative Tasks<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Meetings and tasks you have with other people that help you make progress toward a goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Finite tasks<\/strong> have a clear definition of done. You can add them to your to-do list and check them off when you\u2019re done. They also have an impact outside of you as an individual. Some examples might be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n