I've officially had the role of Engineering Manager (EM) for almost two years now. Looking back, I hope some of my experiences can help out those who are interested in transitioning into an EM role, or those who aren't sure if EM is the right fit for them.

My Path to Engieering Management

If you would have told me five years ago that I would be working in people management AND enjoying it, I wouldn't have believed you. For the majority of my career, I had been perfectly happy in the Individual Contributor (IC) role, focusing on solving problems and implementing solutions. I never thought that management would be of interest to me. But, as my career progressed and I grew as an IC, the scope of my work naturally progressed along my area of responsibility. I went from working on individual features, to larger sections of project, to entire projects.

By the time I had graduated to working on an entire project, my role had expanded to include a lot of project management and roadmapping, along with helping lead 2 other developers as we worked to implement the features of the project. Around this time I realized that I really enjoyed working on the big picture view of a project, defining the requirements that end users needed and aligning those with the goals of the business. I also found that I didn't hate being a technical team leader and really enjoyed the feeling of helping others reach a shared goal. So when my manager approached me about adding some additional people management to my role, I jumped at the opportunity.

What I Thought Being an Engineering Manager Meant

My company didn't have a defined EM role before I was given the opportunity to become one, so I had to work with my boss to define what an EM role meant for us. For me, I assumed that I would be mostly continuing in my previous role, just with a few extra meetings to keep in touch with my direct reports. I would mostly working as an IC but with an even larger scope of responsibility. And while the responsibilities were correct, my estimation of the proportion of work was wildly off.

What I've Learned being an Engineering Manager

I think the biggest thing I learned as a new EM was just how much time it takes to be an effective people manager. Sure, the "active" management parts may be one hour 1-1 meetings every other week, but there was so much more time spent in prepping for those meetings, addressing feedback, reviewing and improving processes, etc. That was one of the biggest changes I had to implement with my manager early on was reducing the amount of IC work I was responsible for so that I wasn't burning myself out trying to do three jobs at once.

And I would say that leads into the second most important thing I learned as an EM: time management skills are crucial to your success. Depending on your organization, you may be trying to balance people management, project management, and some level of your own IC work. Finding the right balance that most effectively boosts your team's performance is extremely important; it doesn't matter if you're completing awesome IC work if your team isn't being supported so they can do their best work as well. It's something my manager and I talked about a lot - the feedback loop as you move up into the management world gets longer and longer. As an IC, you can quickly see if your changes are working and have fixed the issue at hand. But as a manager, my job is first and foremost to make sure that my team is operating at 100%, and that means that any changes you make take time to show any effect.

Finally, I think that the most impactful realization I've had as an EM is that I have really grown to enjoy the different responsibilities that come with being an EM. I truly enjoy the ability to get to know my teammates better and find better ways to serve them so that the team can reach its fullest potential. I'v been fortunate to have some really great managers in my career to emulate, and I think the biggest thing I've tried to do is be the boss I would want to have. One that focuses on the entire individual, not just them as a worker. That focus is part of why I established our internal meetup, where the only rule was you had to talk about something that you were passionate about, work-related or not. We had great talks on topic from new languages and frameworks to photography and philosophy. But that is a topic that deserves its own post in the future.

Recommendations for New Engineering Managers

From my own experience, these are some things I would think about if you're new to the EM role:

• Being a manager is something you have to work on like any other skill. Much like learning a new tool or language as an IC, learning to be a manger takes time, practice, and guidance. If you don't have a lot of leadership experience, I would recommend looking into resources for EMs, like Ryan Burgess's list of resources for EMs or Sarah Drasner's book on Engineering Management.
• One-on-one meetings with your direct reports are crucial both for collecting/providing feedback and mentoring. It was always one of my favorite things that my manager did with me so I knew that it would be important for me to continue. Find a tool that can help with planning and tracking your 1-1 meetings. I've used Lighthouse and OfficeVibe which can also send out weekly anonymous temperature check surveys as well.
• I mentioned it above but be aware that as your scope increases, your definition of success will change as well. Your goals aren't about moving your own sprint tickets across the board as much as making sure your team has everything the need to get their jobs done, whether that's removing obstacles or breaking down problems or making sure the right person is working on the right task.