Aizat’s Guide to

Engineering Management

For both managers and people being managed

Slides are not perfect, help me make it perfect

Work In Progress

Slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mJfFzPHwfa8gDkmOFnPQJWxt4d9wzSfV6-dqlwF5SW4/edit#slide=id.g5e27b7dc5c_13_0

Website Notes:

https://www.aizatto.com/engineering-management

How do we make this a success?

Key Question I Ask

Responsibilities

Manager:

• Listening
• Managing Your Report
• Giving Report Feedback
• Workplace Guidance
• Mentorship and Coaching
• Training and Career Growth
• Help Navigate Teammates
• Inspire you with larger picture
• Look at your Report’s blind spots
• Inspiring Values
• Maintainers of culture
• Are Moderators

Report (Employee):

• You Are Responsible for Yourself
• Choose Your Managers (if you can)
• Managing Your Manager
• Giving Manager Feedback
• Driving 1:1s
• Look at your Manager’s blind spots
• Spend Time Thinking About What You Want

Roles

Manager (Depending on the size of company):

• Coach
• Engineering Manager
• Hiring Manager
• Product Manager
• Technical Lead
• Architect

Listening

“Listening is the first and most basic skill of managing people. Listening is a precursor to empathy, which is one of the core skills of a quality manager”

Deep Thought Questions

Questions You Should Ask Yourself

• What do you expect from a manager?
• What do you not expect from a manager?
• What do you expect from a leader?
• What do you not expect from a leader?
• How do you want to be managed?

What do you expect from a manager?

Expectations

1. Listen, read between the lines
1. Sounding Board
2. Help reinterpret my thoughts
2. Growth Mindset
3. Feedback
• Provides Growth Opportunities
4. Look Out For My Blind Spots
5. Have Each Others Back
6. Dependability
7. Show Appreciation

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Expectations

8. Provide Inspiration
9. Provide Larger Picture View
10. Leadership
11. Some life mentorship/coaching

Disclaimer:

• My Personal Bias
• Expectation from
• my manager; and
• my reports

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Google’s Manager Behaviors

6. Supports career development and discusses performance
7. Has a clear vision/strategy for the team
8. Has key technical skills to help advise the team
9. Collaborates across Google/the company
10. Is a strong decision maker

Top 10 things valued in a manager

1. Is a good coach
2. Empowers team and does not micromanage
3. Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being
4. Is productive and results-oriented
5. Is a good communicator - listens and shares information

Gallup’s Why Great Managers Are So Rare

1. They motivate every single employee to take action and engage employees with a compelling mission and vision.
2. They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.
3. They create a culture of clear accountability.
4. They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.
5. They make decisions based on productivity, not politics.

What to expect from a manager?

• Shows larger picture of how your work fits into team’s goals, and helps you feel a sense of purpose in the day-to-day work.
• Most mundane work can turn into a source of pride when you understand how it contributes to the overall success of the company

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Managers are:

• People
• Leaders
• Followers
• They most likely have managers too
• Orchestrators
• Coordinators
• Moderators
• Schedulers

New Reports

New Reports

• Get Feedback From Your New Hire
• Identifying Knowledge That They Need To Learn
• Look for their blind spots
• Required to bring them up to speed
• Show them tools, tips and tricks
• “Fresh pair of eyes”
• Look for my blind spots
• Ask them suggestions for new tools

• Context Sharing
• Sharing Context
• Sharing Purpose
• Sharing Mission
• Sharing Standards, and Expectations
• Build Trust and Rapport
• Important in first 1:1
• Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan
• Encourage Participation By Updating The New Hire Documentation
• Communicate Your Style and Expectations

The First 1:1

Getting To Know Them

• Get to know them as a person
• Family
• Hobbies, Interests, Passions
• History
• What motivates them?
• Why did they join the company?
• How long ago did they join the company?
• Are they achieving the goals they set out when the joined?
• Purpose?

• What keeps them in the company?
• What keeps them in the team?
• What would they change about the company?
• Career goals?
• Ask for feedback on company
• Track problems
• Track possible improvements
• Ask to provide solutions
• “Fresh pair of eyes”

30/60/90 Day Plan

30 Day Plan

• Identify any issues with them in the company
• Be familiar with the existence of tools and standards
• They should know how to commit code by now
• On boarding session conducted
• Teaching them the “unknown unknowns”

90 Day Plan

• Should have no problems with
• Coding
• Tools
• Fully familiar with frameworks
• Majority of uncertainty removed
• Performance Review should be “Meeting Expectations”

30/60/90 Day Plan

Review Yourself

• Are you giving proper mentorship

Review the Employee

• Is this person creating more problems?
• Is your time spent with this person better spent on other things?

1:1s

1:1 Purpose

Purposes:

• Create human connection between you and your manager
• Regular opportunity for you to speak privately with your manager about whatever needs discussing

Great managers notice when your normal energy level changes, and will hopefully care enough to ask you about it

• Report has to take responsibility for good 1:1s as well
• Try to take it out of normal working behavior
• Have Skip-Level Meetings
• Meet with your managers manager
• Meet with your reports report

1:1 Rules

Always:

• Ask for Feedback
• Ask “What Else”
• Don’t get distracted
• Give meeting full attention
• Keep notes
• Google’s Template

Observe:

• What they say
• What they don’t say

Limit:

• Rescheduling

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1:1 Styles

1. Getting to Know You
2. Alignment
3. The Progress Report
4. The To-Do List Meeting
5. The Catch-up
6. The Feedback Meeting
7. Coaching
8. Mix It Up

Purely Optional (Only if no Senior Tech team)

1. Pair Programming
2. Technical Roadmap Planning
3. Product Roadmap

Maybe this should go under coaching

Career Conversations

GROW Model:

• Goal: What do you want?
• Reality: What’s happening now?
• Options: What could you do?
• Will: What will you do?

Feedback

• Provide lightweight, regular feedback
• Feedbacks should not be a surprise
• Use concrete examples
• Be specific

Tracking 1:1s with Asana

Sections:

• Discuss this week
• Revisit later
• Roadblocks and wins
• Goals
• Action items

https://asana.com/guide/examples/exec/one-on-ones

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Assess/Calibrate an Individual

Questions:

1. What will we accomplish? You spell this out in your mission, goals, and key metrics.
2. Why should we do it? Here is where your vision statement and incentives come into play.
3. How will we do it? This includes defining the team’s strategy in relation to the organization’s, as well as sorting out the plans and activities needed for execution.
4. Who will do what? People’s roles and responsibilities must support all of the above.

Attributes that can be assessed:

1. Competence
2. Trustworthiness
3. Energy
4. People skills
5. Focus
6. Judgement

Things to Assess an Individual

Actions:

• Observe
• What they say
• What they don’t say
• Summarize

Ask how they feel about:

• Themselves
• Their future
• Their abilities
• Their opportunities
• Their team
• Their work
• The company

How to Assess a Manager

From 1-5: “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”

1. I would recommend my manager to others.
2. My manager assigns stretch opportunities to help me develop in my career.
3. My manager communicates clear goals for our team.
4. My manager gives me actionable feedback on a regular basis.
5. My manager provides the autonomy I need to do my job (i.e., does not "micro-manage" by getting involved in details that should be handled at other levels).

6. My manager consistently shows consideration for me as a person.
7. My manager keeps the team focused on priorities, even when it’s difficult (e.g., declining or deprioritizing other projects).
8. My manager regularly shares relevant information from their manager and senior leadership.
9. My manager has had a meaningful discussion with me about my career development in the past six months.
10. My manager has the technical expertise (e.g., technical judgment in Tech, selling in Sales, accounting in Finance) required to effectively manage me.
11. The actions of my manager show they value the perspective I bring to the team, even if it is different from their own.
12. My manager makes tough decisions effectively (e.g., decisions involving multiple teams, competing priorities).
13. My manager effectively collaborates across boundaries (e.g., team, organizational).

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1. What would you recommend your manager keep doing?

2. What would you have your manager change?

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Health of A Team

Team Health

• Frequency of Releases
• Frequency of Code Check-ins
• Frequency of Incidents

Building a Team

Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman%27s_stages_of_group_development

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Stages

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning / Mourning

HBR’s Leading the Team You Inherit

Stages

1. Assess
2. Reshape
1. Composition
2. Alignment
3. Operating model
4. Integration
3. Accelerate

https://hbr.org/2016/06/leading-the-team-you-inherit

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Keywords

Starting Keywords

• Are
• Can
• Did
• Do
• Had
• Have
• How
• Is
• Must
• Of

• Should
• What
• When
• Which
• Why
• Who
• Whose
• Will
• Would

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Broad

• Calibration
• Effectiveness
• Processes
• Qualities
• Road Blocks
• Abilities
• Expectations
• Management

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• Time
• Habits
• Routines
• Learning, Growth
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Values
• Impact
• Decision Making

Success

• Failures
• Goals
• Mission
• Purpose
• Direction
• OKRs
• Objectives
• Key Results
• Quarterly Results
• Targets
• Deadlines

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• Missed Targets
• Measurements
• Tracking
• Analytics
• Alarms
• Dashboards
• Charts
• Reward
• Data Driven
• Month on Month
• Growth

Leadership

• Maturity
• Coaching
• Energy
• Empowerment
• Reward
• Give Credit
• Steward
• Accountable
• Passion
• Team

• Politics
• Management
• Leadership
• Vision
• Purpose
• Mission
• Direction
• Trust
• Impact
• Culture

Engineering

• Speed
• Iteration
• Momentum
• Quality
• Tools
• Road Blocks
• Validation
• Lean
• Costs

• Technical Debt
• Complexity
• Career Track
• Frequency of
• Releases
• Check ins
• incidents

Performance Reviews

• Career Track
• Peer Reviews
• 360 Reviews
• Feedback
• Evaluation

Effectiveness / Communication

• Radical Candor
• Transparency
• Trust

Books / Reading Materials

Google’s: The Five Keys to a Successful Team

• Psychological Safety
• Dependability
• Structure & Clarity
• Meaning of Work
• Impact of Work

https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/the-five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team-59/

https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/

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Raylene’s Eng Team Handbook

“When it comes to building software, there are a lot of resources out there that help you get started quickly, from open-source libraries to full-stack tools and platforms. But when it comes to building engineering teams, it's hard to find resources that you can link to, clone, or integrate with and start using right away.”

https://github.com/raylene/eng-handbook/blob/master/README.md

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reWork: With Google

1. Develop and support managers
2. Set and communicate a team vision
3. Care professionally for your team
4. Stay technical and results focused
5. Empower your team
6. Identify what makes a great manager
7. Give feedback to managers
8. Coach managers to coach

The Manager’s Path

• Management 101
• Mentoring
• Managing People
• 1-1s
• Getting to know you
• The Progress Report
• The Feedback Meeting
• Performance Review
• Culture of Continuous Feedback
• Debugging Team
• Managing Managers

https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/the-managers-path-a-guide-for-tech-leaders-navigating-growth-and-change-354/

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HBR’s 10 Must Reads For New Managers

1. Becoming the Boss
2. Leading the Team You Inherit
3. Saving your Rookie Managers from Themselves
4. Managing the High Intensity Workplace
5. Harnessing the Science of Persuasion
6. What Makes a Leader
7. The Authenticity Paradox
8. Managing Your Boss
9. How Leaders Create and Use Networks

10. Management Time: Whos' Got The Monkey

Bonus Article

• How Managers Become Leaders

https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/hbrs-10-must-reads-for-new-managers-363/

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High Output Management

• Management is a Team Game
• Managerial Leverage
• Meetings - The Medium of Managerial Work
• Decisions, Decisions
• Planning
• Team of Teams
• The Breakfast Factory Goes National
• Hybrid Organizations
• Dual Reporting
• Modes of Control
• The Players
• The Sports Analogy

https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/high-output-management-364/

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Julie Zhou: The Making of a Manager

1. Great Managers are Made, Not Born
2. What is Management?
3. Your first three months
4. Leading a small team
5. The art of feedback
6. Managing yourself
7. Amazing Meetings
8. HIring Well
9. Making Things Happen
10. Leading a Growing Team
11. Nurturing Culture
12. The Journey is 1% Finished

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Manager-What-Everyone-Looks-ebook/dp/B079WNPRL2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3EZXKNJ4HS5XC&keywords=julie+zhou+making+manager&qid=1564715205&s=gateway&sprefix=julie+zhou%2Caps%2C395&sr=8-3

1:1s

https://github.com/raylene/eng-handbook/blob/master/management/guide-to-1-1s.md#sample-11-schedule

https://a16z.com/2012/08/30/one-on-one/

https://hbr.org/2016/08/how-to-make-your-one-on-ones-with-employees-more-productive

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https://devtomanager.com/