Playing an engineering manager role for the first time, any suggestions on how to approach, DOs and DON’Ts?

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Don't try to be an engineer. You'll be tempted to "get your hands dirty" all the time. Don't.

Your job is to deflect things that shouldn't get in your engineers' way, help them with the things that do get in their way, delegate problems (NOT tasks) to engineers, and handle the planning admin and performance management.

Don't think of moving to manager as a promotion, it's a career change. If you try to approach it as a promotion you'll get yourself in knots

likehelpful

I'm not an engineering manager, so take this with a grain of salt.

I would recommend looking at past managers and isolating out the things you liked that they did, and the things you didn't like. Look at it with an open mind, try and find those things that helped you achieve the most, and stretched you to grow. Also look for behaviors to avoid.

Additionally, take your core objectives as a manager, and create standard daily tasks that help you stay on top of those things. This way you and the team never fall behind on your core objectives.

Hopefully this helps.

likehelpful

I have an engineer on the team who’s visibly stalling the work assigned by asking random questions on stand ups and giving weird excuses. What’s the best way to deal here?

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Got it. And to track everyone’s progress, do I drill down on their JIRA tickets? I don’t wanna promote a pressure cooker environment and make them feel I’m not confident in their abilities. At the same time, I want to ensure they are getting the work done.

Remember very specifically what it is that you have needed and try to focus on the individual progress of the team as much as the whole. Remember who you were and stay in close contact with the PM. You guys should be working as a team.

smart

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