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Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

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Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#51

Post by lojack »

kabdib wrote: post #21
everdev wrote: post #7

As you transition to management don't stop coding. You might not have time at work, but make time (20hrs/month) after work or weekends to learn the basics of a new skill relevant to your work. IMO, developers get annoyed at having to report to someone who doesn't understand at least the basics of what they're working on our who can't provide recommendations in a pinch. The respect you'll have with your developers mak…

Don't stop coding BUT don't take on engineering responsibilities that will diminish your value as a manager. All too often I see the developer to manager transition treated as if management were merely an additional responsibility. The new manager keeps trying to write code, works late hours doing both jobs. The result is usually a bunch of not very good code, usually late, and a bunch of unhappy direct reports who c…

Knowing when to code and what types of work are acceptable to do is extremely important. My transition to management wasn't immediate, there was a 4 month period where I was taking on more responsibilities as a manager. Initially contributing to projects was easy, but as I took on more responsibilities it became more and more difficult. At a certain point during the transition there was a pull request that I got 80% of the way through and then just sat there incomplete because I was too busy. Ended up handing this work over to one of the developers, and treating it as a sign that I was no longer a developer.

I still do some work from time to time, but I make sure its work I'm doing for my own personal reasons and no other work depends on that being completed. I also keep my technical skills sharp by pairing with team members, directing them on technical decisions, and doing code reviews. You've got to be careful with code reviews because they can come off as micromanagement to some people. Sometimes developers will specifically request a code review from me, and I'll take those. Sometimes I'll chime in if a decision needs to be made. Otherwise I try to only code review if I see something glaring that needs to change.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#52

Post by stuff4ben »

Actually just did this myself last month. My team is colocated between India and the US, but I'm remote in the US to all of them. That's been the biggest challenge for me. I'm more of a visual person when delegating and encouraging. Very difficult to do that over messaging or email. Video conferencing helps, but not the same as actually being there in person. Had I known this was going to be the case, I probably would have postponed the promotion. But I'm going to stick it out and get through this because that's what I do.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#53

Post by yuchi »

tgittos wrote: post #48

I made the jump from developer to team lead, and all the advice here is great. One thing that I wasn't prepared for and that I don't see other people mentioning (on a cursory glance at the replies) is that your reward function for job satisfaction changes, and the feedback loop length changes. By that, I mean that for me personally I derived most of my job satisfaction from solving tricky problems, fixing bugs and im…

I keep returning to dev projects exactly for this.

To the OP, do not underestimate this.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#54

Post by antaviana »

bsvalley wrote: post #8

Great advice from people here but I'm gonna try to provide as much value as I can on top of that. Read books, listen to others, get a mentor, blablabla. Do that for sure because it is the bare minimum. Unfortunately, this is not enough. Here is how an individual gets into management and becomes a great engineering manager (the "great" part is essential): 1- The individual would grab the most annoying task no one else…

I agree. You have to be prone to optimize for others, rather than yourself. Also if you have the ability of good judgement, others will come to you for advice, somehow pushing you up.

I remember that in one of those "How to start and start up" videos, the presenter (CEO of an startup, do not remember which) was asked "How do find your generals in your team?".

His answer was something like "You look at the room and they are often surrounded by people at their place who came for advice".

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#56

Post by wppick »

I think this is one of the most illogical aspects of the software industry -- the transition from developer to manager. In order to be a developer you need to spend years learning, studying, and practicing software development, but a lot of times becoming a manager is just some magical title change where suddenly you're qualified to take on some new role which you most likely have no training or experience in, and stop doing the role which you are qualified for, experienced in, and were hired for. Suddenly there is no way to measure or evaluate you (how do you evaluate a manager?), and you really don't have to do anything difficult; you can delegate anything hard or laborious. I've seen time and time again managers who don't do anything at all. They just fill their schedule with meetings upon meetings, and through some mental gymnastics and leaps of logic claim to have an essential impact on the work that is being done by others. The feedback in many comments in this thread seem to echo the same things: communicate, be a force multiplier, increase productivity, don't write code, coach. It seems like a bunch of unaccountable b.s. to me, but maybe I am missing something. I think instead there should be clear roles like Project Manager, Product Manager, Software Architect, Senior Software Developer, where the people in those roles can be actually evaluated, accountable, and hired specifically for the role that they will be doing.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#58

Post by DanielBMarkham »

tgittos wrote: post #48

I made the jump from developer to team lead, and all the advice here is great. One thing that I wasn't prepared for and that I don't see other people mentioning (on a cursory glance at the replies) is that your reward function for job satisfaction changes, and the feedback loop length changes. By that, I mean that for me personally I derived most of my job satisfaction from solving tricky problems, fixing bugs and im…

And this trend continues. The further you get from development, the vaguer the terms are and the longer and more imprecise the feedback loops. (In fact, I'd argue your job consists of creating useful and lightweight feedback loops)

This can be quite frustrating if you're not prepared for it.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#59

Post by TheBill »

Take a look at https://www.harrisonmetal.com/ - even if you're not in the bay area.

I had a chance to sit in on a dinner of General Management students from a ~dozen companies. The vast majority were going from individual contributor to management roles.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#60

Post by klenwell »

Whenever this topic comes up or managing generally, I point to this Ask HN on the same topic from the end of 2011. I think it's gold and has served me well in my career:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3407643

Especially jbob24's comment:

Forget about all that "leadership" and "management" bullshit. Seriously. When you have direct reports your primary function is to serve them. I'm not kidding - I know it sounds all squishy and kumbaya-ish but if you think about what it means to serve somebody else you'll have a really good compass to guide you through your day.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408082

I would also add to this: do 1-on-1's and do them well. I recommend reading through this post:

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32765/what-is-...

For me, a lot of what I have seen as failures of management (and organizations more broadly) seemed to boil down to manager insecurity and posturing. A manager thinking, "I have to look like a leader right now even though I'm not really sure at the moment what the right move is here," when they should be saying, "Hey, team, how can we solve this problem? What can I do to help you?"

P.S. It would be interesting to learn how things turned out for endymi0n all these years later and whether that post was helpful.

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