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Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

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Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#31

Post by devwastaken »

wdfx wrote: post #30

Red flag: how could you possibly be promoted into a position you know nothing about? How did the rest of the management allow this? Edit: surely it is the responsibility of whomever promoted you to provide the definition of what is expected from you.

Management hiring management rarely tell you what you should be doing from the view of non-management workers. Also, you're assuming that the management that hired this director knows everything, but I don't think they do, so I don't see why it would be a problem to ask more about it in a public space where other directors and those who work with directors are located.

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#32

Post by [deleted] »

Stwerner wrote: post #6

I made the transition from engineer to managing a team of around 12 at Groupon. So I made the transition with a smaller team than you are - forgive me if some of this isn't as useful for your situation. What worked for me: - One on Ones. Nothing I've done has had as much of an impact as weekly one-on-one meetings with everybody on my team. I tend to follow the format outlined on Rands In Repose: http://randsinrepose.…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#34

Post by rurban »

Good directors communicate (e.g. they don't manipulate and lie), make good decisions (early enough), are straightforward (and not overly polite), don't avoid conflict and cannot be easily manipulated.

Usually good techs make better managers than typical politically-embroiled middle management.

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#35

Post by gtf21 »

tbrock wrote: post #23
gtf21 wrote: post #16

Would recommend very highly: (1) Andrew Grove's "High Output Management", it's easy to read: https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove... (2) Manager Tools "Basics" podcasts, especially on 1x1s and feedback: https://www.manager-tools.com/manager-tools-basics There's a hell of a lot to learn outside of these things, but I think they're a good start.

I was recommended "High output management" and found it pretty bad. Some of the insight at the end was ok, but most of it was very boring and obvious.

As a very inexperienced manager (i.e. startup founder) I found some of the stuff quite helpful, which is doubtless obvious to the more experienced (although, in fairness, I also stopped reading about 3/4 of the way through, but my cofounder swears by it).

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#36

Post by jackgolding »

Spooky23 wrote: post #20

- Don't put up with jerks. - it's not all about you. Make sure that you piblically represent your team, not yourself. - politics isn't above you. Learn how to be effective with your peers. At the director levels even your friends can become your competition. - appreciate that your decisions impact people around you and the company. - study budgeting. Know where the money goes. - when tough times come, know where you…

> If the place is toxic, learn how to stockpile cash or human fodder.

Care to elaborate?

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#38

Post by random101 »

Make sure you when you make important decisions you surround yourself with the smartest people. You cannot know everything, but knowing how to proceed with your most trusted and smartest people will be the core of your success. Provided you can make the right decisions, and learn from the wrong ones.

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#39

Post by random101 »

Make sure you when you make important decisions you surround yourself with the smartest people. You cannot know everything, but knowing how to proceed with your most trusted and smartest people will be the core of your success. Provided you can make the right decisions, and learn from the wrong ones.

Re: Ask HN: Just made Director, now what?

#40

Post by umbs »

For past 2 years, I have interacted with Directors a bit more and following stood out among the Directors I like.

1) Clarity in vision and ability to articulate it to the team is very important. 2) Engineers will zone out if you sprinkle sales (and/or management) mumbo, jumbo. Engineers (anyone for that matter) appreciate clear communication and reasoning behind management decisions. Many times, management decisions aren't clear cut. That's OK. But calling it out as is is being honest and engineers appreciate that.

Most recently, I had an interesting experience speaking with a Director during a job interview.

I asked for reasons behind building a product by their team. I explained why it's not a good idea. The Director kept throwing sales and marketing terms and was clearly out of his depth. What should have been a 30 min interview was cut short in 10 min and I was walked out. I did not get the job. I'm glad I didn't.

But key take away for me was, as a Director, they will be bridge to many departments (Engineers, Sales, Marketing, Customers). They should have good understanding of the product, how to pitch to everyone.

I hope this will be useful.

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