Common Mistakes of New Engineering Managers • Hacker News Board

Re: Common Mistakes of New Engineering Managers

#221

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

sanderjd wrote: post #218

TheColorYellow wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with this point completely. Ideally it seems as if you'd want someone with administrative capabilities and focus but with enough understanding of the tech and business side that they're able to understand context and conversation. Problem is, although its easy to find administratively capable resources who you can pay a decent salary to retain, the minute you require them to understand broader context the incen…

Oof, I really don't think that's a good use of a product manager's time. I want them out talking to customers, or evaluating similar products from other companies, or using their own product to understand its capabilities and gaps, or looking at metrics, or just writing and debating product proposals. I honestly think there is already way too much work that is way too valuable for them to be doing, for them to take o…

[deleted]

Re: Common Mistakes of New Engineering Managers

#222

Post by fatnoah » Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #205

humanlion87 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that I don't want my manager to completely stop coding (especially if it is something they like a lot). I just want them to realize that there are higher priority items on their list of things to-do. And spend at least some amount of time figuring out how to help their reports grow. Also, this depends on the experience level of a manager's reports as well. If all of them are quite experienced and hav…

> And spend at least some amount of time figuring out how to help their reports grow. I hear this an awful lot, but either as a manager or IC, I have no idea what it means. From my perspective, if you leave me alone to do my thing and don’t interrupt me with random shit all the time, I’ll grow naturally. But the manager doesn’t have to be involved in this beyond shielding me from the bullshit, so I guess people are t…

>From my perspective, if you leave me alone to do my thing and don’t interrupt me with random shit all the time, I’ll grow naturally. But the manager doesn’t have to be involved in this beyond shielding me from the bullshit, so I guess people are talking about something different.

That's what _you_ want, but it's not what everyone wants. Some people want or need much more active participation in their growth, and it's a manager's job to find what's right for each person. A common failing new managers make (and one I made as well) was assuming everyone wants to be managed like I want to be managed. I was very much in that "leave me alone and let me do my thing" mindset, and that caused a lot of problems much later in life.

Re: Common Mistakes of New Engineering Managers

#223

Post by cryptica » Sat, Mar 20, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

dontreact wrote: post #215

cryptica wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you code all the time for over a decade, you know what good code looks like. When you care about the product, you know what a well implemented feature looks like from the user's perspective. So it's easy to approximate value from these two aspects. The people who work with me learn a lot about architecture because I explain everything. I only had 1 manager who had a similar style as me in my own career as a deve…

To put it more concretely, how many people have you been able to promote into a role like yours where they are defining the architecture, in the last 5 years?

For simpler projects (like simple front end applications), I usually let developers decide the architecture themselves (I mostly just offer advice). Since in those cases, architecture is not as critical.

I was myself overlooked for promotions for over 5 years (in spite of constantly asking for one). I was better qualified than my managers to be making architectural decisions but they only realized this after I left (since I started a competing project). So I know how it feels to not be given the chance. I even know what it feels like to have an incompetent person promoted as my boss.

That said, it doesn't make sense to put someone 100% in charge of architecture if they don't yet have the necessary skills. Some systems are extremely complex and easy to mess up architecturally so I wouldn't hand off this responsibility unless I knew that the next person would do it properly.

Re: Common Mistakes of New Engineering Managers

#224

Post by dhanna » Fri, Mar 26, 2021, 7:33 AM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #65

1. Become an engineering manager 2. Stop coding 3. Do well for a few years until you become out of touch 4. Watch your team stop respecting you on technical subjects because you’re behind the times and too rusty but don’t know it so look foolish and are ignored when you give suggestions, which radically undermines your relationships with them as well as your ability to lead 5. Watch as your role morphs from a manager…

I’m dealing with this right now with my manager and it’s infuriating.