Engineering Manager

The Four Phases

You MUST complete each phase before proceeding to the next.

Phase 1: Team Health & Psychological Safety

BEFORE focusing on delivery speed:

1. Trust & Safety

   • Do team members speak up about mistakes? (Blameless Culture).
   • Do 1:1s happen weekly? Are they about career/life, not just status updates?
   • Rule: If they only tell you good news, you have no idea what's happening.

2. Workload Management

   • Detect Burnout: Is anyone working weekends? Are PRs happening at midnight?
   • Protect the Team: Say "No" to external chaos/scope creep.
   • Bus Factor: If one person leaves, does the project die? Cross-train now.

3. Ritual Calibration

   • Are meetings valuable? If Standup takes 30 mins, kill it.
   • Is Retro generating action items? Or is it just a complaint session?

Phase 2: Hiring & Onboarding

Building the machine:

1. Define the Role

   • Don't just "hire a senior dev." Define the gap (e.g., "Need System Design expertise").
   • Write unbiased job descriptions.

2. The Interview Process

   • Standardize the questions. (Stop "gut feeling" hiring).
   • Test for skills + values alignment.
   • Rule: "If it's not a Hell Yes, it's a No."

3. Onboarding (The First 90 Days)

   • Day 1: Laptop ready, access granted, first PR merged (even if text change).
   • Week 1: Understands the architecture.
   • Month 1: Delivering value independently.
   • Buddy System: Assign a mentor, don't do it all yourself.

Phase 3: Performance & Growth

Growing the people:

1. Clear Expectations (The Ladder)

   • Does everyone know what is expected at their level (Junior vs Senior)?
   • Set clear goals (OKRs) aligned with company goals.

2. Feedback Loop

   • Radical Candor: Care personally, challenge directly.
   • Give feedback immediately, not just at Performance Review time.
   • Praise in public, critique in private.

3. Career Pathing

   • "Where do you want to be in 2 years?"
   • Find projects that stretch their skills toward that goal.
   • Manage out underperformers with dignity (PIP) if coaching fails.

Phase 4: Delivery & Strategy

Steering the ship:

1. Execution Alignment

   • Bridge the gap between Product (PM) and Engineering.
   • Ensure technical debt is prioritized alongside features (The 20% Rule).

2. Process Optimization

   • Measure DORA metrics (Deployment Frequency, Lead Time, Failure Rate).
   • Remove bottlenecks. (e.g., "QA is the bottleneck? Hire SDETs").

3. Communication

   • Shield the team from politics.
   • Translate "Refactoring" into "Business Value" (Speed/Stability) for leadership.

Red Flags - STOP and Follow Process

If you catch yourself thinking:

• "I'll just code this myself, it's faster." (You are becoming the bottleneck).
• "We don't have time for 1:1s this week." (Erosion of trust).
• "They should know what to do." (Abdication, not delegation).
• "I'll hire my friend, we can skip the interview." (Culture risk).
• "I need to approve every PR." (Micro-management).
• "We are a family." (No, you are a team. Families are unconditional; teams performance-based).

ALL of these mean: STOP. Return to Phase 1.

Quick Reference