Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

by Sarah Drasner

Overview

A lot of Engineering Managers and leaders studied for years and years to become the best Engineer they possibly could be... and then they were promoted.

It can be very tough for those of us who didn't go into Engineering with the distinct concept that we would become managers, but still want to do our best to support our teams.

I wrote this book because there's so much no one told me about management that I wished I would have known. There's a lot to be purposeful about that many of us learn on the job, and worse: learn on people. This book provides some organization for collaborating with networks of people, working together towards a common purpose.

There seem to be millions of articles and "how to"s on programming and only a handful of resources on Engineering Management- why? It's very tough to talk about something that involves people processes. People are non-deterministic. Working relationships are nuanced, communication is linked with individual values, motivations, power dynamics, and skills. People also have a range of experiences and emotions that are not consistent day-to-day.

Hopefully, in the happiest, most productive sense.

It's imperative that we as managers learn as much as we can and work on ourselves, so that our teams may enjoy a healthy working life and strong relationships. It's not just important, it's crucial that we iterate on our own skills as managers so that we can properly support everyone around us: individuals, peers, leadership, and the business.

I'm sharing what I've learned- not so that you follow my concepts exactly, but rather so that you can be thoughtful about your own leadership and needs. The book goes from the macro to the micro- with topics ranging everywhere from "feedback" to "scoping down PRs".

Though the book is meant to address people in management, individual contributors are welcome to read the book as well- perhaps you need to manage up and need some tools to help guide the conversation, perhaps you just want a peek at other concerns within the business- everyone is invited to the conversation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798986769325
Publisher:	Skill Recordings Inc
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	218
Sales rank:	181,767
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Sarah Drasner is Director of Engineering, Core Developer Web at Google, where she runs web infrastructure, including but not limited to open source projects like Angular, Karma, and Sass. Sarah is formerly VP at Netlify, Vue core team emeritus, and an O'Reilly author. Sarah also co-organized ConcatenateConf with Christian Nwamba, a conference for Nigerian and Kenyan developers.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Angie Jones v

Introduction vii

PART 1. YOUR TEAM

1. Caring for your team 3

2. The Value of Values 5

3. Trust and Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4. Your Team Is Not "Them." Your Team Is "We." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5. Happiness and Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

6. Long-term Care of Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

7. Career Laddering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

8. 1:1s Are Critical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

PART 2. COLLABORATION

9. Communicating as a Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

10. Change Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

11. Giving Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

12. Receiving Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

13. Good Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

14. Managing Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

15. Cross-Team and Open Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

PART 3. HELPING YOUR TEAM DO THEIR BEST WORK

16. Prioritizing Your Team's Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

17. How to Scope Down PRs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

18. Speed of Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

19. Splitting Time Between Product and Engineering Work . . . . . . . . . 159

PART 4. YOUR WORK

20. Prioritizing High Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

21. Prioritizing Day to Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

22. Setting Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

23. Filling Your Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

24. Believing in Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Further Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Editorial Reviews

When you pick up this book, also pick up some sticky notes, bookmarks,

and notebooks! Engineering Management for the Rest of Us is packed with

deeply valuable and practical information that will benefit new and experienced

managers and teams. It's rare to find a management book that is

compelling, funny, and useful all at once, but Sarah Drasner has nailed it.

-Cassidy Williams

Sarah has written a fantastic modern manual for aspiring and existing technical

managers. It provides an excellent hands-on tour of how to navigate

prioritization, execution, collaboration and culture in a very approachable

way. This book is filled with pragmatism, real-world examples and plenty of

engineering management nuggets of wisdom. We can all learn from Sarah's

experience and I have no doubt you'll learn something new that you can

apply to your own career and team.

-Addy Osmani

When you read between the lines of Engineering Management for the Rest of Us,

you can feel how empathetic and passionate Sarah is as a leader and how

much she believes in the fact that you are cut out for it, too. Regardless of

your background you can lead a team and this is a practical book on how to

do so.

-Christian Nwamba

Much has been written about how to effectively manage. Jam-packed with

insights from an experienced leader, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

brings something new to the canon. Sarah shares actionable tips on building

trust and psychological safety, and how to scope down PRs. She also

offers sage advice on the mindset shifts managers need to make. This is the

book every new engineering manager needs.

-Suzan Bond

From the Publisher