@DanLebrero.

software, simply

Book notes: Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager

  • Wed, 27 Nov 2024

Book notes on "Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager: How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs" by James Stanier

These are my notes on Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager:How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs by James Stanier.

I would consider this book a must-read for any new manager, as it is very practical and detailed.

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try Seth Godin

Key Insights

  • Meetings are how a lot of your work as a manager gets done.
  • Core principle: keep as little information in your head as possible.
  • To feel productive, use Andy Grove categories.
  • The ability to decide is a privilege that not everybody has.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw

  • Good comm is the connective tissue between everything you do as a manager:
    • Choose the right medium.
    • Be mindful of your mood.
    • Think twice.
    • Communication is not about you.
  • You do not delegate accountability
    • Never get frustrated and do it yourself.
  • Working with your manager:
    • Most important piece of advise: you should pull on your manager, not wait for them to push to you.
    • Show an interest in their world: best source of info+ opportunities to grow.
    • Weekly journaling.
  • 1-2-1:
    • It is the report’s meeting: they should talk 70% of the time.
    • You are not a therapist. And you don’t have the qualifications.
  • Zone of proximal development.
  • Two kinds of developers: Cathedral constructors and Bazaar Browsers.
  • Performance review:
    • The people that benefit the most are the highest performing staff.
  • Too many seniors: too many strong opinions may cause conflict and disarray rather than getting there twice as fast.
  • Culture fit is impossible as a concept: people instead add or contribute to a culture.
  • Hiring: If you are on the fence, say no.
  • Everybody that interviews for your company should be left with the impression that it is a great place to work.
  • When fighting for someone to stay, are you willing to accept an imbalance to keep someone within your company?
  • The bar that you set for acceptable performance is firmly fixed at the level of your worst performer.
  • As with most issues with interpersonal relationships, open and honest comms is the remedy.
  • “The team is not working hard enough” can mean: Lack of visible output, “hustle” or passion.
  • You have to accept the fact that productivity per head will decrease as the company gets larger.
  • Shift conversation towards trade-off.
  • You need to ack as an information gatekeeper deciding what, when and how.
  • In absence of information, people tend to assume the worst.
  • Carve out 10% of your time each week to do absolutely nothing other than let your thoughts emerge.
  • Progression framework should act as a compass rather than a GPS.
  • A promotion should be a ratification of a position that has been almost reached.
  • Framework to decide on pay increases:
    1. Fix anyone underpaid according to market rate or their peers.
    2. Increase anyone promote to a new role.
    3. Inflation.
    4. Increase pay in line with performance.
  • Every job that you have should be a meaningful step towards the vision that you have for yourself in the future.
  • People struggle to create a vision because:
    1. They don’t dream big enough.
    2. They aren’t clear enough.

TOC

Part I - Getting Oriented

Chapter 1 - A New Adventure

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try Seth Godin

  • First steps as a manager: create a snapshot of the team:
    1. Your own observations, your manager’s and the team’s.
    2. 30 mins 1-2-1 informal to chat about team responsibilities and current project, and to chat about what is/isn’t working at the team/company level.
      • Repeat any actions you are taking.
    3. Book a weekly 1-2-1 with everyone is your team:
      • Meetings are how a lot of your work as a manager gets done.
      • Book them at their convenience time.
      • 1 hour to start with.
    4. Introductory meeting with your manager:
      • Find out current performance of team and individuals.
      • Current project/work stream.
      • Thoughts on how best to work with them.
      • How to do your role in the org.
      • Set up weekly 1-2-1 with them.
    5. Create snapshot:
      team snapshot
  • Poor communication downward: you and your manager share/agree but team is unaware/disagrees.
  • Action List:
    • Items to talk with team: poor comms down, false beliefs.
    • Items to talk with your manager: poor comms upwards, false beliefs.

Chapter 2 - Manager Yourself First

  • Catastrophe doesn’t have to strike to feel like your work day was a waste of time.
    • You won’t survive without a system to org yourself.
  • System to organise yourself:
    • Core principle: keep as little information in your head as possible.
    • Tools:
      1. Calendar:
        • Organizing your time.
        • You should live your day by your calendar.
        • There should be plenty of free space for others to book if they wish.
        • Should contain only:
          • Meetings.
          • Busy periods.
          • Focus time.
        • Make it public to the org by default.
      2. TODO list:
        • Only place where your tasks live.
        • If it is not on your TODO list, then you are not doing it.
        • Asana.
      3. Email Inbox:
        • Never delete email.
        • Unsubscribe from lists you don’t read.
        • Batch email sessions.
        • Email is not your TODO list.
        • All other SW should just email you.
      4. Place to capture information:
        • For when you are away from your computer:
          • Notebook or phone.
  • Reasons managers do you feel unproductive:
    • You works through other people.
    • You do dozens of little tasks rather than a few big ones.
    • Context-switching and more likely to be interrupted.
    • Loads of time in meetings and discussions.
  • To feel productive, use Andy Grove categories:
    • Information gathering.
    • Decision-making:
      • The ability to decide is a privilege that not everybody has.
    • Nudging:
      • Be aware that your word carries some authority, so bear that in mind when offering your opinion freely.
    • Being a role model.
  • Measure output as a manager (also from Andy Grove book):
    • The output of your team + the output of others that you influence.
    • Your team’s output is more important than your own personal output:
      • More delegating, less doing.

Part II - Working with Individuals

  • If you thought that getting computers to do the right things was hard, wait until you start working more with humans.

Chapter 3 - Interfacing with Humans

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw

  • Managers in the tech industry have a tooling crisis.
  • Comms:
    • Good comm is the connective tissue between everything you do as a manager.
    • Clear, candid and empathetic.
    • First step is to choose the right medium. Depends on:
      • The message itself.
      • The recipient.
    • Be mindful of your mood, it might be better to:
      • Delay next activity.
      • Be upfront and share why, so the other person knows it has nothing to do with them.
    • Think twice before broadcasting information.
    • Dont communicate when you want to, but when you need to.
    • Radical candor: care personally (in their best interest) and challenge directly (get to the point).
    • Communication is not about you.
    • Bad traits:
      • Over communication.
      • Waffling.
      • Playing to the crowd.
      • Inconsistency.
      • Letting emotions get in the way.
  • Delegation:
    • You do not delegate accountability.
    • Full delegation can only happen when the person being delegated to can perform that task exactly to the standard that you expect with no guidance.
    • From less delegation to more, from more control to less:
      • You do it (no delegation):
      • You show them how to do it.
      • They do it with your guidance.
      • They do it with frequent check-ins.
      • They do it with infrequent check-ins.
      • They tell you when it is done.
      • They do it (full delegation).
    • Never get frustrated and do it yourself.
  • Working with your manager:
    • Most important piece of advise: you should pull on your manager, not wait for them to push to you.
    • Be proactive.
    • Figure out:
      • What your performance equate to in their eyes.
      • What is their performance depend upon?
    • Show an interest in their world: best source of info+ opportunities to grow.
    • Weekly journaling:
      • Progress.
      • Problems: what happen and what needs addressing.
      • Plans: for the problems.
      • People.
      • Block 30 mins to do it.
      • Write as if you were talking to a good friend.

Chapter 4 - One-to-Ones

  • Contracting:
    • Set of questions for the first 1-2-1.
    • Sets expectations on both sides.
    • Both should answer:
      1. Which ares would you like the most support with?
      2. How would you like to receive feedback and support?
      3. What could be a challenge of us working together?
      4. How might we know if the support I’m offering isn’t going well?
      5. How confidential is the content of our meetings?
  • It is the report’s meeting:
    • They should talk 70% of the time.
    • Don’t solve their problems:
      • Ask more questions for them to arrive to their own conclusions.
  • Avoid status updates.
  • You are not a therapist. And you don’t have the qualifications.

Chapter 5 - The Right Job for the Person

  • It is not about getting the right person for the job, it is about getting the right job for the person.
  • Zone of proximal development:
    • Area in which a person cannot progress without the help of a higher skilled individual.
    • You have to give such tasks.
    • You have to ensure higher skilled people can assist.
    • Can be applied at the task and career levels.
  • Two kinds of developers:
    • Cathedral constructors:
      • Subject-matter experts.
      • Deep, not wide knowledge.
      • Teachers.
      • Revel in the detail.
    • Bazaar Browsers:
      • Get as much newness as possible.
      • Build and throw away.
      • Avoid stagnation: wide, not deep.

Chapter 6 - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

  • Performance review:
    • Should be a two-way process.
    • The people that benefit the most are the highest performing staff.
    • For praise, critique, planning, career goals, and dreaming about the future.
    • Every 6 months.
    • Start 3 weeks before teh review meeting.
    • Feedback from 2-5 peers:
      • What has this person excelled at?
      • What should this person do differently and why?
      • What other feedback would you like to give?
      • Would you like to give this feedback anonymously?
  • Review forms parts:
    • Fill and share 1 and 2 before the review meeting.
    1. Your report’s observations:
      1. Achievements:
        • This about your achievements big or small over the last six months. What have you accomplished that makes your proud and why?
      2. Reflection:
        • How do you feel in your role right now? Has that changed for the better or worse since your last review?
      3. Development:
        • Is there anything that could have gone better during the period? What skills do you think that you need to develop?
      4. The Future:
        • Consider your future at the company. Where are you aiming to go? What would you ideally like to accomplish or work on? Or are you happy where you are now?
      5. Support:
        • What sort of support do you need in order to get to where you want to go in the future?
    2. Your observations:
      1. Achievements:
        • What has this person done in the last six months that has impressed you? What do you consider their biggest achievement?
      2. Development:
        • Where do you think that this person should focus on developing? What traits and skills could they work on and how can you help them get there?
          • Especially hard, and especially important for staff doing exceptionally well.
      3. Peer Feedback:
        • What were the key themes from this person’s peer feedback? Does it reinforce what ou both already know, or are there any new observations?
    3. Goals
  • Writing your part should take about 1 hour.
  • Review meeting agenda:
    1. Reflective discussion about the period.
    2. Forward-thinking discussion about the future.
    3. Collaborative session drafting goals.
    • Let them do most of the talking in 1 and 2.
    • You are not there to figure out their future career.

Chapter 7 - Join Us!

  • Too many seniors: too many strong opinions may cause conflict and disarray rather than getting there twice as fast.
  • Culture fit is impossible as a concept: people instead add or contribute to a culture.
  • Job description template:
    1. About the company:
      • Why and purpose.
      • Aim for “Wow! I’d love to contribute towards that!”
    2. About the role:
      • Why is important for the company.
      • What it entails, using examples.
      • What is like working here.
    3. Who you are looking for:
      • Broad traits rather than specific skills.
      • Inviting: what they can do when at the company.
      • Barrier to entry: listing specific skills.
    4. Salary and benefits:
      • Salary range very desirable.
    5. How to apply.
  • Highlight flexible working policy if you have one.
  • If you are on the fence, say no.
  • Interview process:
    • Everybody that interviews for your company should be left with the impression that it is a great place to work.
    • Funnel:
      1. Review applications:
        • On reflection, don’t be too specific on why, and don’t make empty promises about the future.
      2. Screening calls:
        • 15-30 mins.
        • Tell about the company and role.
        • Admin items: timezone, visa, notice period.
        • Ask about:
          • Their last role.
          • Why they decided to apply.
          • Salary expectations.
          • Any questions?
        • Tell about what is next.
      3. First interview:
        • Tell the candidate beforehand as much as possible.
        • One hour.
        • Manager + other team member.
        • Aim is to know each other (past roles and experiences).
        • Tech exercise done collaboratively.
        • Prep:
          • What are their main strengths?
          • What skills will be valuable to the team?
          • Prepare questions and share with fellow interviewer.
        • Describe what you do before you do it.
      4. Optional technical exercise:
        • Take-home exercise.
        • 2 hours.
        • Make the scope extremely clear.
        • Related to what they will work on.
      5. Final interview:
        • To discuss take-home test.
        • More eyes to validate your views:
          • Two new people to do the interview.
      6. Make the offer.

Chapter 8 - Game Over

  • People will always leave.
  • Good leavers:
    • Work out best date that work for both.
    • Ask if they want a reference.
    • Focus on handover.
    • Keep the door open.
  • Bad reasons for leaving:
    • Zingers: lack of open and honest communication from both parties, which results in simmering issues not being caught early.
    • Compensation.
    • Issues with coworkers.
    • Career progression.
    • Lack of challenge or new experiences.
  • When fighting for someone to stay, are you willing to accept an imbalance to keep someone within your company?
  • The bar that you set for acceptable performance is firmly fixed at the level of your worst performer.
  • Personal Improvement Plan (PIP):
    • When other means of improving a poor performance have failed.
    • Contract terminated if PIP fails.
    • Example page 161 and 162.
    • It is in both your best interests in them to be able to succeed.
  • Layoffs:
    • You will typically be given some script to follow that details the reasoning plus their severance package. If not, you have the right to ask for once.
    • This is one of the hardest things to do as a manager, but they will be hurting more.

Chapter 9 - How to Win Friends and Influence People

  • Being well-connected means more opportunities to have a positive impact on more people.
    • Influencing others positively builds stronger connections.
  • Only the Paranoid Survive:
    • Snow melts at the periphery. Employees on the periphery of the business see the real situation in the market much quicker than you do.
  • Don’t be afraid of “cold email” introductions:
    • Check in via email or coffee regularly (once a month).
  • Mentorship agreement:
    • Before the first meeting.
    1. Time: when, where and for how long the relationship would last.
    2. Flexibility: can the mentee contact at any time? What medium?
    3. What is confidential.
    4. Boundaries.
    5. Review and evaluation: when to stop.
  • Two modes of conversation:
    • Directive.
    • Following interest: listening to understand, reflecting on what they are saying, and summarizing.
  • Coaching:
    • Mostly following interest, with the occasional directive if they are getting nowhere.
    • For structured coaching sessions, use GROW:
      • Goal: what problem are we trying to solve?
      • Reality: who, what, where, and how much?
      • Options.
      • Wrap-up: clear choice, and discuss what support is needed.

Part III - The Bigger Picture

Chapter 10 - Humans Are Hard

  • Increasingly senior positions invite more scrutiny.
  • Your staff reaction when you have a bad day:
    • Kindness and understanding: you have a fantastic squad, and you are doing a good job.
    • Concern and worry: reassure them it is nothing to do with them.
    • Resentment: It often isn’t entirely about you. Dig deeper in your conversations.
    • Mutiny: danger zone. It never ends well for anyone involved.
  • As with most issues with interpersonal relationships, open and honest comms is the remedy.
  • As a manager, you have to shield your team from input that is too messy, disruptive, and emotional when it will disrupt their job:
    1. Listen and observe without judgement.
      • Separate facts from emotions.
    2. Digest:
      • Give yourself time before communicating downwards.
      • What the facts (not the emotions) really mean?
      • Which individuals will react badly? Why?
      • Sleep over it.
    3. Communicate:
      • Consider reframming the message into something more positive.
      • Decide the best medium.
      • Never shy away from the facts.
  • “The team is not working hard enough” can mean:
    1. Lack of visible output.
    2. Lack of “hustle”.
    3. Lack of passion.
  • Being a good manager is about turning the whip into a carrot.
    • You should be creating the conditions that make your staff happy and productive through nurturing their autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
  • Dunning-Kruger effect leads to:
    1. Pool decisions by junior engineers:
      • Ideally, coach them so they figure out themselves that they are overconfident.
    2. Rash decisions by senior staff:
      • Present only the facts.
      • Consider taking the conversation offline.
  • Imposter syndrome:
    • Junior: pair with senior staff who can show the junior that they are doing a great job will build their confidence.
    • Senior:
      • Pair them with junior: they will realize just how much they have to teach.
      • If they are reserved, ask their opinion directly in debates.

Chapter 11 - Projects Are Hard

  • When high-stakes projects are handled correctly, you will be looking at career growth.
  • At times of immense pressure:
    • Over-communicate.
    • Open a clear comm channel.
    • Release frequently.
    • Be pragmatic == create tech debt.
    • Set example.
    • Afterwards:
      • Celebrate.
      • Pay tech debt.
      • Do a retro.
      • Allow for self-guided time.
  • Adding more person-power to a team/department/org makes everything more complicated.
  • If you are successful:
    • Business as usual gets harder:
      • Just keeping the lights on takes an increasing amount of time and effort.
    • More and more legacy code.
    • Comms and process overhead are ever-increasing.
  • You have to accept the fact that productivity per head will decrease as the company gets larger.
  • Scope, resources, time triangle:
    • You don’t want to compromise quality.
    • Scoping:
      • MosCoW.
      • Stretch goal.
    • Resources:
      • How much work can be done in parallel?
        • Without stepping into each other’s code.
      • What technical competency is required?
      • If shit hits the fan, moving people around isn’t your strongest lever to pull.
    • Time: find out the impact of the deadline moving.
    • Shift conversation towards trade-off.

Chapter 12 - The Information Stock Exchange

  • As a manager, information is your currency. But not all information is good.
  • Never be a spy.
  • You need to ack as an information gatekeeper deciding what, when and how.
  • Unless there is a critical reason for hiding information, it should be shared, although care should be taken in how the message is delivered.
  • You must be consistent with how you treat information with different people.
  • You always share just enough.
  • Information classification:
    • Completely confidential.
    • Closed box.
    • Open box.
  • In absence of information, people tend to assume the worst.
  • Politics in the workspace are always going to happen:
    • They arise because of tension between different types of social structures:
      • The org chart.
      • Close-knit informal groups.
      • Influential people.
  • Good use of politics: Identify who you can collaborate with on different issues with the least amount of friction.

Chapter 13 - Letting Go of Control

  • As a manager, you do work through other people, and they are going to do it in a different way than how you’d have done it.
  • Stoicism:
    • Live in the present, in accordance with nature.
    • Use logic and reasoning.
    • Negative visualization: appreciate more what we have.
    • Denying of some pleasures:
      • Enjoy them more.
      • Increase self-discipline.
    • Not worry about things that are out of your control.
    • For the things you have some, but not complete control, you should set internal goals rather than external ones.
  • Carve out 10% of your time each week to do absolutely nothing other than let your thoughts emerge.
  • Purposefully take on 85% of the work that you think that you can get done.
  • Practice and a good night’s sleep makes perfect.
  • Sleep, exercise, meditate.

Chapter 14 - Good Housekeeping

  • Getting comms right sounds a lot like network routing: unicast, broadcast, multicast.
  • Cross-functional feature teams without effective comms are just another type of silo.
  • Guilds:
    • Discussion and progression of best practices.
    • Information sharing across multiple teams.
    • Improving the visibility of that interest or discipline within the company.
  • Lightning talks:
    • 5 minutes.
    • 30-1h to prepare.
    • Simple slides: Takahashi or Pecha Kucha.
    • Practice multiple times.
    • Have a system of feedback for the speaker.
  • Consider a Kanban with management “bugs” that anybody can add to.

Chapter 15 - Dual Ladders

  • The most surefire way of a manager increasing their output is for their team to get bigger.
  • More seniority:
    • Increasingly effective at delegation (including whole teams).
    • More people reporting to them.
    • Larger and more important strategic areas.
  • Progression framework should act as a compass rather than a GPS:
    • Competencies should be defined in a way that doesn’t make them specific checkboxes to tick to unlock a promotion.
    • For the managers one, start with the same as IC, with the difference that instead of employing these skills to build SW, managers are using them to build people.
    • A promotion should be a ratification of a position that has been almost reached.
    • Progression is subjective.
    • FW to decide on increases:
      1. Fix anyone underpaid according to market rate or their peers.
      2. Increase anyone promote to a new role.
      3. Inflation.
      4. Increase pay in line with performance.

Chapter 16 - The Modern Workplace

  • We all have an implicit bias.
  • Call out incorrect behaviour.
  • Remote working:
    • Work in the open.
    • Document though processes.
    • Write up decisions, priorities and actions.
    • Encourage all staff to take complete ownership of unblocking themselves.
    • Have multiple items to work on.
  • Leave loudly.

Chapter 17 - Startups

  • First manager == VP engineering
    • Ownership delivery process.
    • Performance of engineers.
    • Resource and prioritization of projects.
    • Hiring.
    • Building stuff.
    • Keep CTO focused on building.
  • Are you a cathedral builder or a bazaar browser?

Chapter 18 - The Crystal Ball

  • Sometimes having fewer options work out better.
  • Every job that you have should be a meaningful step towards the vision that you have for yourself in the future.
  • People struggle to create a vision because:
    1. They don’t dream big enough.
    2. They aren’t clear enough.
Did you enjoy it? or share!

Tagged in : book notes