Management Time: A Look into the Role of the Engineering Manager

As an engineer writing code on a team, you might wonder: what does my manager even do? We’ll explore what being an engineering manager entails, and how to ensure you and your manager get the most out of your mutual relationship, from bi-directional feedback to taking control of your career growth.

Who should attend: Engineers working on a team with a technical manager but who have never managed a team before, or even new managers who feel lost in their new role.

Why should they attend: Understanding what your manager is supposed to be doing to help you and your team is crucial for advancing in your career. This talk will lay out what it is that a manager is (or should be) doing all day so that you can better understand their role within your team. So many of the problems that people have are caused by bad management or people not helping their managers help them. After this talk, hopefully people will feel more empowered to work with their managers to ensure that they are both successful.

What will I tell them:

1. Introduction: Who am I, why do I get to talk about this?
2. What is your engineering manager doing all day? (Short-term project management, longer term roadmapping (maybe with a partner product manager), growing out the team a.k.a. hiring, weekly 1:1s with team, regular meetings with stakeholders, career development for team members, and more!)
3. How you can help your manager: Weekly 1:1s
4. How you can help your manager: Review cycles
5. How you can help your manager: Sprint planning
6. How you can help your manager: Give them feedback
7. How you can help your manager: Career development
8. Conclusion

I was an engineering manager for 2.5 years but went back to being an individual contributor more recently. I think this puts me in a unique position to understand the benefits for individual contributors knowing what the management role entails.