Sarah Drasner - Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

Praise for Engineering Management for the rest of us

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. Its 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 Sarahs experience and I have no doubt youll 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

Copyright 2022 Sarah Drasner

All rights reserved.

ISBNs: 979-8 - 9867693 -0 -1 (hc); 979-8 - 9867693 -1 -8 (pbk); 979-8 - 9867693 -2 -5 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022915051

Skill Recordings Inc.

https://skillrecordings.com

Contents

Foreword

I d just become a new manager, and within the first few months I had my first crisis. One of my direct reports had gotten into an altercation and was extremely upset. They demanded that I fix the situation immediately. Having spent my entire career developing software, I was at a loss for how to develop people, and more urgently how to develop an action plan to address their immediate concern. I called my friend Sarah Drasner in a panic, and she calmly walked me through a plan that worked perfectly.

You see, before going into management, Id reached the level of principal engineer and was starting to contribute more to defining business goals and strategies for the company. At this point in my career, my talents would be better suited guiding other engineers than continuing to write code myself. So I was promoted into management and, like many other newly promoted engineering managers, I was unprepared.

Fortunately, I had Sarah to lean on. This was not the last time I called her for advice or asked her to walk me through how to deal with a situation. Sarah, in human form, was quite literally my handbook to people management. And I must say, shes brilliant at it. Im probably the reason Sarah wrote this book (lol). Perhaps shed had enough of my late-night calls, stressing over what to do to ensure I dont totally mess up someones career.

Since entering the world of engineering management, quite a few things have changed. I have received formal training, grown my teams, and been promoted multiple times. What remains the same are my frequent phone calls to Sarah to bounce ideas off her and get her words of wisdom. Shes always open and willing to help, and gives spot-on actionable advice that has helped me grow as a leader.

Im absolutely thrilled that Sarah decided to encapsulate her wisdom in Engineering Management for the Rest of Us, because I cant imagine how new engineering managers would be able to navigate this world without it.

This book captures all of the essentials including career laddering, earning trust, managing conflict, and so much more. Its filled with relatable stories and scenarios to add lively context to the lessons. It prompts thoughtfulness and self-reflection on how youre leading your own teams. Sarah is very careful to preface all her advice with disclaimers about how its just her take; but trust me, it works across the board.

Engineering Management for the Rest of Us reads as a support group for those of us who are trying to do our best with our newfound powers. Sarah doesnt shy away from sharing her own mistakes, how she overcame them, and the tools, systems, and processes she created to do so.

Sarah, thank you for taking the time to write this amazing guide to engineering management.

Signed,

The Rest of Us

Angie Jones, Vice President

Introduction

I m not the best manager in the world. Ive had great teams and great moments, but Ive never considered being a manager part of my DNA. I wasnt assigned my first lead position because I was the strongest communicator on the team, but rather because I had the most seniority and knew how to get the project over the line. Being asked to lead at that time had more to do with my engineering skills than it did with actual leadership, which I felt thrown into headfirst.

Many of us started as engineers and were either promoted or moved laterally into management. Sometimes this happened because we were good at motivating a team, sometimes it happened because we showed leadership in strategy, but many didnt necessarily choose this job in management. It chose us.

Ive noticed that in my field, software engineering, many people share posts about technical implementations and very few about engineering management.

Management is still related to the code, though . Unless our teams are set up well, have support, and have clear strategy, all the coding best practices and linters in the world wont amount to real outcomes. Management impacts so much of software engineering, so its worth taking the time to learn and share. We owe our teams thoughtful leadership.

I wrote this in the hope that by encapsulating some of the lessons Ive learned, this may help others begin with resources and avoid struggles I have had. That said, management isnt one size fits all and some of what I discuss in this book may not be right for your particular situation. Please use your best judgment and find your own path. What I present here are tools for your toolbox and not the only way to approach these subjects.

Though Im sharing what Ive learned so far, I know that Im not done learning. I dont have it all figured out, and Im not done making mistakes. Im still on this journey.

It can be tough for those of us who didnt go into engineering with the distinct goal of becoming managers, but who still want to do our best to support our teams. This book isnt for the born leaders. This book is for the rest of us.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Caring for Your Team

T heres a joke in engineering management: You become really good at bridges... so they promote you to be a baker. It doesnt necessarily feel like the type of skills that got you where you are in engineering work will help you on the management path ahead.