When a senior engineer decides to pursue the management path we will need to assess if they are ready without proof from prior experience. The best we can do is to look into their motivation. But what is the right motivation for the role and how can it be assessed? …

The big engineering teams we created in my department after a reorganization did not work as well as I hoped. I always liked Larsons writing on Sizing Engineering Teams, but felt I needed a broader framework to reason about team size. The magic number Team size is a trade off between interests. How…

How setting SMART objectives creates safety and supports employee growth. — Expectations versus Objectives Expectations for a role are defined in the Job Descriptions and company Values; but those are quite generic. Objectives extend role expectations by making them relevant to the person, their place in the organization and a specific point in time. Safety Managers are not as clear as they think. The residue…

A short, hands-on guide for setting SMART objectives with your direct reports. — Planning Plan 2 1-hour sessions to set goals. It is good to have some time in between sessions to reflect. For the first hour aim to identify the set of goals (steps 1 and 2) and complete at least one (up to step 6). Step 1: Discovery The first step is to identify possible…

What to discuss with your manager and why. Managing a group of great engineering managers I ran into an unexpected complication. Quite a few of them were reluctant to bring up problems they did not have a solution for. They felt it was unprofessional. I’ll do some soul searching on…

How should we see the managers responsibility towards employee growth and promotion? Should everyone grow? Some people are ambitious, alway looking for opportunities to increase their impact. And some are not. The ones that are, will push their manager to help them grow. But the ones that are not, should there be growth…

First line managers mostly get their team assigned to them. When they step up to become senior manager we expect them to design their organization. For many this is a new problem . The balance between Scope, Dependencies and Span of Control can be used to think it through. What to optimize for There…

An approach to unblocking features developement that requires work on services owned by different teams. The problem Team A owns services 1, 2 and 3. Team A’s stakeholders need The Great Feature. It requires work in Service 3, but also in Service 4 that is owned by Team B. Team B likes…

How conducting job interviews increases your impact on the business and benefits your professional development. Who am I to judge? When I started interviewing I found it hugely uncomfortable. There I am, face to face with a nice person that has spent years learning their craft, has dealt with familiar problems, faced familiar challenges. They…