What does a software engineering manager DO?

Рет қаралды 4,250

Күн бұрын

Most of a manager's work is invisible to their team. Based on my time as a software engineering manager and principal engineer at Microsoft, Amazon, Google, this video describes the variety of work a software engineering manager does.
This video should be useful for individual contributors who are curious about the management path, and for those who are frustrated that their managers don't "do" anything.
Note - a viewer pointed out I was using the wrong name for Amazon planning. It's not "OLR", that's performance reviews!!!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
00:00 Introduction
01:05 Three levels of responsibility
01:48 Prioritizing the biggest fires
02:39 1 - Managing the team
05:01 Hiring and firing
07:08 2 - Working for THEIR manager
09:17 Extra meetings
09:48 Conduit and filter
11:19 Planning (OLR)
12:34 Reviews and rewards
13:51 New project investigations
14:53 3 - Company-wide requirements
15:46 Summary
16:20 Appendix - why managers don't code much
17:22 Wrap up

Пікірлер: 24

@anasfirdousi 9 ай бұрын

Probably one of the most comprehensive videos on Software Engineering Management. Please never stop making videos. Your points are so relatable and I will be sharing this with many of the new EMs I have had the chance to know. Thanks again for creating this, so much to learn from your wisdom and depth of experiences!

@Middleclassbeta 2 жыл бұрын

It's sad that the general assumption is that managers don't do much but in reality they do a lot of thankless tasks that impact everyone in the team. Thank you for sharing all this information.

@TheDeliberateEngineer 2 жыл бұрын

I agree! Thanks for watching & commenting!

@PatrickCoffey777 Жыл бұрын

Hey John, thanks for a most informative video! This really sheds some light on what my managers are up to! I really appreciate your wisdom!

@TheDeliberateEngineer Жыл бұрын

I'm glad it's useful, thanks for watching and commenting!

@VadayKapeed9999 2 жыл бұрын

great video as always, John. thankyou.

@TheDeliberateEngineer 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@yousufhussain9530 Жыл бұрын

Hey John, just want to say that your channel is super useful. The KZfaq algorithm hasn’t been kind to it. You should really have a million subs. My question to you is - how do I tell my manager that this work item that he thinks should be completed in a day will actually take a week? Also it creates a bit of stress for fast delivery whenever this happens which I sometimes struggle with. I usually try to break down the items, propose timelines for them and communicate to my manager. There’s really no point arguing with him (the answer should always be yes like you’ve mentioned before). Its usually hard to break down items without diving in too deep and spending hours on estimates. Also there are flaws with estimatiion since most software projects get underestimated and run late (from Mythical man month)

@TheDeliberateEngineer Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately there's no single answer. It needs to be a conversation, and it depends on what it takes to convince them. Sometimes nothing will. I'd try one of two approaches. 1. Ask them what they think is involved, and then tell them about the other parts that take longer, e.g. code reviews, build validation, documentation, integration testing, deployment process, whatever. Or 2. Say you need the time, but offer to keep track of where the time is spent (active time you're working and passive time such as waiting for code reviews) and discuss with them afterwards. At the least this educates them, and at best you can brainstorm ways to make things faster/better. Thanks for watching & the kind words!

@yousufhussain9530 Жыл бұрын

@@TheDeliberateEngineer thank you so much for the prompt response. That’s very helpful :)

@deetmar85 Жыл бұрын

This is so helpful! I recently got moved from IC to manager. Thanks!

@TheDeliberateEngineer Жыл бұрын

I'm glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching & commenting, and congratulations!

2 жыл бұрын

I'm still having a hard time letting go of taking up coding tasks, and i too have been burned recently by picking up an interesting task, and that resulting in stalling the team because there where fires i needed to put out.

@TheDeliberateEngineer 2 жыл бұрын

I think we've all been there. It's hard to resist when you know you're the best person to do something. Well, except for that whole "having time" part :)

@Ajaysarda01 2 жыл бұрын

This is great list of things EM do. I had a question on managing up. How do you say "No" to your director? In situations like some headcount is taken away (temporary- loaner to other team), Projects pushed on to you and the team where as team is not best positioned to deliver it

@TheDeliberateEngineer 2 жыл бұрын

Saying 'no' to your director is tough. The way I've seen it done most successfully (with a few charismatic exceptions) is to instead say "yes, BUT..." "we can do that, but here's what it'll cost" or "this has high risk, but if we stop doing these two things, we can take it on." Thanks for watching and commenting!

@bigal7713 7 ай бұрын

Is it indeed so grim? All of the admin work and no decision making (or at least facilitating) fun/satisfaction? Are good engineering managers: a) people management experts or b) technology super-generalists/visionaries?

@poppedfloor4422 2 жыл бұрын

Hey John, I was wondering if I could get your opinion on Product Management? If its a good career choice?

@TheDeliberateEngineer 2 жыл бұрын

Both Program Management and Product Management are good, viable choices. I've seen very talented and successful people doing this job at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

@handle924 2 жыл бұрын

What advice do you have on being the bearer of bad news, delivering something from higher ups that wouldn't be well received by your reports?

@TheDeliberateEngineer 2 жыл бұрын

Make your own peace with it first. Anticipate their frustrations, protests, questions. Figure out a reasonable answer. These things don't happen for no reason, so being able to justify it / understand it is the first step to acceptance. Then, own the message and present it to reports. If it's especially unpleasant, do it in both a shared environment (to answer common questions) and in 1-1s (for more private / sensitive questions).

@besimav Жыл бұрын

I am exaggerating but things in 1 are 2-hr work each. You are leaving out the biggest time sunk: meetings that you need to show face in.

@TheDeliberateEngineer Жыл бұрын

When you have to be there for an hour for 2 minutes of stuff that is relevant to you, that's my least favorite. But yea, the further up you get, the more your meetings are about giving face time to subordinates so they feel heard and recognized, and you can propegate your orgs one / three focuses.