In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
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In the past couple of years I transitioned from a freelancer, to a full-time software engineer, to a product owner, to a manager of a small product development team. Due to the relatively rapid changes, I feel I have not had enough time to go particularly deep in my knowledge and experience with any of these roles.
I’m currently focusing on developing the soft skills needed to be a better manager. I have this nagging feeling though that I should still be developing my technical skills. But in the grand scheme of things, is it still useful for a manager to continue to develop technically in order to provide useful input/guidance on technical decisions? Or would it be better to leave the technical decision-making to the team and instead focus purely on building up the team, supporting members in reaching their career goals, and improving processes? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
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Hi! Love the show and recommend it to everyone, even if they’re just asked for directions…
I’m the Front End Lead at a fast growing startup. I really want to start delegating more, so I decided I’m going to appoint a front end tech lead on each of our teams. I already have my tech leads picked out, but…..
My problem is with one of the teams. The person most fitting for the job is a very talented, yet very junior developer. This team also includes a very senior developer, which I believe is not fit for the job at all. But the senior developer is looking for a promotion.
I’ve consulted with my managers and they think passing over the senior dev is basically forcing them out of the company (or at the least, making them a very disgruntled employee).
Right now i’m holding back my decision just because of this.
Please help me!
Thanks :-)
Show Notes
- https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer
- https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/
- https://charity.wtf/2019/01/04/engineering-management-the-pendulum-or-the-ladder/
- https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum/
