In Depth

Why is the transition from IC Engineer to Manager so tricky (and how to get it right)? — Marcel Weekes, VP of Product Engineering at Figma

May 25, 2023

01:00:06

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Introduction

2min

How to Cultivate Top Talent in Your Organization

2min

How to Develop Engineering Managers for the First Time

4min

How to Find an Outstanding Engineering Manager

4min

The Importance of Reflection in Engineering

3min

The Importance of Engineering Managers in Startups

4min

The Root Cause of Failure in Management

4min

The Job Description of an Excellent Engineering Manager

2min

The Importance of Expectation Setting

4min

10.

How to Set Reasonable or Unreasonable Expectations for Your Team

2min

11.

How to Set Expectations for Your Team

4min

12.

The Importance of Goal Setting and Context Setting

4min

13.

How to Manage New Managers and Not Get Tripped Up

2min

14.

How to Transition to a Manager Role

3min

15.

The Odd Duality of Direct Feedback

3min

16.

How to Encourage New Managers to Exit People

3min

17.

The Importance of Performance Management

4min

18.

How to Develop a Performance Management Exercise

3min

19.

How to Fire Well and Create a Culture That Does It Well

2min

20.

The Importance of Asking Excellent Questions

2min

Our guest today is Marcel Weekes, VP of Product Engineering at Figma and former VP of Engineering at Slack.

In today’s conversation, he unpacks why most startups get it wrong when they uplevel someone from IC engineer to eng manager and unfurls what stellar engineering management looks like at high-growth companies, including:

Setting appropriate expectations and goals
Turbocharging the team’s effectiveness
Delivering high-impact feedback
Going from a peer to a manager
What leaders risk when they drag their heels on managing out low-performers

You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.

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