Becoming a manager in 2021

If you’re stepping into a new management role this year, you’re probably going to have to get to know your team—and begin managing—remotely. Here are resources and tools for supporting your teammates as individuals, and as a unit!

How to successfully join a company as engineering manager

I joined new company as Engineering Team Lead. Though I had past experience as an Engineering Manager, it was my first time joining a company in a management position. In addition to the common fears of starting a new job, and onboarding in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, joining as a manager raised unfamiliar concerns and self-doubts.

Admit when you don’t know

Someone asks you for information and you don't know the answer. Maybe a senior manager asks, “When can the customers expect this particular feature?” Or your manager asks, “How does this specific architecture work for our product?” A colleague or a person you serve asks, “Why are we doing this?”

Arriving on a method to assign the work in your sprint plan

On my early agile projects, team members signed up for tasks during the sprint planning meeting. We would leave a planning meeting with someone’s name associated with each task. Our sprint backlog, which we called a sprint plan back then, looked like this.

Unpacking Interview Questions

A series sharing some of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. I’ll unpack the question, when to ask it, and how to evaluate answers.