Onboard yourself as Engineering Manager

There are tons of articles out there about what to do when you start a new job or take on a new role. I am not reinventing the wheel here. But I want to document on what I think is a best-practice for Engineering Managers. It will help you if you keep some kind of log for yourself. At least for me, it enabled me to reflect on my learnings greatly.

Summary: Listen to your people. Get clarity on how things work. Introduce yourself. Start networking. Aim for some early wins. Create a vision for yourself and your teams.


Onboard yourself

Most companies have some kind of onboarding for new employees. There is a process, mostly set-up by HR, that will guide new people in their first days or weeks. It is there to help them to be productive faster and to centralize some tasks that would have to be done by every team again. It’s useful, mostly. But the sad truth: This usually doesn’t work for managers. Managers are expected to find their own way. I am sure, there are exceptions out there where companies also have a brilliant on-boarding program for new engineering managers. But my experience tells me otherwise, I think mainly because the role is so much more specialized than most of the other roles. It is hard to have a good program for engineering managers.

I firmly believe: As an engineering manager, you have to onboard yourself.

The first 100 days

Often, I read about the importance of the first “100 days”. The first 100 days are there to get to know everything and everybody, build your network and actually start being productive. And I think there is some truth about that. But often, the first 100 days aren’t even enough, especially in larger companies. And sometimes you don’t even have 100 days to deliver your first tasks - especially when it comes to fast-pacing startup environments. Still, let’s aim for an effective on-boarding of yourself within this given time span.

The topics I want to cover:

  • Keep your head down, learn, and fit in
    • Listen to your people
    • Get clarity on how things work
  • Get started
    • Introduce yourself
    • Start networking
  • Create a first plan and have an impact
    • Aim for some early wins
    • Create a vision for yourself and your teams
  • Appendix
    • Some reading material: References, Podcasts, Books
    • Example schedule

Keep your head down, learn, and fit in

I understand. You want to hit the ground running and prove yourself. You want to get your system up-and-running and start coding. I understand that. But you don’t have that luxury anymore. So, for now, keep your head down, learn and observe. Stop the urge to change everything. You probably know not too much about the company, the product, the people, and the technology. Before making decisions as a manager, you should be able to understand that decisions you are going to make. Every good boss will give you the time and leeway to do that.

Listen to your people

I probably don’t need to tell you that. But I do it anyways: Start talking to your people and listen. I can’t stress this enough. Usually, this means that you start scheduling your 1:1s after a couple of weeks. Make sure to introduce the idea of 1:1s first, before scheduling. This is how you learn. This is how you get to know everyone and build trust in your leadership and your person. You cannot wait for your engineers to start the conversation, you need to facilitate that. Make sure you cover the topic of ‘what do I expect’ and ‘how do we want to work together’.

People want to know what is important for you and how they are being measured. Remember that, also for your direct reports, you are a big change. You don’t how the relationship with your predecessor was. New people cause disruption.

There are some good resources out there that describe the process on how to be successful with your 1:1s, I will link them below. You can also make use of the ‘Moving Motivators’, introduced in the Management 3.0 book by Jurgen Appelo. It gives you an insight into the intrinsic motivations of your people. It helps with your coaching and personal development effort.

–> Moving Motivators cards
–> Manager Tools “Basics”

Get clarity on how things work

So, before running off and be busy, sit down with your boss and get clarity on what is important your new role. What does it need to be successful in this role? What is expected from you and what is (explicitly) not? What can you decide on your own and where better to check with someone?

When you are aligned with your boss on this, you will be much more effective and successful in your new role. It helps you to get your priority right. Establish a proper communication channel with your boss, suggest to set up 1:1s on a weekly basis. It might also help to get a mentor. That can be internal or external. This person can help you reflect on your challenges and help you ease in your new position.

–> 90 Day New Job Plan - The Overview

Get started

It doesn’t matter how much experience you have from previous jobs, how many projects you delivered or how many people you lead. When starting something new, everything changes. It is imperative to establish a proper internal network and get to know your peers and main stakeholders. One of my personal best-practice is to keep a journal. It helps you to unclutter your brain and stay focused.

Introduce yourself

For me, this might be the most tricky part when starting something new. Probably you already were introduced to some folks during the interview process, but for the rest of the company, you are the ‘new guy’. And a first impression is usually something that sticks. Ask your boss or your peer on what is a common practice in this company, usually, there is some kind of ritual. Maybe you are ‘presented’ or introduced by your boss in some kind of town hall meeting. Or, in smaller companies, you just go desk-by-desk and shake hands. Either way, before introducing yourself, think about what message you want to communicate. Keep it brief, but cover your main points, include some personal information if you like. People also like to hear a bit about your personal history, your previous engagement and hobbies.

Remember: You are the new person. You are a disruption to how things were before.

Start networking

You cannot get things done alone. Sure, your team is important. But without your internal network, it will be hard to get anything done. Often, when thinking about ‘networking’, people think about special events like MeetUps or conferences. But the most important network you can have is within your company. Your peers and stakeholders. Any you need to establish a proper internal network before you have big problems to solve. It is usually considered bad-practice to approach someone for help when things are already messy. Go start to talk to those people. For me, coffee or lunch invites usually did the trick quite well.

Make a first plan and have an impact

When it comes to Engineering Management, there is one thing that is a bit more distinct to other disciplines. Technology changes fast. A lot. And the combination of different stacks makes it impossible to be an expert in all these new developments. Luckily, that is not your job. You lead the experts. Still, you need to know what is going on.

Aim for some early wins

I know it can be hard to figure out where to start. But once you established trust with your team and got the first impression on the current operational challenges, pick something small to fix. One by one. Make it less hideous and horrible. My recommendation is: Fix the things that announce themselves as in need of repair. Benefit of the compound of interest and create a better environment for yourself and your team.

Create a vision for yourself and your teams

Now, here comes the part where your technical expertise pays off. Apart from knowing your team, your peers and your product, you need to know the engineering side of things. Obviously, that will be expected from an Engineering Manager. You don’t have to be ‘hands-on’ for that. But your boss will expect from you, that you can explain what is going on. Why a seemingly 5-minute task takes 2 weeks?

You have one foot in the technical world, and one foot in the product-business world. You translate and explain. That is why your job is challenging, and that is what makes your job interesting. You need to understand how to different levels of the tech stack come together, how the technology is used or misused. What possible paths are there for technological innovation?

Now bring everything together. How is your new team currently making decisions? What kind of knowledge sharing strategy is in place? What’s going on with the development process? In what kind of state is the product and what does that say about their decision-making competence? Who are your internal and external customers? How does work get done?

When you have all that, you can set up your ‘lighthouse’ vision. Something to aim for. You are the captain on the ship and your team is rowing towards your lighthouse. But everybody can see it, and it is clear how to get there. That’s when you have your technical vision.


Happy to help,
David

Appendix: Some reading/listening material

I put together some reading material. I’ll try to keep this up-to-date in my Manager-Manual I have set up. Check it out here: Manual About Myself - David Werner. Especially for this article, this podcast and article could be a good addition:

Engineering

Leadership & Management

Career and Business

Everything else

Example schedule for your first 100-days

Week Tasks
1 Observe and learn. Don’t make any changes to the organization
2 Introduce yourself to the company and your peers
2 Go grab one of your fellow product owners and get an introduction to all the products, apps, and goals
3 Start to understand the architecture of your main apps. Make sure to get a proper introduction
3 Talk to your boss about your goals and what’s important for her
4 Start introducing 1:1s to your team of direct reports
5 Start networking and have a chat with your main stakeholders
6-8 Identify some quicks wins to establish credibility
12 Create your first draft of your technical vision, share it with the team and gather input from peers