Engineering Management
topic on 5 shows · 8 statements across 6 episodes
the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 
Masters of Scale 
Lenny's Podcast 
the a16z Podcast 
20VC
8 statements about Engineering Management, every show
Tobi Lütke: Engineering managers make excellent AI programmers because managing is prompting
“Honestly it turns out, I think people who've done like engineering management and management in general are actually excellent AI programmers because they actually have been prompting intelligent agents for much longer than cloud code existed.”
Wen: Design managers need hands-on IC rotations like engineering managers
“I think traditionally at least what I've seen a lot of like the engineering disciplines, like when they hire EMs or even sometimes like directors there, they actually make the EMs like take a rotation for a few months and pick up a few tasks. And really unders…”
Fournier: Engineers need roughly 10 years coding before entering management
“So I do think it's probably a like somewhere in the 10 year range of like really having spent a lot of your time over those years in writing code and, you know, really understanding how to be a technical expert.”
Fournier: Engineers cannot effectively double as product managers for very long
“The actual details and focus of the product work is just, you can't write a bunch of code or, and, or manage like a big soft software engineering team and be a product manager at the same time. That's actually just asking, I think too much of people to do that…”
Schmidt: Google 20% time served as a check on engineering managers' power
“What it really served as Was a check and balance on the power of the engineering management over the subject. So if an employee is under pressure, the manager says, you've got to work harder. You've got to give me everything you have. That employee can legitim…”
Fournier: Good management is essential, not waste or overhead
“The thing that I'm observing is that actually like management is pretty important, that good management is actually a pretty important part of making engineering teams effective, making companies effective. It just simply isn't true that management is overhead…”
Fournier: Engineering management is a distinct technical discipline
“Help them understand that it's kind of a hard and a special discipline, but it's also a technical discipline and not just something that, you know, any random people manager can do.”
Mike Curtis: Engineering managers' main duty is enabling peak alignment moments
“This is, like, one of the most core fundamental premises behind engineering management, is, like, understanding the person. What motivates them? What are their skills? What are they trying to develop? That magic moment that I talked about, like, being able to …”