Recent Posts
Micromanagement: The Silent Threat to Engineering Teams
Micromanagement is a hidden but damaging force in engineering teams, eroding trust, autonomy, and innovation. In this episode of the Effective Engineering Manager podcast, Slava and Adam explore the roots of micromanagement - poor delegation, fear of failure, and lack of trust - and its consequences for morale, productivity, and retention. They also share strategies for organizations and managers to address micromanagement, from coaching and role adjustments to practical ways of shielding teams from its effects.
Ani Mishra: Effective Cross-functional Collaboration
Our guest, Ani Mishra, engineering manager at DoorDash, shares how engineering managers can become true force multipliers by orchestrating cross-functional collaboration. From treating PMs, designers, and data scientists as partners to using proactive communication, escalation, and trust-building, Ani lays out practical ways EMs can align teams, remove bottlenecks, and prepare for an AI-driven future.
Driving Lasting Change in Engineering Organizations with Manju Abraham
Engineering leader Manju Abraham shares proven lessons from NetApp, Delphix, and HPE on how to lead organizational change that sticks. Discover why most transformations fail, how to build trust and emotional safety, and practical steps for co-creating vision, empowering champions, and turning change into culture. A must-listen for engineering managers driving real results.
Jeremy Franzen: Operations and Engineering
We are featuring a guest Jeremy Franzen, an Operations expert with over 30 years of experience running Ops at public companies and startups. Jeremy shares his expertise in building strong collaboration between software engineering and operations teams through open communication, shared goals, feedback loops, joint automation and monitoring, shared security practices, knowledge sharing, and coordinated approaches to incident and change management, all tracked by common performance metrics. In the end, Jeremy provides a checklist that our listeners can start using today to build and run quality production environments together with their Operations teams.
Engineering Management and AI – Part 2/3 – Jobs
In this second episode of three, we continue with a practical introduction to AI for engineering managers. We share possible impact of AI and Large Language Models, or LLM on the jobs. In the end we provide a checklist for engineering managers to help to stay ahead of the AI curve.
Handling Conflict for Engineering Managers
Conflict is an inevitable part of any workplace, especially in fast-paced engineering environments. As engineering managers, you are tasked with the dual responsibility of caring for your team while delivering results. Handling conflict effectively requires a careful balance between maintaining composure and ensuring issues are addressed constructively. Here, we provide a comprehensive guide to navigating workplace conflict, emphasizing emotional intelligence and self-control to foster a positive and productive environment.
Engineering Management and AI – Part 1/3 – Value
In this first episode of three, we provide a practical introduction to AI for engineering managers. We share that value AI and Large Language Models, or LLM, offer to engineering managers and their teams. In the end we provide a check list for engineering managers to start get value from AI today.
Maintaining Team Morale Through Tough Times
In this episode, we talk about what causes tough times for companies and how being smart with money and saving up can help keep the business healthy during downturns. We focus on how leaders can boost team morale when things get tough, using tools like one-on-one meetings, positive feedback, kudos programs, and team outings. We also cover the importance of strong engineering leadership, coaching, and career development when facing changes in the organization. Tune in for practical tips and strategies to keep your team motivated and resilient through the rough patches.
Managing Hyperperformers
We dedicate this episode to managing hyper performers. We define who the hyperperformers are, what distinguishes them from the rest of the team and how to manage hyperperformers for the maximum results while retaining them. We share management practices to avoid. In the end provide a checklist that our listeners can use to manage hyperperformers effectively.
Building Effective Strategy
We present the essential components of developing and communicating a strategy in engineering management, emphasize the need for strategies to be documented, measurable, and aligned with business needs. We share the importance of having a strategy as an engineering manager aspiring to drive change and innovation. We emphasize the need for a clear vision, meaningful goals tied to business value, and continuous iteration. We stress the importance of buy-in in the success of a strategy, highlighting the need for the team to be fully supportive of the strategy, as well as the importance of obtaining buy-in from higher management. Finally, we provide a detailed checklist to allow engineering managers developing a well-aligned and challenging yet achievable strategy, covering aspects such as building a strong foundation, aligning with business goals, leveraging lateral relationships, and maintaining effective communication with stakeholders.
Tim Wenzel: Building Exceptional Teams
We are featuring a guest, Tim Wenzel, who is a Silicon Valley native, expert in recruiting, including building early teams and PayPal and Tesla, and a founder and an executive recruiter at The (A)Lyst Group. Tim shares practical recommendations on feedback, candidate experience, and building teams in dynamic startup environments. In the end, Tim shares a checklist that our listeners can start using today to build exceptional teams.
Cultivating Trust
We dive deep into the importance of trust in engineering management, and how it impacts productivity. We share that trust is built and reinforced over time. We highlight the different layers of trust, including organizational, team, and individual trust, and emphasize the need for consistency and building trust through actions. We explore the subtle distinction between expectations and trust. We also discuss the emotional toll of mistrust caused by broken trust. In the end we provide a checklist that allows our listeners to start cultivating trust in their organizations.
Effective Dependency Management
We share how to manage project dependencies in a way that brings results. We are going to define what a dependency is and how to manage your dependencies to ensure that projects you are a part of are delivered on time and with quality. In the end we will provide a checklist that our listeners can use to ensure that their dependencies are always satisfied.
Managing Innovation
We offer an effective way of introducing innovation to an engineering team and getting results regardless of the organization size. In the end we offer an actionable checklist that engineering managers can use to start innovating today.
Managing Up: Complaining
We are starting a series on managing up. In this episode we talk about how not to communicate work issues to your boss. We define what complaining is and why complaining is ineffective. We provide a checklist that our listeners can use to see if their upward communications are in the complaining territory.
Effective Remote Work
In this episode, Adam and Slava discuss the new normal of the remote workplace. We discuss the challenges in working remote, key benefits to being remote, and provide guidance for managers to effectively manage remote teams and maximize healthy productivity.
Effective Goal Setting
It’s that time of year again for managers and directs to start planning goals and executing on them for the new year. In this episode, we will discuss the challenges with goal setting and provide guidance for making the goal setting process more effective.
Getting Things Done: Taking Time Off
We share the effective way for taking time off. In the end we offer a check list that consists of
- Designate a substitute
- Prepare your substitute
- Set up the Out of The Office response in your email client
- Have a sync up meeting with your direct report after you come back
Getting Things Done: Staff Meetings
We share what staff meetings are, why they are important for keeping your team accountable for their deliverables and how they help you to stay on top of everything the team is doing. We provide guidance on how frequently you should run them and how to make them effective. In the end we provide a checklist that our listeners can use to start running effective staff meetings.
Building Managers: Now That You Are A Manager
Wrapping up the ‘becoming a manger series’ with guidance and steps on what new engineering managers can do once their training completes and they are now officially a manager. Guidance includes: managing introductions and the first couple of weeks; planning your first 30-60-90 days; setting up foundational meetings like 1-on-1s; building key lateral relationships; creating space for the team to get to know you and your plan.
Building Managers: Implementing The Plan
In this episode we present a practical, step-by-step implementation guide for transitioning engineer's career to the engineering management track.
Building Managers: Building a Success Strategy
We share how to build a success-oriented strategy by taking care of four management pillars, organization, people, product, processes and tools.
Building Managers: Leading From The Back, Leading From The Front
We share what the role of the engineering leader means and how to approach leading from both the front and the back.
Building Managers: Not A Promotion
Our guest speaker, Anand Safi, shares how transitioning a career from an engineer to an engineering manager is not a promotion. Also, Anand shares a checklist on what to do first 90 days as a new engineering manager.
Root Cause Analysis with 5 Whys
We share blameless Root Cause Analysis, or RCA, as one of the most powerful tools available to engineering managers that help to eliminate production incidents and resolve quality challenges. We go over what an RCAs is, the benefits, the process of doing RCAs using "5 Whys" technique, and the best practices. In the end, we provide a checklist to help engineering managers to implement the RCA effectively.
Building Managers: The Right Motivation
We share the key reasons and motivators for pursuing a engineering leadership position. Before you take on transitioning someone's or your own career to engineering management, check if you have the right motivations and strengths needed to take on the role.
Performance Reviews: The Easy Way
We share a low-effort, highly effective approach to creating great performance reviews that we call Engineer's Diary.
Team Building: Know What You Need To Build A Team
Learn how to identify what you need based on the team you currently have.
Effective SDLC: Engineering Checklist
We provide a do-or-die checklist for an effective SDLC that allows teams building software that customers love to use and engineers never have to worry about.
Team Building: No All-Star Teams
We provide guidance on how to understand and avoid building All-Star Teams. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to build complementary teams, not all-star teams.
Effective One-One-Ones: 1:1s with New Boss
We provide practical guidance on avoiding risks associated with 1:1s with a new boss. This continues the series on the Effective One-On-Ones. We also recommend checking out EEM episode "Practicing Observe and Absorb" that will help you to plan and implement a strategy for managing 1:1s with your new boss.
Building Teams: The Kudos Program
We provide a practical guidance on how to build engaged teams by implementing a Kudos program. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to implement the Kudos program immediately
Effective One-on-Ones: Structuring 1:1s
Practical suggestions on structuring 1:1s. Structure your 1:1s as 20 minutes to be your directs' and 10 minutes to be yours. Let your direct reports decide what they want to talk about. Avoid assigning work during your 1:1s.
Building Teams: Birthdays and Lunches
We provide recommendations on two powerful yet easy to implement approaches to maintain the human connections and the spirit of camaraderie in a team, celebrating birthdays and going to lunches. This is the first episode in the series dedicated to the most important activity any engineering manager is responsible for, building and maintaining effective teams.
Effective One-on-Ones: Don’t Skip Your 1:1s
The more 1:1s you miss, the longer will be your next one. One-on-ones are the most effective people management tool. When it's used right, it's allows engineering managers building lasting relationships with their direct reports that pay in great performance. When done wrong, 1:1s can become ineffective or even harmful. The first episode in the series The Laws of One-On-Ones we talk about the impact of skipped 1:1s and practical techniques to avoid missing 1:1s, for managers and their direct reports.
Effective Agile: Remote Teams
We provide guidance on how to effectively manage remote teams in an Agile environment. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are managing their remote teams effectively.
Engineering Process: Gap Analysis
Gap Analysis is an effective approach to identifying challenges in the areas of engineering processes, people and tools. Gap Analysis allows engineering managers to address challenges that prevent the team from delivering high quality software on time. In this podcast we provide a step-by-step guidance for conducting Gap Analysis and resolving the identified gaps.
Effective Agile: Standups
Daily standups are one of the most important practices in Agile. We share our recommendations and experiences towards running effective Agile standups. The most important Agile event, standups provide a means to build a culture of consistency and focus on making progress on the team’s priorities for that sprint. In the end we share a succinct checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are running effective standups.
Engineering Process: Think-Plan-Execute
Think-Plan-Execute is an effective technique for getting things done. In this podcast we discuss how it helps engineering managers and software engineers to deliver working software on time, with quality, and provide practical examples of how to implement Think-Plan-Execute.
Effective Agile: Estimation
In this podcast we continue in our podcast series on Effective Agile and discuss the importance of estimation and how it is a fundamental building block for effective teams. We share tips and techniques to help teams become better at estimating and also share practical experiences with estimation. In the end, we provide a concise checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are applying the best techniques for estimation.
Developing Skills: Guided Self-Study
In this podcast we share the practice of guided self-study, discuss how it helps busy managers to elevate team’s skills, and provide practical recommendations on how to run the guided self-study practice. In the end, we share an approach to install the guided self study at your team and provide a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are executing guided self-study effectively.
Effective Agile: Best Practices
In this podcast, we start a four-part discussion on Agile teams. We share key best practices for effectively building and managing Agile teams, discuss why these practices are important, and provide tools to implement them easily. In the end, we share a succinct checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are building and managing Agile teams effectively.
Engineering Process: Effective Design Reviews
In this podcast we share the practice of effective software design reviews, discuss why they are important and provide practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to run design review meetings that deliver high quality software architectures. We provide guidance for executing one-on-one reviews, accommodating input, running team reviews and public reviews, and sharing the final designs. In the end, we share an approach to install the effective design reviews and a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are running their design reviews effectively.
Practicing Observe and Absorb
In this podcast we define the concept of 'observe and absorb', discuss why it is important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to use this tool to unlock and build stronger working relationships. In the end, we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to start practicing "observe and absorb".
Effective Engineering Meetings
In this podcast we define effective effective engineering meetings, discuss why they are important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to run meetings that deliver results. We provide practical guidance for setting meeting goals, defining agendas, preparing participants, building invite lists, managing the meetings and sharing the results. In the end, we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are running their meetings effectively.
Effective Time Management
In this podcast we define the effective time management, discuss why it is important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to make most out of their time. In the end, we share a check list that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are using their time effectively.
Welcome to The Effective Engineering Manager Podcast
In this inaugural episode we share why we decided to start the Effective Engineering Manager podcast. Our motivation was to share 25+ years of our combined engineering management experience in getting stuff done. We provide proven solutions and best practices to software engineering managers who are responsible for building and maintaining effective engineering teams that allow them to deliver software on time and with quality. Practices we share apply to all levels, from frontline engineering managers to directors and above.