The Manager's Path. A Guide for Tech Leaders Żory

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal-especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, youll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether youre a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization. Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams Spis treści: Acknowledgments Introduction How to Read This Book OReilly Safari How to Contact Us 1. Management 101 What to Expect from a Manager One-on-One Meetings Feedback and Workplace Guidance Training and Career Growth How to Be Managed Spend Time Thinking About What You Want You Are Responsible for Yourself Give Your Manager a Break Choose Your Managers Wisely Assessing Your Own Experience 2. Mentoring The Importance of Mentoring to Junior Team Members Being a Mentor Mentoring an Intern Listen carefully Clearly communicate Calibrate your response Mentoring a New Hire Technical or Career Mentoring When you are a mentor When you are a mentee Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Alpha Geek Tips for the Manager of a Mentor Key Takeaways for the Mentor Be Curious and Open-Minded Listen and Speak Their Language Make Connections Assessing Your Own Experience 3. Tech Lead All Great Tech Leads Know This One Weird Trick Being a Tech Lead 101 The Main Roles of a Tech Lead Systems architect and business analyst Project planner Software developer and team leader Managing Projects Managing a Project Decision Point: Stay on the Technical Track or Become a Manager Imagined Life of a Senior Individual Contributor Real Life of a Senior Individual Contributor Imagined Life of a Manager Real Life of a Manager Good Manager, Bad Manager: The Process Czar How to Be a Great Tech Lead Understand the Architecture Be a Team Player Lead Technical Decisions Communicate Assessing Your Own Experience 4. Managing People Starting a New Reporting Relationship Off Right Build Trust and Rapport Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan Encourage Participation by Updating the New Hire Documentation Communicate Your Style and Expectations Get Feedback from Your New Hire Communicating with Your Team Have Regular 1-1s Scheduling 1-1s Adjusting 1-1s Different 1-1 Styles The To-Do List Meeting The Catch-up The Feedback Meeting The Progress Report Getting to Know You Mix It Up Good Manager, Bad Manager: Micromanager, Delegator Practical Advice for Delegating Effectively Use the Teams Goals to Understand Which Details You Should Dig Into Gather Information from the Systems Before Going to the People Adjust Your Focus Depending on the Stage of Projects Establish Standards for Code and Systems Treat the Open Sharing of Information, Good or Bad, in a Neutral to Positive Way Creating a Culture of Continuous Feedback Performance Reviews Writing and Delivering a Performance Review Give yourself enough time, and start early Try to account for the whole year, not just the past couple of months Use concrete examples, and excerpts from peer reviews Spend plenty of time on accomplishments and strengths When it comes to areas for improvement, keep it focused Avoid big surprises Schedule enough time to discuss the review Cultivating Careers Challenging Situations: Firing Underperformers Assessing Your Own Experience 5. Managing a Team Staying Technical Debugging Dysfunctional Teams: The Basics Not Shipping People Drama Unhappiness Due to Overwork Collaboration Problems The Shield How to Drive Good Decisions Create a Data-Driven Team Culture Flex Your Own Product Muscles Look into the Future Review the Outcome of Your Decisions and Projects Run Retrospectives for the Processes and Day-to-Day Good Manager, Bad Manager: Conflict Avoider, Conflict Tamer The Dos and Donts of Managing Conflict Challenging Situations: Team Cohesion Destroyers The Brilliant Jerk The Noncommunicator The Employee Who Lacks Respect Advanced Project Management Project Management Rules of Thumb None of this is a replacement for agile project management You have 10 productive engineering weeks per engineer per quarter Budget 20% of time for generic sustaining engineering work across the board As you approach deadlines, it is your job to say no Use the doubling rule for quick estimates, but push for planning time to estimate longer tasks Be selective about what you bring to the team to estimate Assessing Your Own Experience 6. Managing Multiple Teams Managing Your Time: Whats Important, Anyway? Decisions and Delegation Delegate Simple and Frequent Tasks Handle Simple and Infrequent Tasks Yourself Use Complex and Infrequent Tasks as Training Opportunities for Rising Leaders Delegate Complex and Frequent Tasks to Develop Your Team Challenging Situations: Strategies for Saying No Yes, and Create Policies Help Me Say Yes Appeal to Budget Work as a Team Dont Prevaricate Technical Elements Beyond Code Measuring the Health of Your Development Team Frequency of Releases Frequency of Code Check-ins Frequency of Incidents Good Manager, Bad Manager: Us Versus Them, Team Player The Virtues of Laziness and Impatience Assessing Your Own Experience 7. Managing Managers Skip-Level Meetings Manager Accountability Good Manager, Bad Manager: The People Pleaser Managing New Managers Managing Experienced Managers Hiring Managers Debugging Dysfunctional Organizations Have a Hypothesis Check the Data Observe the Team Ask Questions Check the Team Dynamics Jump In to Help Be Curious Setting Expectations and Delivering on Schedule Challenging Situations: Roadmap Uncertainty Strategies for Handling Roadmap Uncertainty Staying Technically Relevant Oversee Technical Investment Ask Informed Questions Analyze and Explain Engineering and Business Tradeoffs Make Specific Requests Use Your Experience as a Gut Check Assessing Your Own Experience 8. The Big Leagues Models for Thinking About Tech Senior Leadership Whats a VP of Engineering? Whats a CTO? Changing Priorities Setting the Strategy Do a Lot of Research Combine Your Research and Your Ideas Draft a Strategy Consider Your Boards Communication Style Challenging Situations: Delivering Bad News Senior Peers in Other Functions The Echo Ruling with Fear, Guiding with Trust Correcting a Culture of Fear True North Recommended Reading Assessing Your Own Experience 9. Bootstrapping Culture Assessing Your Role Creating Your Culture Applying Core Values Creating Cultural Policy Writing a Career Ladder Cross-Functional Teams Structuring Cross-Functional Teams Developing Engineering Processes Practical Advice: Depersonalize Decision Making Code Review The Outage Postmortem Architecture Review Assessing Your Own Experience 10. Conclusion Index O autorze: Camille Fournier jest doświadczoną liderką łączącą rozległe kompetencje przywódcze z szeroką wiedzą techniczną. Była wiceprezesem ds. technologii w firmie Goldman Sachs w Nowym Jorku, a obecnie jest opiekunką projektu open source Apache ZooKeeper i regularnie publikuje dla O’Reilly Media. Jest chętnie zapraszana do udziału w licznych konferencjach, podczas których często zabiera głos na tematy związane z technologią IT, przywództwem w zespołach inżynierskich i kierowaniem projektami.