Leadership GardenManagement
The day-to-day work of engineering management: clarity, accountability, people, and scope.
39 posts with this tag. All tags
AI Is Not Just A Tool
“Just a tool” lets AI rollouts skip the hard question: what will your engineers stop learning?
How I Decide Whether to Split a Team
Most advice on splitting teams answers “is this team too big?” That’s the wrong question when you’re splitting into a strategy.
Why Your 360 Feedback Isn’t Working
Most 360 feedback fails not because leaders don’t try to change, but because changed behavior doesn’t automatically update other people’s mental models.
There Is No Standard EM Role
There is no standard Engineering Manager role. The job is defined by your team’s biggest bottleneck - and it shifts constantly. Here’s what that actually looks like.
The Finger Is Not the Moon
The finger is not the moon. A guide for engineering leaders on recognizing when your ceremonies, OKRs, and 1:1s have become performance instead of practice.
What Actually Breaks at 30 People
When your engineering team grows past 15-20, what breaks first isn’t documentation. It’s that you were the routing layer and nobody knew it.
You’re Coaching Too Much
Most engineering managers coach too much, not too little, and they often do it for themselves, not their reports. Here’s when managing is the more generous act.
Chaos vs. Bureaucracy: Pick Your Poison
Most software engineering teams swing between chaos and bureaucracy. Here’s a framework to find the edge where scaling actually happens.
Software Engineering Laws - Team & Project Management
The engineering laws that explain why teams, coordination, and project plans behave the way they do.
Conviction, Policy, Consensus: Choose Your Leadership Style Wisely
Learn the three essential leadership styles—conviction, policy, and consensus—that drive successful tech organizations. Includes real examples from Stripe, Uber, and other tech companies.