Engineering Manager Playbook
Run an engineering org that ships
Who This Is For
EMs and engineering leads
Any
You own delivery and team health, and both need work
Most engineering slowness is upstream of engineering: unclear specs, slow decisions, review queues. Fix the system before hiring more engineers.
1. The System
Velocity, engineering health, and tooling worth standardizing.
Shipping Velocity
Force an organization to maintain its momentum by uncoupling major goals from standard annual planni...
View Skill → →Engineering Health and Productivity
Productivity gains from AI are often perceived differently by frontline managers, who prioritize hum...
View Skill → →Product Stack Strategy
Evaluate AI engineering tools using blind performance benchmarks to ensure you are adopting technolo...
View Skill → →Building With AI Agents
High-velocity development requires shifting focus from just writing code to building robust AI-drive...
View Skill → →2. The People
Hire, coach, and give feedback that changes behavior.
Hiring World-Class Product Talent
In the AI era, the value of the generalist has increased significantly because tools allow individua...
View Skill → →Coaching and Talent Development
Senior product management impact is defined by the ability to provide strategic clarity and prioriti...
View Skill → →Giving Effective Feedback
Frame difficult feedback as a joint effort to help the employee achieve their own professional goals...
View Skill → →3. The Org
Structure teams so speed is the default.
Organizational Design for Product and Engineering
To prevent internal resentment and organizational rejection, innovation teams must be positioned as...
View Skill → →Building High-Performing Team Culture
High-performing cultures require leaders to prioritize clear performance standards and organizationa...
View Skill → →Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Measuring activity instead of cycle time
- Keeping tech debt invisible to product
- Reorging instead of fixing process