An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management

by Will Larson

A peculiar challenge of management is trying to invest in someone’s career development when they themselves are uncertain about their goals. As a manager, you may have more experience and more access to opportunities within the company, but that represents a small slice of someone’s career possibilities. Our schooling often rewards us for being methodical, linear thinkers, but that approach is less effective outside the intentionally constrained possibility spaces.

A few years back, one of the leaders I worked with told me, “With the right people, any process works, and with the wrong people, no process works.”

Finally, I think it’s important to recognize to recognize that, in the growth plates, you are focused on surviving to the next round, which might be a different growth challenge, or might be the team stabilizing. It is extremely hard to consistently do the basics well in these circumstances, because you simply won’t have enough time to do them well.

Leadership is matching appropriate action to your current context, and it’s pretty uncommon that any two situations will flourish from the same behaviors.

Does the function already exist in secret? Sometimes you’ll find that roles have already split, and you’re less making a new function than recognizing an existing one.

The criteria I use to evaluate if a team’s sprint works well: Team knows what they should be working on. Team knows why their work is valuable. Team can determine if their work is complete. Team knows how to figure out what to work on next. Stakeholders can learn what the team is working on. Stakeholders can learn what the team plans to work on next. Stakeholders know how to influence the team’s plans.

Planning does not inherently create value, so aim to keep your roadmap as short as possible and allow teams to coordinate.