Engineering Management for the Rest of Us Quotes

“The single most important thing we can do to write better documents and give better speeches is to write them first, and then reread them from the audience’s perspective. It seems like such an obvious thing to do, but doesn’t happen enough in practice.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“When writing, you own the material. It’s a thinking exercise as much as a writing exercise. It forces you to work through the problem as you attempt to translate the information in your head onto paper.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“When people talk about “good” managers, they are likely referring to people who show care and appreciation for people’s values, and also respect their boundaries.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“I have a kanban board for my personal life to-do list and a cron job that empties my Done column and texts it to me every week, so I feel accomplished.” —@alicegoldfuss, May 25, 2019”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“In the field of psychology, the Pygmalion effect24 is the name for the concept of how high expectations from those around us lead to better performance, and low expectations lead to the opposite, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Surrounding yourself with people who support you is very important. There are many methods of support. Some people support by loving protectively and fiercely. Some people support by reminding you of your worth. Some people support by being available to play Fortnite and drink whiskey. Seek out folks who act without jealousy, and make sure you support them too.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“It’s important to find joy in small moments. They needn’t be an extravagant vacation or a decadent cake (though those can be amazing too!). They can be as simple as stretching in between meetings, or spending a few moments gazing out the window and looking at the light, and even as silly as making up dumb jokes to share. Every moment is an opportunity for rest and joy.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“The nature of our work means that we are constantly supporting others, and it can be easy to overextend and sacrifice ourselves for other people. If you’re the kind of person who typically puts others before themselves, it can be hard to create healthy boundaries, as it can feel selfish. But setting boundaries for ourselves helps us support others.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Where you invest your time is not just about what you value, but also what you don’t value. At the very least, we want to make our time investments align with our values as much as possible, and to be intentional. This starts with looking at the big picture and then refining until we reach what we do on the day-to-day.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Being overwhelmed with options, decisions, and meetings doesn’t happen all at once either. Typically this type of bombardment is cumulative. This means it’s pertinent to work prioritization into your everyday life.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“A bit of technical debt is natural, particularly at smaller companies where it makes more fiscal sense to move quickly; but there are some points where technical debt becomes crippling for development and releases, and makes a codebase unstable.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“One of the most-valuable skills one can possess as a manager is to help your team scope down large, ambitious, abstract work into more manageable pieces, and often the smaller the units the better. Why the emphasis on something as seemingly trivial as size? For many reasons, but here are some of the most pertinent: It’s easier on reviewers. It’s easier to test. It’s easier to iterate.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Any system for metrics is going to be flawed for a few reasons: we can’t see into the future, we can only evaluate the past, and the industry shifts rapidly. So depending on the space we’re in, we may have to adjust at times. But OKRs are still valuable to understand and evaluate progress.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“An overarching factor in a company may be OKRs (objectives and key results)—a heavily adopted pattern across industries for establishing a data-driven system where results are measurable, and you can hold yourself and your teams accountable.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“The very word “conflict” evokes people at battle, opposing forces. But not all conflict is negative. Conflict can illuminate risks, allow us to collaborate and improve processes, and affect positive change. The key is to continue to provide clarity, and usher folks toward productive conflict that is devoid of personal attacks, and focused on the larger goals.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Most truly innovative concepts challenge the status quo. Part of this process means that you need conflict to challenge and flesh out an idea, to consider the risks, and allow everyone involved to see the size and the shape of the thing at hand.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Conflict is actually a very necessary and healthy part of a productive working environment. Why? Because we work best together when we’re all learning from one another, and that can’t happen without some disagreement along the way.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“to give good feedback that actually helps an individual or team grow, it’s pertinent that they don’t feel threatened and feel that it’s coming from a place of care.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“In order to make real change, we need to connect people to the why.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“If you can properly address the mission, the goal, the reason behind something, you will find a lot of passionate engineers will follow you to the end state of the journey.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Your job is now to align people to the outcomes instead of tactical details of how to get something done.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Belonging is a core tenet of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs4 because humans are designed for connectedness and kinship.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“We need to care for the team both on the individual level and by stepping back and seeing the team as an ecosystem.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“It can be tempting to zoom in close to each individual and try to optimize for each one. However, leadership means taking care of the wider system. Leadership means creating wider goals and strategies, and connecting the teams to the greater purpose of their work.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“When a person feels that their work is valued, that they have a North Star purpose both for their personal growth and for wider impact with the people and industry, it’s an incredibly powerful thing. Knowing that what you’re doing day to day is meaningful, that small tasks accumulate to a larger goal, and that you have a path forward can be extremely motivating and drive us with resilience past obstacles, into a greater outcome.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Mastery has no fixed state or prerequisite. Your brain can literally grow and adapt with challenges. In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor refers to a study that showed that London cab drivers had a larger hippocampus (the part of the brain that’s devoted to spatial memory) due to the complexity of London’s streets.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Habits and new tasks take up different parts of the brain. New tasks take cognitive effort. We have to parse every bit of what we’re doing. Habits, on the other hand, take very little effort for our mind.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“As a manager, you can never guarantee an outcome with people, but you can make sure you’re doing what you can to give your team an environment where they feel safe and intrinsically motivated about their work, with little distraction.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Positive social interactions raise oxytocin, which lowers anxiety. Social support has even been shown to extend one’s lifespan. Working to create an inclusive environment is quite literally connected to doing great work. This also means encouraging bonds between workers, even when you’re not around.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Coined in 1975 by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow state is the phenomenon in which a person is fully immersed in an activity that leads to focus, energized involvement, and enjoyment. A person in flow state is no longer thinking of multiple things, or even their sense of self, but is singularly focused on a task or challenge. Many people report it is the happiest feeling in their lives.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

“Our job as engineering managers is to create an environment where people can feel like they’re getting their best work done.”
― Sarah Drasner, Engineering Management for the Rest of Us