Being an Engineering Manager today has never been harder - but why?

How we got here, what’s broken, and where to go from here.

👋 Hey, it’s Stephane. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share lessons, and stories from my journey to help you lead with confidence as an Engineering Manager.

Once upon a time, “engineering teams” were just a couple of devs reporting to whoever happened to be around. A PM. A founder. Maybe even someone in marketing.

Then teams became bigger and companies realised that someone had to handle career talks, approvals, decisions. Got it. We’ll promote the most senior engineer to do that of course. After all they know the most about the team. Boom! Tech Lead and manager, all in one.

That might have worked for a team of three.

But as soon as teams grew a little bit more to five, ten, or more, this started to really fail. Writing code and managing a team don’t mix well at scale. People need 1:1s. Projects need direction. Someone has to remove blockers.

You can’t do that between code reviews, developing features on the critical path, and planning the next project at the same time. It’s just …