Management
21 articles
12 Books for Learning Engineering Management (Organization, Leadership, PdM)
A staged reading list of 12 books for learning engineering management, from building organizations to leadership and product management: organization and team design, the manager's role, technical strategy, and product. Each entry links to its full review.
Designing Engineering Management as a "Deck"
Don't let management practices—1on1s, OKRs, review rules—pile up as a loose collection. A way to design them as one system (a deck) around the quality and reproducibility of decisions, and the conditions that turn a practice into an outcome.
How to Craft an Engineering Strategy
A review of How to Craft an Engineering Strategy. It presents engineering organizational strategy not as abstraction but as concrete steps. Through diagnosing the situation, setting direction, and translating it into action, it teaches a template for building technical decisions along the organization's context, clarifying for those wary of the word strategy.
The Work of a Senior Engineering Leader
A review of The Work of a Senior Engineering Leader. A book for leaders shifting from getting things done individually to achieving results through others. It carefully organizes the areas technical skill alone cannot cover: delegating decisions, prioritization, and engaging stakeholders.
Product Management in Practice, 2nd Edition
A review of Product Management in Practice, 2nd Edition. Matt LeMay's practical book weighted toward a PM's day-to-day behavior. Rather than career or method theory, it addresses what happens in a day, explaining concrete conduct along the CORE skills: communication, organization, research, and execution.
Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value
A review of Escaping the Build Trap. Melissa Perri's introduction to product management. It organizes how to escape the build trap, where shipping features becomes the goal in itself, across four axes: organization, role, strategy, and process.
The Engineering Leader: Strategies for Scaling Yourself and Your Team
A review of The Engineering Leader. Cate Huston's practical book for leaders of engineering organizations. From managing your own energy and recognizing failure patterns to scaling hiring, 1:1s, and building teams that grow the next generation of leaders, it covers a broad range.
CTO''s Thinking: Decision Making, Strategy, and Leadership to Drive Technology and Organization
A review of a book on the CTO's way of thinking. It reveals what a technical leader needs to truly function as part of executive leadership, from three angles: technology, business, and relationships. It emphasizes translating technology into business value, the trap of clinging to the 'right' technical answer, and making strategic decisions under uncertainty.
Dynamic Re-teaming 2nd Edition - Effective Team Structuring with 5 Patterns
A review of Dynamic Reteaming, 2nd Edition. A book on five patterns for managing and leveraging changes in team composition. It categorizes real-world shifts such as adding one person at a time, splitting, and merging, and offers a view that treats change as an opportunity rather than disruption.
Guide for Engineering Executives: Technical Leadership to Drive Organizational Success
A review of a guide for engineering executives. A book on the mindset and practice of leading a technical organization as a VP of Engineering or CTO. It covers hiring, org design, technical strategy, and alignment with executives, centered on running the whole organization as a system.
The Work of an Engineering Manager: How to Become the Manager Your Team Needs
A review of The Work of an Engineering Manager. A book on practical methods for making a team function as an EM. It prescribes remedies for the real challenges EMs face, such as 1:1s, feedback, hiring, and culture, plus delegation that separates accountability from execution.
Leading Engineering Teams: A Practical Guide for Individual Contributors and Managers Learned from Google
A review of Leading Engineering Teams. Drawing on Google's engineering culture, it covers how to lead teams effectively from both IC and manager perspectives. It systematically addresses topics rooted in daily work such as career ladders, code review, and handling technical debt, useful from senior engineers to EMs.
Five Dialogues to Transform Organizations - Creating an Agile Organizational Culture Through Dialogue
A review of Five Dialogues to Transform Organizations. A book on five kinds of conversation needed to cultivate an agile culture. Presenting patterns around goals, constraints, progress, process, and learning, it fosters cultural change through dialogue rather than top-down mandates, toward teams that act autonomously.
The Art of Leadership - Attending to the Small Things
A review of The Art of Leadership. A book arguing that an engineering leader's small daily actions shape organizational culture and team trust. Shining a light on easily overlooked interpersonal skills and habits, such as how you speak in meetings, give feedback, and run 1:1s, it prompts you to revisit your everyday behavior.
What is Team Topologies? How to Structure Engineering Teams
Learn Team Topologies—the four team types (stream-aligned, platform, enabling, complicated-subsystem) and three interaction modes for effective software delivery organization.
Why Software Development Teams Should Define MVV
Understand MVV definition for software teams, mission clarity, vision alignment, and team personality development.
The Penguin Who Became a Seagull
A review of Our Iceberg Is Melting. A fable of organizational change for learning how to solve problems and form teams in an environment that demands change. You experience Kotter's eight-step process for leading change through story, one for leaders and managers who drive change to keep in mind.
Team Topologies: Adaptive Organization Design for Delivering Valuable Software Quickly
A review of Team Topologies. A book that views organization design and architecture from a team-first perspective. Presenting four team types and interaction patterns, it prompts you to think about how to design communication between teams from the standpoint of building an adaptive organization.
An Invitation to Engineering Organization Theory ~ Confronting Uncertainty and Refactoring Organizations
A review of An Invitation to Engineering Organization Theory. Despite the title, its real theme is uncertainty. It puts into words the many uncertainties around engineering and how to face them. From members to architects, anyone involved in software can learn from it, regardless of role.
Exploring Articles on Development Productivity
Explore development productivity using DORA four keys and SPACE framework. Measure deployment frequency, lead time, and metrics.