50+ Experience-Backed Guides For Software Engineers, Managers, And Leaders

No matter where you are in your software engineering journey, there’s a solution to every problem.

To help you find the one (or ones) you’re looking for, I’ve organized the below guides by category and sub-category (such as “Engineering management” and “Transitioning into it.”)

If you’re looking for something here and can’t find it or aren’t sure if it’s here, comment at the bottom of this post, and I’ll take a look as soon as I can.

Otherwise, enjoy!

Subscribe now

1 - Engineering management

What makes the role worth doing, why you’re ready, and how to succeed where others don’t.

Transitioning into it

1. Misconceptions: 6 damaging ones and the actual truths behind them
2. Misconception reasons: The 5 that cause these problems and what you can do about them
3. Mindset: The one you need to be successful in this role and why
4. Commitment: You can always go back
5. Why you’re ready: How your experience as an engineer helps prepare you for this role
6. Reasons to become an engineering manager: 5 of them to help you make the leap
7. Doubt: How to deal with it so it doesn’t hold you back from making this transition
8. Challenges: What they are and how to overcome them
9. Technical skills: The 6 you need to support your team and process
10. Differences between it and engineering: 5 to expect if you make the jump
11. Losing your technical edge: Why it’s normal to fear this and why it won’t happen
12. Maintaining your technical edge: What you can do to keep it sharp

Starting the job

1. Your supervisor’s expectations: How to talk to them about these and what to do after
2. Your team: 4 steps you can take to start off on the right foot with them
3. Set and track goals: 5 steps to know which ones to set and how
4. Expectations for your team: 4 things you can do to make them reasonable and communicate so they’re well-received
5. Strategizing: 4 steps to pick the right goals, set reasonable milestones and deadlines, and why your plans will evolve
6. Mentorship: Why it isn’t everything, but how to make it useful anyway
7. Staying organized: 8 steps to manage your workload, be productive, and stay healthy while doing so
8. Building trust: 8 ways to build it so your team listens to and respects you
9. Pressure: Everything you need to know to survive it
10. What you’ll do in general: The areas and tasks you’ll be responsible for
11. Sub-roles: The 5 you’ll need to excel in

Doing the job

1. Bridging the business and technical sides: Why you have to be this bridge and how to do it well
2. Succeeding: Know the metrics that keep you in the job
3. Conflict: 6 strategies to make it work for you and your team
4. Workflow: Clogs you’ll solve to keep everything moving smoothly
5. Coaching: Make use of the better alternative to regular coaching
6. Team alignment: How to create and maintain it
7. Contributing to projects: 5 ways you will and the effects they have
8. Communication creep: What it is and how to stop it
9. Building your team: Why it’s so rewarding

Managing yourself

1. Productivity: 4 strategies to keep this up long term without putting your health at risk
2. Priorities: 5 steps to focus in on the only things that truly matter each day
3. Stress: 5 steps to permanently minimize it
4. Accountability: 5 steps to maintain the trust and respect of your team
5. Boundaries: Which ones to set and why so you can get work done and protect your health
6. Flexibility: What this actually means and 4 ways you can use it to deal with the uncertainty of your role
7. Tools for organization: 8 options to help you stay in control of and maximize efficiency with your many tasks and responsibilities
8. Self-control: What you’ll lose if you lash out and steps to not be the one who does

Managing your team

1. Handling others’ emotions: What to do when things explode, how to stop this from happening, and how to prevent it from getting worse
2. Listening: 5 ways you can listen to your team to improve dynamics, culture, and output
3. Soft skills: The 9 you’ll need to manage and work with people well
4. Communication skills: Which ones to master and what happens when you do
5. Methods: 6 to get the most out of your team and not go crazy in the process
6. Giving feedback to former teammates: Strategies to make this easier
7. Personalities: Why there’s no such thing as a bad one and what you can do to get the most out of different ones
8. Unfair team dynamics: What they are and how to solve them

The ugly side

1. Underperformance: Why it happens and how to fix it
2. Bad guy: What it means to be one and how to do it right
3. Unfair bosses: How to survive them

2 - Introverted engineering managers

Succeed as an introverted engineering manager because you’re an introvert.

Your advantages as an introvert

1. Understanding your engineers: How you do and what you can do with that understanding
2. Listening: 5 ways you do (or can) and why that matters
3. Empathy: 4 ways to use it and why

Working with your team

1. One-on-ones: How to break the ice, prepare ahead of time, and know when they’re effective
2. Team meetings: What your advantages are, how to use them, and other strategies to help
3. Giving feedback: How to make both kinds work while avoiding potential negatives
4. Getting feedback: How to handle both kinds, why you want both, and how to ensure you get them
5. Managing extroverts: 3 things you can do to meet them where they are while staying who you are
6. Conflict and pushback: 5 steps you can take to manage and improve these difficult situations

Working with other managers

1. Being your team’s advocate: How to get what they need from the people who can give it to them
2. Cross-functional meetings: Achieve your goals and keep them on track
3. Collaborating with other managers: Move past the discomfort, build the necessary culture, and strengthen bonds
4. Changing organizational culture: Define, change, and improve the culture your way

3 - Technical debt

Avoid the major issues this can cause by taking the right steps now and always.

1. Prioritization: Know the consequences you and others will face for failing to prioritize it
2. The process: 6 steps to build an actionable and effective plan
3. Convincing upper management: Get them to finally care
4. Building a system: Build one that actually organizes your processes without clutter or chaos
5. Tracking and logging it: What to do, how, and why
6. Mindset: Reduce stress and misunderstanding and improve your approach with the right one
7. Balancing it against other priorities: How to prioritize it and how to manage that balance
8. Caring for it: How to care for old code and its issues, technical debt, in particular

4 - Work-life balance

Build, manage, and improve the kind of balance that works best for you.

1. Impacts it can have: 4 of them you’ll face as an engineering manager
2. Fixing it: 5 practical ways to do so
3. Productivity trap: How it almost killed me and how you can prevent it from doing the same to you

5 - Guides for non-technical people

Be better equipped to work with and manage the technical roles in your company.

1. Engineering management: Everything you need to know to understand the role

6 - Company need-to-knows

Know what you’re getting into no matter which one you’re working for.

1. Different roles: How To tell CTOs, project, and engineering managers apart
2. Small vs large ones: What to expect when you work for either

Want more tips on leading effective software engineering teams?

Join my newsletter if you’ve found this content useful

Originally published on Substack

Content in this blog post by Alex Ponomarev is licensed under CC BY 4.0.