Why Engineers Are Well-Positioned To Become Engineering Managers

If you’ve recently taken the step from engineer to engineering manager (EM) or are considering the change, it’s natural to feel some uncertainty about your skills and experience in the new role.

But I want you to know your engineering experience is an asset to you. In fact, transitioning from an engineer to an EM role offers significant advantages, especially when compared to someone without any technical background.

Think of it like running a kitchen when you don’t know how to cook. If you’re the head chef, your ability to guide your team relies heavily on your culinary understanding.

In a kitchen, every dish requires:

Precise techniques
Timing
And an understanding of the different ingredients

If you, as the head chef, never held a knife or tasted the difference between a well-seasoned sauce and a bland one, you would struggle to make informed decisions or provide useful feedback.

The same is true for EMs. But as one with engineering experience, you’re uniquely primed to take on the role in a way others can’t, and you have many reasons why.

You have the knowledge

It’s a given that non-technical EMs will struggle to grasp some of the technical issues. But it’s also worse than simply failing to understand them.

They may have management degrees, making them effective in those areas for the role. But they’re more likely to overlook critical problems because they lack the first-hand technical experience needed to truly understand their severity.

And relying only on this surface-level understanding can also lead to significant challenges in trust and credibility with their teams. In addition, they will probably find empathizing with them and their struggles difficult.

They simply haven’t dealt with the complexities of fixing bugs or resolving issues that arise during development.

In addition, they can become overly reliant on their engineers for guidance and decision-making. This leaves them unable to make informed technical choices on their own. And this lack of insight can lead to decisions that feel disconnected from the realities of work.

You, on the other hand, as an EM with an engineering background, possess a wealth of practical knowledge that will inform your decision-making and strengthen your leadership. This knowledge not only enhances your credibility but also fosters a sense of trust with your team.

You have shared experience

Unlike the non-technical EM, you’ve been in the trenches:

Tackling complex problems
Debugging code
Decomposing features
And collaborating with others on technical challenges

As an engineer, you’ve likely had interactions with various other ICs, such as designers and QA engineers. You may not have had hands-on experience in these areas, but you:

Understand them and their creative process
Know what their expectations are
And are aware of the typical problems they have

So you know how to navigate the interactions with them. You also know the engineers because you are (or were) one!

This shared identity gives you a unique advantage in understanding workflow intricacies and communication issues, particularly when collaborating with other teams.

You can be the coach

Think of a champion soccer player who has transitioned into a coaching role.

Though they’re no longer on the field, their experience informs their decisions and gives them a keen eye for detail. This enables them to spot a player who isn’t running fast enough, for example.

Drawing from their experience, they can recommend specific exercises or advise that player how to train effectively on the treadmill. They might even say, “Someone gave me this advice years ago, and it truly transformed my performance.”

These small nuggets of wisdom, grounded in personal experience, oftentimes lead to significant improvements. And engineers transitioning to EMs are in the same positions.

Say you have an engineer who is researching a memory leak problem that crashes the app, and they’re stuck.

A project manager (PM) can’t help them. A team lead, maybe. But you, as an engineer-now-EM, are in the perfect position to unblock them.

You’ll be able to connect with them on their level, making them feel seen. Leveraging this connection will also allow you to understand their challenges and guide them with tailored solutions based on your experiences.

But stay off the pitch

Many new EMs fall back on doing hands-on work because:

It feels safe
It feels familiar
And they know they can do the work well

This is completely understandable – after all, engineering tasks are their comfort zone. However, this tendency can lead to several negative consequences, and it’s crucial to steer clear of this pitfall.

So don’t solve problems for your team, as tempting as that is!

While doing so might feel easier in the moment, it ultimately doesn’t help. Instead, your role as a good leader is to:

Step back
Stay out of the way
Trust your team the space to do their best work
And be there to support them when challenges arise

Taking these steps will also help you to avoid micromanaging your team.

Don’t micromanage

I knew a new EM once who had a micromanaging mindset.

He wanted to recruit senior engineers to broaden his team’s scope of work. He explained that he wanted to see what the new recruits were doing at first and then tell them how they should complete the work. And he also wanted to work in parallel with them.

There are some issues with this approach:

First: no one likes being told how to do something. It's a terrible environment to work in, especially when you are creative.
Second: senior engineers have their own way of doing things and are less inclined to be micromanaged. Treating them simply as implementers of your way of doing things will lead to problems such as them leaving.

So, another option he considered was hiring junior engineers instead. They are less likely to be set in their ways as they don’t know as much. But that is another issue.

Yes, they will be happy if you tell them how to do the work. But this is training them, not coaching them. And the process could take years, during which the quality might not be high.

The best option is to stop and reassess your approach. Yes, he wanted to broaden the scope of work, but it doesn’t mean the method of getting there had to be his way or no way.

Aim for balance

When EMs can’t let go of control and insist on doing things their way, they create an environment where the other team members feel constrained.

This approach actually diminishes the team’s ability to the point they become unable to operate independently. If they’re constantly required to run every decision by you as their manager, they won’t develop the skills or confidence to tackle challenges on their own.

So, you need to find a balance. Go back to your role as a coach. You’re not on the pitch, but you’re still with your team, substituting players, adjusting strategies, and guiding them as needed.

The short version: never again question the value of your experience

I truly believe your engineering background positions you well to be a great EM. Here’s what you bring to the table:

Knowledge: your technical expertise allows you to make informed decisions and gain the trust of your team
Experience: you've navigated the challenges that your team now faces so you can guide and validate them
Wisdom: you are well-equipped to successfully coach your team

While it's easy to dive back into hands-on tasks or to want everything done the way you would, don’t fall into that trap. Instead, leverage your strengths of hands-on knowledge and practical strategies to act as a coach for your team.

Embrace where you came from, where you are now, and what you can do because of that. Do so, and you can become an amazing technical leader.