Management - Alex Ponomarev (Page 2)

The silhouetted image of a goat climbing a mountain with a reddish background.

28 Oct 2024 · 8 min read

6 Common Challenges You’ll Face As An Engineering Manager

You can't rely on being a skilled engineer anymore.

A clipboard with a piece of paper on it that says, "Tasks today: do nothing" with various office items around it.

23 Oct 2024 · 7 min read

The Secret To Engineering Management Is Doing “Nothing”

It's surprisingly difficult to get right.

A kitchen knife laying against a whetstone with a green background.

21 Oct 2024 · 5 min read

Real Ways To Maintain Your Technical Edge As An Engineering Manager

Most advice isn't practical, but there are realistic alternatives.

Post-it notes of various colors covering a wall above a desk at an office. Some notes say some variation of "Don't go crazy."

16 Oct 2024 · 7 min read

6 Methods To Manage Your Team Without Going Crazy In The Process

You have an entire team relying on you, so you have to get this right.

A couple dining outside a cafe in Portugal with a waiter talking to them about the menu.

14 Oct 2024 · 6 min read

5 Communication Skills You Need As An Engineering Manager

As an EM, communication is often the main thing you'll be doing and the key to resolving situations in a satisfactory way for everyone.

Grandfather and grandson working on tech components.

9 Oct 2024 · 6 min read

The Only Technical Skills You Need As An Engineering Manager

While the EM role mostly requires people skills, it also requires several key technical ones.

7 Oct 2024 · 5 min read

Why Engineers Are Well-Positioned To Become Engineering Managers

As a manager with engineering experience, you’re uniquely primed to take on the role in a way others can’t.

2 Oct 2024 · 5 min read

It’s Normal To Fear Losing Your Technical Edge As An Engineering Manager

The transition from engineer to engineering manager (EM) feels a lot like moving to a new country.

30 Sep 2024 · 9 min read

Master These Soft Skills, Master Engineering Management

While these soft skills might not come naturally at first, you can master every single one with time and practice.

8 Jul 2024 · 7 min read

The Mindset You Need As An Engineering Manager

Mindsets determine results. This is true for every career, including engineering management.

13 Nov 2023 · 4 min read

Autonomy vs. Alignment: The Engineering Balancing Act

When an engineering manager is too hands-off, giving excessive autonomy to the team, it creates misalignment and frustration for everyone involved. The Pitfalls of Excessive Autonomy Imagine an engineering team

21 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

The Power of the Peer Squad: How to Beat Manager Loneliness

I stumbled on a rather old post by Ian Bicking, who just started working as an engineering manager at Mozilla at the time. He was feeling lonely and isolated in

20 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

Beyond Finger-Pointing: Lead with Systems Thinking

Will Larson, the author of “The Elegant Puzzle” I’m reading now, tells an interesting story in his book. He recalls how he found himself in a tough spot after

13 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

All Hands on Deck: Rapidly Scaling Engineering to Stay Afloat

Scaling an engineering team in as requirements pile up is a challenging feat. With a hockey-stick user growth, engineering managers feel like drowning trying to balance non-stop requests for new

12 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

The Dark Side of the Hero Engineer

I was reading the book “An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management” by Will Larson today and stumbled upon a definition of the “hero engineer” problem in software development. It’

11 Oct 2023 · 3 min read

Turning Around a Troubled Talent

We’ve all encountered the “Jeff” in our careers — the talented engineer who creates as many problems as he solves. I recently came across an interesting Reddit post describing a

10 Oct 2023 · 5 min read

When Good Enough is Good Enough: Avoid Getting Stuck as an Software Engineer

As software engineers, we all want to write the best code possible. Along the way, it’s easy to get carried away in search of perfection and lose sight of

9 Oct 2023 · 4 min read

Control Freak's Guide to Empowering Your Team

During my first years as a CTO, I was a control freak. I wanted to be involved in every engineering decision — from reviewing pull requests to picking out frameworks. I