Engineering Management

Note ...

I was recently asked as part of a recruitment conversation with someone in the talent team of a tech company, “Your CV says you foster a culture of you build it, you run it. What is your approach to building that culture?” I thought it was a great question and wanted to share my thoughts on this topic. You build it, you run it culture is all about giving engineering teams the autonomy and responsibility to own the systems they build and the agency to make decisions about how to evolve it. This level of ownership doesn’t come automatically by just telling engineering teams what to do. It requires a deliberate approach. This is what I call a High-agency team/culture. ...

This article is about how one can lead by being an enabler of experimentation and innovation without exerting authority or imposing mandates. When Generative AI tools exploded into the software engineering landscape, the reaction across my teams did not really mirror what was happening in the broader industry. The hype didn’t really inspire my engineers to explore and adopt these tools. Their negative past experience with Gen AI tools made them conclude that it was a waste of time. ...

I used to regularly run the engineering manager community of Practice at my current workplace. I loved and still love it. But now I barely get time to do anything extra. My hours are so squeezed into a specific slot of time - the time when my toddler is not at home. :D I got asked in the community slack channel a very important question. One that a lot of engineering managers debate in their heads. Especially if they used to be tech leads and then switched to managing others. They get their joy from helping others develop and also building something that others can use. ...