My friend recently became an engineering manager.He’s never managed anyone before, and now he has to lead a team of 8 engineers. Over skype he laughed, “This is crazy! Gooooo.” Here’s a few topics we discussed for his first week on the job as the newest manager in the department.

How to track everyone’s status

I admit, I don’t keep track of everyone. At least, not everyday.

He realized he can’t track all 8 people daily at the start. Since he has a few mid-level engineers, having them lead the junior engineers would lighten his load. We talked about the jedi knight/padawan analogy. You have a few knights take care of the padawans. The mid-level engineers can keep him in the loop.

Pairing them up immediately halves his reporting load from 8 to 4.

Level up your engineers

He’s one of the most experienced engineers promoted to management. He was a subject expert in one area, and now he has to divide his time supporting his previous projects and management.

He needs to train his new team to pick up his projects and continue development. He needs to figure out who on his team can begin taking over specific projects.

I will follow up on training techniques and how the team grows in skill over time.