How Technical Should an Engineering Manager Be?

2 hours ago

An engineering manager's primary goal is to enable team and organizational success, not just individual contribution.
EMs should 'fill the gaps' for their team, such as improving communication, adding technical seniority, or helping with tasks, and can either do this themselves or hire someone.
There are two primary manager types: people managers (focused on growth, unblocking, and communication) and technical managers (focused on architecture, code reviews, and contributions). Being the best at both is not feasible due to time constraints.
The ideal manager type depends on the team's needs: a technically strong team may need a people manager, while a newer team may benefit from a technical manager.
It's recommended for EMs to stay technical to understand details and better assist the team, but being the 'best coder' is not necessary.
EMs should communicate the impact of enabling team productivity (e.g., making 5-8 engineers 20-30% more productive) as it's more valuable than individual contributions.
To stay technical, EMs should separate their schedule into 'maker time' (for focused, uninterrupted work) and 'manager time' (for meetings and communication).
Strategies to stay technical include building proof-of-concepts (PoCs), reviewing tech specs and PRs, contributing to non-critical codebase parts (like bugs or small improvements), and building side projects with AI assistance.

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