# Engineering Management Published articles for Engineering Management. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## The Context Tax of Agentic Development DevFeed: [The Context Tax of Agentic Development]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: A Talhan Published: 2026-08-25T11:01:02Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Expedia]() Topics: [Agentic development](), [Development](), [networking](), [data]() Tags: [agentic](), [agentic-ai](), [agentic-development](), [agents](), [context](), [context-engineering](), [development](), [engineering-management](), [networking](), [software-engineering](), [teamwork]() ### AI overview An Expedia Group engineering team describes how hidden context can cause agentic development to accelerate technically plausible work aimed at the wrong system. Using AI Workbench's multi-environment model handling as an example, the article argues that context must be explicit and structured so humans and agents share the same understanding. ### Source excerpt Expedia Group Technology -- EngineeringMissing context used to slow a team down, with agents in the loop it speeds up the wrong work insteadPhoto by Harley-Davidson on Unsplash When we started using agents more seriously inside the team, the first bottleneck was not code generation -- It was context coordination. That sounds like a documentation problem, but it did not feel like one. It felt like a delivery problem. A human engineer who is missing context usually slows down. They ask someone, search through old notes, or wait for the next sync. An agent does not always slow down. It can keep moving and produce work that is technically plausible, well formatted, and aimed at the wrong reality. That is the agentic velocity trap: unclear context does not just delay work; it can accelerate the wrong work. Rick Fast recently wrote about the broader Expedia Group™ platform shift toward agent-friendly interfaces and operating surfaces. This is the ground-level version from one team: what did we have to change in our own planning loop so humans and agents could work from the same understanding? The problem was hidden context One of the clearest examples came from multi-environment handling in AI Workbench (our web console for machine learning (ML) artifacts and workload management). From the outside, an AI Workbench URL appeared to represent one backend environment. Under the hood, it was backed by another. A team saw their model in the UI, reasonably assumed it existed in the environment implied by the URL, and then hit "model not found" when downstream jobs queried that expected backend. Internally, the concrete case was a machine learning scientist team onboarding a model. It appeared in the .prodA AI Workbench URL, but that deployment was serving model registry prodB data rather than model registry prodA data. The platform services were not simply broken. The hidden semantic mapping was because of networking and access nuances. That distinction matters. A human team lost ## Middle management roles are also a trap. DevFeed: [Middle management roles are also a trap.]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2026-08-08T14:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Will Larson - Irrational Exuberance]() Topics: [Tech Lead](), [engineering-culture](), [Software Engineering]() Tags: [engineering-management](), [organizational-culture](), [software-engineering](), [tech-lead]() ### AI overview The article argues that middle-management roles can be a poor path to becoming an executive. Although these roles develop skills such as stakeholder balancing, process design, and resource allocation, the author says line-management roles provide better opportunities to develop domain expertise, execution, and organizational culture. ### Source excerpt Six years ago, I wrote Tech Lead Management roles are a trap. My argument then was that TLM roles present themselves as easier than moving into a full management role, but the tension between doing the software engineering and engineering management aspects of the role made being a TLM a much harder first management role than a pure engineering management role. I still agree with that post, and I have some additional bad news to share: middle management roles are mostly a trap as well, if you goal is to become an executive. The core aspects of middle management roles are: Balancing between top-down executive, lateral stakeholder, and bottom-up team pressure, e.g. keeping morale up as an organization deprioritizes last year's big initiative Defining and operating an organization's process, e.g. creating career ladders and interview loops Competing for a share of fixed organizational resources (e.g. budget) and allocating acquired resources These are all extremely important skills to be an effective executive, and they make up the bulk of The Engineering Executive's Primer, but they are insufficient to make you a great executive. If you don't have them, you will be a deeply flawed executive, but even if you're an expert at them, you can still be a terrible executive. That's because the most important skills of an effective executive are the same exact skills that make an excellent line manager: developing domain expertise, driving execution (including setting pace), and translating both of those into an organizational culture that extends beyond you (in any of innumerable different ways). All of them are more easily practiced and mastered as a line manager than as a middle manager. Most middle management roles make practicing those skills difficult, and sometimes negatively select against developing them. As a middle manager, if you drive execution too closely, you might get told off as a micromanager. As a middle manager, if you go too deep on domain expertise, you m ## Engineering management is a career change, not a promotion DevFeed: [Engineering management is a career change, not a promotion]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-07-30T15:00:17Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Tech Lead](), [systems](), [debug]() Tags: [career](), [coaching](), [debugging](), [engineering-management](), [management](), [manager](), [metric](), [outage](), [promotion](), [support]() ### AI overview An interview with Ryan Murphy examines engineering management as a career path, including promotion criteria, management training, feedback, stakeholder communication, and the shift from optimizing code to owning outcomes. ### Source excerpt Ryan Murphy on what actually gets engineers promoted, why delayed feedback is cruelty, and the manager who told him on day one that he was a resource ## 5 pitfalls to avoid when measuring DevEx in the AI era DevFeed: [5 pitfalls to avoid when measuring DevEx in the AI era]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Candace Shamieh; Teddy Gesbert Published: 2026-06-30T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Datadog | The Monitor blog]() Topics: [devex](), [code productivity](), [engineering-leadership](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [Code review]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-adoption](), [ai-impact](), [ci-cd](), [ci-visibility](), [collaboration](), [developer-experience](), [devex](), [devops](), [dora-metrics](), [engineering-management](), [internal-developer-portal](), [metrics](), [performance](), [productivity](), [review](), [software-delivery](), [test-optimization]() ### AI overview This article examines common pitfalls in measuring developer experience during the AI era. It argues that individual output metrics, including token consumption, lines of code, pull request counts, commits, and story points, can undermine trust and collaboration when treated as measures of personal productivity. ### Source excerpt Don't mistake AI adoption for productivity. Learn how to avoid 5 common pitfalls when measuring DevEx, with practices from Datadog engineering ## Why Technical Program Managers Matter as AI Reshapes Engineering Teams DevFeed: [Why Technical Program Managers Matter as AI Reshapes Engineering Teams]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dean Hume Published: 2026-06-29T10:27:25Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Dean Hume]() Topics: [structure](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [Tech Lead](), [Software]() Tags: [ai](), [article](), [engineering-management](), [game-development](), [software](), [teams](), [tech-lead](), [technical-leadership](), [technical-program-manager]() ### AI overview The article argues that as AI reshapes engineering organizations and teams become smaller, Technical Program Managers can coordinate dependencies, cross-functional delivery risks, and roadmap-to-capacity alignment across multiple teams. ### Source excerpt As AI shrinks engineering teams and the EM role splits in two, the Technical Program Manager could be the most overlooked answer hiding in plain sight. ## Five sessions and a hackathon: How we turned skeptics into agent builders DevFeed: [Five sessions and a hackathon: How we turned skeptics into agent builders]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Jay Garg Published: 2026-06-23T07:16:01Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Data Science at Microsoft]() Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](), [Learning]() Tags: [adoption](), [agents](), [ai](), [ai-agents](), [artificial-intelligence](), [building](), [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [hackathon](), [leadership](), [productivity](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview This article presents lessons from a five-week AI enablement series and a two-hour hackathon for an infrastructure engineering team. It argues that low AI adoption was caused less by access or time than by a lack of practical mental models and opportunities to re-engage with AI, culminating in participants building working agents. ### Source excerpt A field-tested playbook for teaching an engineering team to actually work with AI -- not just have access to itIllustration of team members collaborating around a table with laptops and notebooks, discussing holographic charts of network nodes and hexagonal shapes representing AI agents being assembled. Image generated with Microsoft Designer. Three sessions in on teaching a class whose curriculum I'd designed around building with AI, I asked the room a question I'd been avoiding. What's the thing about AI you don't say out loud? The answers came slowly at first. "I don't know where to start." "I'm worried it'll replace me." "I tried it once and it gave me garbage, so I stopped." That last one came up the most. People had given AI a shot a couple of years back, when the first wave hit. The output didn't meet the bar they hold their own work to, so they quietly filed it under "fun toy, not a serious tool" and moved on. That was the moment the curriculum I'd written stopped being a curriculum and became a conversation. This is what we learned running a five-week, thirty-minute-a-week AI enablement series for a high-performing infrastructure engineering team -- and the two-hour hackathon at the end where everyone, including managers and PMs, shipped a working agent. The paradox we started with Picture a senior engineering team. Already shipping. Already busy. Tools available, leadership encouraging use, no policy blockers. And yet -- adoption was low and shallow. A handful of folks were using AI daily. The rest were using it for autocomplete and stopping there or not touching it at all. The same people who would happily spend a weekend learning a new distributed systems primitive weren't spending 15 minutes learning how to make an agent do their service support. That's a paradox worth sitting with for a moment. The barrier wasn't access. It wasn't even time, not really. It was that everybody had tried AI in its bad season, and nobody had been given a reason to try it agai ## Using a Slack Channel as a Living Hype Document DevFeed: [Using a Slack Channel as a Living Hype Document]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Matt McKenna Published: 2026-03-25T13:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Matt McKenna]() Topics: [Slack](), [context](), [Documentation]() Tags: [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [hype-doc](), [messages](), [performance](), [real-time](), [slack](), [software-engineering](), [team-culture]() ### AI overview The article describes using a dedicated Slack channel as a living hype document to record professional accomplishments. It explains that keeping wins in the tools where work happens can reduce friction, preserve context, support self-reflection and performance reviews, and help engineers advocate for themselves. ### Source excerpt During my time at Square, I started using a Slack channel as a living hype doc and worked with my manager, Stephen Pickens, to refine the approach. Together we put this document together to share the ## Two Pillars of (Engineering) Management DevFeed: [Two Pillars of (Engineering) Management]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Zac Sweers Published: 2026-03-03T16:02:22Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Zac Sweers]() Topics: [Tech Lead](), [SDK]() Tags: [engineering-management](), [management](), [mentorship](), [teams](), [tech-lead]() ### AI overview The article presents engineering management as balancing two pillars: technical familiarity with the team's problem space and the ability to grow people. It uses this framework to compare different engineering manager profiles, including infrastructure, product-team, and tech-lead-oriented managers. ### Source excerpt A former colleague once described their view of management as a role measured by two* pillars. As an IC, I really like this framing of it and it's helped me a ton of times in knowing how to best work with different types of EMs over the years. ## Engineering Audits for ISO 13485 Medical Device Software Quality Management Systems DevFeed: [Engineering Audits for ISO 13485 Medical Device Software Quality Management Systems]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Anna J McDougall Published: 2025-08-18T20:21:35Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Anna J McDougall]() Topics: [audit](), [Requirements](), [Development](), [Software](), [systems]() Tags: [audit](), [coding-style](), [compliance](), [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [iso](), [iso-13485-standard](), [lifecycle](), [management](), [medical-devices](), [processes](), [quality](), [regulatory](), [requirements](), [review](), [risk-management](), [safety](), [software](), [software-engineering](), [systems]() ### AI overview This case study explains what an engineering audit involves under ISO 13485 for medical device software. It covers Quality Management System documentation, lifecycle management, patient safety, risk management, regulatory requirements, and the author's experience updating engineering compliance documents. ### Source excerpt What is an Engineering Audit Like? An ISO 13485 Medical Device Engineering QMS Case StudyI think I found my new look. If there's one thing that gets me fired up, it's a good ol'-fashioned audit! ... Said nobody ever. Sadly, audits are a part of the business world that tend not to be fun. However, they also serve an important purpose, and are part of the transition from the "fun team lead" style of management into the "business leader" role is coming to grips with the unsexy stuff. As part of my role at HelloBetter, I was tasked with leading engineering compliance and reporting for ISO 13485, an internationally recognised standard for Quality Management Systems (QMS) specifically for medical device manufacturers, within the broader context of the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR). For those who aren't familiar with what an audit of this kind involves, the simple version is this: Certain requirements exist as part of the standard, not just about how to effectively create and maintain software, but also how to document that compliance. This documentation is referred to as the Quality Management System (QMS), which as the name implies serves as documentation for how you maintain quality as per the ISO. The ISO isn't only about software, but software is part of "Lifecycle Management", tracking how a medical device (in this case) goes from design and development to distribution and surveillance. A company required to meet the ISO should therefore create and follow a system that ticks all the boxes for things like patient safety, risk management, and any additional regulatory hurdles. Typically once a year, an auditor is hired to enter the company and review the documentation alongside representatives from the company who guide them through the QMS. Additionally, individuals (like me!) are pulled from different parts of the company to talk through their processes and documentation, and to show any examples that may be relevant. My Experience with Engineering Compliance for ## Explain Less, Align More: Explaining tech to non-technical stakeholders DevFeed: [Explain Less, Align More: Explaining tech to non-technical stakeholders]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Anna J McDougall Published: 2025-07-22T16:33:29Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Anna J McDougall]() Topics: [Architecture & Design](), [Microservice](), [implementation]() Tags: [communication](), [digital-transformation](), [engineering-management](), [implementation](), [information-technology](), [microservices](), [software-engineering](), [tech](), [technical](), [technology]() ### AI overview An article presents communication strategies for explaining technology to non-technical stakeholders and reducing resistance to digital transformation. It recommends adapting language to the audience, establishing expectations, avoiding assumptions about understanding, and starting with simple explanations. ### Source excerpt Introduction A few months ago, I was invited to speak on behalf of the women's tech organization AnitaB at a Deutsche Bank event. The topic was "Communication Strategies for Overcoming Stakeholder Resistance to Digital Transformation." It might sound a bit like buzzword salad, but it's actually a crucial skill for technologists, especially in cultures where change is often met with resistance. Anyone working in German digitalisation will recognise the familiar phrase: "It's always been done that way." Unfortunately, just before the event, I came down with Norovirus (which, by the way, I do not recommend) and had to withdraw from the talk. While a blogpost can never replace the energy of a live presentation, I wanted to share some of the key takeaways here. You can also access the slides of the presentation I prepared here. Main TakeawaysSpeak their language Are they in business, marketing, or finance? Rather than jumping into technical jargon, take time to consider which terms and concepts they're likely familiar with. And if you're not sure, ask. For example: "If I say 'microservices', is that familiar enough for you to explain back to me, or would you rather I go over it?" or even don't ask and default to "Unless anyone objects, I'm going to do a quick refresher on what a microservice is". An important note here is not to ask questions where people default to a false yes. For example, you want to avoid "You get that, right?" or "That's familiar to you already, I assume?". Asking these questions makes it hard for any individual to lose face and voluntarily say "Actually no, I'm the person who has no clue about this". Establishing expectations also helps: the stakeholders might be asking more about budget or people than about the details of the technical implementation at all! Your refresher on microservices might be totally out of place is you don't establish early that that's what the conversation is actually about. My tip here is to start simple, and work your wa ## Taking Ownership and Handling Difficult Responsibilities as an Engineering Manager DevFeed: [Taking Ownership and Handling Difficult Responsibilities as an Engineering Manager]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Anna J McDougall Published: 2025-06-25T12:20:24Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Anna J McDougall]() Topics: [engineering-leadership](), [Development]() Tags: [engineering](), [engineering-leadership](), [engineering-management](), [engineering-manager](), [leadership](), [leadership-team](), [management](), [management-skills](), [software-engineering](), [teams]() ### AI overview This commentary argues that engineering managers must sometimes accept conflict and deliver difficult feedback instead of trying to remain peers with their teams. As leaders move away from hands-on development, they must balance engineers' needs with stakeholders, product, and business expectations. ### Source excerpt An Engineering Manager's Guide to Taking Ownership by Taking Heat Title Image: a vibrant yellow background with a picture of Anna smiling, with two red devil-horns superimposed on top. Title text reads: "It's time to be the BAD GUY. An Engineering Manager's Guide to Taking Ownership by Taking Heat"Introduction At my first project management job, I was given the nickname "Mad Dog".* Any time new sales reps would join the company, the existing reps would try to scare them by telling them "Oh shit, you're on Mad Dog's project". The joke, of course, is that I'm a big ol' ray of sunshine: After a few days of being scared to encounter Mad Dog, those reps would meet me and realise they weren't going to have a problem with some hard-ass micromanager. The same is still true today, but I've also come to realise that there are some benefits to being Mad Dog. Sometimes, the best way to help your team is to lean into being the bad guy. In this post, I'll cover some situations where it's good to be bad, and why being the bad guy is a core management skill. * The nickname came about due to my name's similarity to a famous football player (Adam "Mad Dog" MacDougall). Say "Anna McDougall" and "Adam MacDougall" ten times and you'll hear it. Leadership means stepping out of the team As you move up the engineering leadership chain, from EM to Director to VP to CTO, you become less and less a part of the development teams. This sense of social isolation often drives leaders to try their best to be buddy-buddy with developers, to attempt to completely eradicate any sense of hierarchy, and to improve psychological safety. In general, this is a great idea. As a leader, you do need people to know that you're just human. You should have people trust you with their real thoughts. You must enable a culture where failure and feedback are freely given and learned from. But... You are also the one who has to take the heat from above, and sometimes you have to be the bad guy to the team when it come ## How Klarna Built Cloud Inventory for AWS Configuration Management DevFeed: [How Klarna Built Cloud Inventory for AWS Configuration Management]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Maxim Savin Published: 2025-06-06T06:38:06Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Klarna Engineering]() Topics: [configuration-management](), [cloud-infrastructure](), [Amazon Web Services](), [configuration](), [Cloud](), [Security](), [digital]() Tags: [automated](), [aws](), [change-management](), [cloud](), [cloud-infrastructure](), [cloud-inventory-software](), [configuration-management](), [engineering-management](), [lead-time](), [load-balancer](), [logs](), [rds](), [security](), [snapshots](), [technical-change]() ### AI overview Klarna describes Cloud Inventory, an ecosystem of services for collecting, normalizing, mapping, and serving information about ICT assets across its cloud infrastructure. The article explains how it supports configuration management through automated controls and reports faster control rollout and large-scale infrastructure optimization work. ### Source excerpt A long time ago, as a punishment for his crimes, Hades, the king of the underworld, made Sisyphus roll a huge enchanted boulder endlessly up a steep hill. Since then, many tech companies have learned to do that at scale by the hardships of cloud configuration management. Consider an Engineer who wants to ensure that the data that moves through their system is encrypted along the way. This is a noble goal, and to achieve it they must identify every classic load balancer in their AWS environment to replace it with an application load balancer that enforces encryption in transit. Now imagine doing that at the scale of a company like Klarna, where teams collectively own more than a thousand AWS accounts? Add to this a multitude of other configuration challenges -- databases that have not been deployed in a multi-availability zone set-up, missing Cloudwatch logs, expired digital certificates, systems running on unsupported framework versions -- the list is endless. Identifying and rectifying violating cloud assets often feels like an endless game of whack-a-mole played blindfolded. This is the steep price tech companies pay to operate their systems securely and confidently, day by day. Klarna Engineering Platform (KEP) has been on a mission to facilitate configuration management for Klarna Engineers. After a few iterations we have built an ecosystem of Klarna services designed to collect, normalize, map, and serve data on ICT assets within Klarna's cloud infrastructure. We call this system Cloud Inventory. Over the last few months Klarna has: Rolled out over 100 automated controls enhancing every aspect of our configuration management (security, governance, and operational excellence), each control aimed to help system owners to identify and fix violations quickly. Reduced the lead time of rolling out a control from several weeks to a matter of minutes And as a result, successfully completed several large-scale cloud infrastructure optimization projects, such as a company- ## From ePA 2.6 to 3.0 : Healthcare Data Integration for Electronic Patient Records at HelloBetter DevFeed: [From ePA 2.6 to 3.0 : Healthcare Data Integration for Electronic Patient Records at HelloBetter]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Anna J McDougall Published: 2025-05-20T09:27:30Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Anna J McDougall]() Topics: [data](), [implementation](), [Authentication](), [Back end](), [Front end](), [XML](), [pdf]() Tags: [authentication](), [backend](), [data](), [electronic-patient-record](), [engineering-management](), [export](), [frontend](), [germany](), [healthcare](), [healthtech](), [integration](), [pdf](), [pipeline](), [platform](), [product](), [project](), [software-architecture](), [technical](), [terminal]() ### AI overview This technical post describes HelloBetter's implementation journey from Germany's ePA 2.6 to ePA 3.0. It covers HealthID login, ePA data export, PDF and XML document writing, and the frontend and backend integrations used to connect therapeutic data across systems. The implementation was completed pending BfArm approval. ### Source excerpt From ePA 2.6 to 3.0: A Technical Journey in Healthcare Data Integration for Electronic Patient Records...so far Germany has a bad reputation for digitalisation, so the government's push to implement an electronic patient record ("elektronische Patientenakte" or ePA) for its citizens and residents is a step in the right direction. As an official digital health application ("digitale Gesundheitsapplikation" or "DiGA"), we are obligated to shift to the ePA 3.0 implementation. The government rollout has been plagued with technical difficulties and delays, but we're now at a point where we have completed our implementation successfully, pending BfArm approval. In this post, I want to cover the exact steps we and had to take to achieve this. I want to thank Senior Product Manager Tanja Lembcke and Senior Backend Engineer Chaythanya Sivakumar for their contributions to this piece. The Challenge: Connecting Patient Data Across Systems The electronic patient record (ePA) and HealthID integration project had a clear mission: we wanted to give our patients the ability to log into the HelloBetter platform using their HealthID (which they access through their insurance company) and export their HelloBetter data into their ePA. A successful implementation would mean that both doctors and patients can electronically access therapeutic data whenever they need it. To make this happen for the patient data at HelloBetter, we partnered with two key players: RISE for ePA system access and Azuma for HealthID system access. Our journey began in 2024 when our backend team laid the groundwork for ePA 2.6, setting up the pipeline and data export in our staging environment. We successfully implemented both PDF and XML document writing capabilities, along with the frontend and backend integrations for HealthID login. How It All Works: The Architectural SideHealthID Authentication The first piece of the puzzle is connecting to and authorising the user's HealthID. This part of the system has remai ## EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck: 5 Tips for Product/Tech DevFeed: [EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck: 5 Tips for Product/Tech]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Anna J McDougall Published: 2025-05-13T14:53:24Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Anna J McDougall]() Topics: [Code quality]() Tags: [code-quality](), [compliance](), [engineering-management](), [engineering-manager](), [engineering-mangement](), [identifier](), [improvements](), [iso](), [management](), [product-engineering](), [product-management](), [quality](), [relationships](), [team-lead](), [teams](), [tech-leadership]() ### AI overview An opinion article presents practices for building effective engineering manager and product manager relationships. It emphasizes shared ownership across business, team, and product goals, with quality improvements--including compliance work--as part of an engineering manager's contribution. ### Source excerpt EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck: 5 Tips for Product/Tech TeamsHeader image: purple background with the text "EM/PM Relationships Aren't About Luck. 5 Tips for Product/Tech Teams :)" and a photo of Anna and Tanja together.Introduction As my probation period at HelloBetter was coming to an end, my team's Senior Product Manager Tanja Lembcke remarked, "It's great working with an EM who cares so much about product." I could easily have said the same back to her, because it's just as valuable working with a PM who cares deeply about technology, something at which she truly excels. Together, we've become a strong team. Much of that relationship has developed naturally, but I've also noticed a few intentional practices that have helped us along the way. I want to share them here for all the product managers, engineering managers, and whoever else happens to like reading my sporadic blog posts. In the end, Tanja and I didn't just "luck out" working together. There are some tried-and-true strategies we both employ to make the most out of our work and get the results we need. If you prefer LinkedIn, you can view the short-form version of this post as a summary and carousel here. Tip 1: Purposefully be the intersection of business, team, and product As a Team Lead or Engineering Manager, it's important to operate at the intersection of business goals, the engineering team, and product. This means not only using the product but also critiquing it, asking thoughtful questions, and continually returning to the core "Why." It is all too easy to sit back and just wait for features to drop in your lap, estimate them, deliver them, and then dust off your hands with a "job well done" attitude that allows you to add a nice dot-point to your CV about value creation. What is much harder, is to actually focus on quality: that hard-to-measure, hard-to-prove value that is constantly competing with your time. For EMs, we tend to see the word "quality" and jump to the concept of code qu ## Rethinking Technical Interviews for Virtual Hiring and AI-Assisted Candidates DevFeed: [Rethinking Technical Interviews for Virtual Hiring and AI-Assisted Candidates]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Anna J McDougall Published: 2025-04-17T19:08:54Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Anna J McDougall]() Topics: [Tech Careers](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [LeetCode](), [Algorithms]() Tags: [ai](), [algorithms](), [artificial-intelligence](), [careers](), [chatgpt](), [engineering-management](), [interview](), [interviewing](), [software-development](), [technical-interview](), [technology]() ### AI overview This opinion article argues that virtual hiring and AI tools have exposed weaknesses in traditional technical interviews. It discusses limitations and equity concerns associated with algorithm assessments and take-home projects, and introduces the McDougall Method at HelloBetter as a proposed response. ### Source excerpt Building the McDougall Method at HelloBetter: A Fairer, More Modern Approach to Technical Interviews As someone obsessed with tech careers, business growth, and engineering management, I am constantly coming up against the boogey-man of technical interviews. In many ways, tech companies are stuck in the thinking of 20-30 years ago: white boards, algorithms, logic puzzles, and tasks that rotated around an in-person interview space. We're in a new era, where 99% of engineering interviews are done virtually and the candidate's workspace is uncontrollable by the interviewing team. We need to adapt to this, not by simply porting previous methods across to an online platform, but by fundamentally rethinking the skills we expect 21st century software engineers to have. Naturally, opinions about what is wrong with technical interviews are prevalent both from employers and (potential) employees. For example, leetcode-style assessments have long been derided as being a bad test of abilities. "Instead," opponents argue, "you should use take-home tests or projects that the candidate can explain back to you". Ah, but you see, not everyone can afford to let their evenings and weekends disappear into these take-home tests or side projects. Due to this inconveniently linear construct called "time", more experienced engineers start having or caring for families, adopting pets, or (lord forbid) doing sports and hobbies. It's also no big secret that the majority of housework and care duties still tend to be shouldered by women. To put your best foot forward as a candidate, you will create the best possible solution, no matter how many hiring managers tell you to "only spend 2-3 hours on a solution". Therefore, take-home or "own project" technical interviews tend to put older candidates and women candidates at a disadvantage. One other problem popping up nowadays is the prevalence of AI tools for engineers to pass technical interviews, ranging from manually entering prompts into ChatGP ## How I went from Tech Lead -\> Engineering Management DevFeed: [How I went from Tech Lead -\> Engineering Management]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Caleb Mellas Published: 2024-08-14T12:37:11Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Level up software engineering]() Topics: [Tech Lead]() Tags: [engineering-management](), [management](), [software-engineer](), [tech-lead]() ### AI overview Part two of a series about lessons learned while moving from Senior Software Engineer to Tech Lead and then to Engineering Management. ### Source excerpt Part two of our series about everything I've learned going from a Senior Software Engineer to Tech Lead to Engineering Management. ## How To Make Your Ideas Stick DevFeed: [How To Make Your Ideas Stick]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: jesalg Published: 2023-12-08T00:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Jesal Gadhia]() Topics: [context](), [Architecture & Design](), [Documentation]() Tags: [architecture](), [context](), [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [how-to](), [leadership](), [techniques](), [writing]() ### AI overview This tutorial presents techniques for writing persuasive proposals as an engineering leader. It emphasizes establishing context, identifying the core problem, grounding claims in metrics and data, and connecting proposals to organizational goals so they can gain consensus and inspire action. ### Source excerpt Effective proposal writing techniques for engineering leaders ## The Role Of A System Architect DevFeed: [The Role Of A System Architect]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: jesalg Published: 2023-08-08T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Jesal Gadhia]() Topics: [Development](), [Agile](), [Tech Debt](), [reliability]() Tags: [agile](), [architect](), [architecture](), [collaboration](), [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [leadership](), [mentoring](), [reliability](), [software-development](), [system-design](), [tech-debt]() ### AI overview This opinion article examines the proposed role of a system architect in startups experiencing rapid growth. It discusses how the role could identify and reduce technical bottlenecks, complexity, silos, and technical debt while improving coordination, architecture, development quality, performance, and reliability. It also considers how the role fits with Agile practices. ### Source excerpt A Step-by-Step Sprint Planning Guide for Engineering Leaders ## Can AI Replace Engineering Managers? DevFeed: [Can AI Replace Engineering Managers?]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Pedro Gil Carvalho Published: 2023-04-28T07:05:06Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Pedro Gil Carvalho]() Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](), [Software Engineering](), [Large Language Model](), [Language models]() Tags: [ai](), [automation](), [chatgpt](), [engineering-management](), [large-language-model](), [llms](), [manager](), [software](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview This opinion article considers whether AI could replace engineering managers. It argues that AI systems can handle many tasks once reserved for humans by retrieving, combining, and summarizing information, while noting that AI can also produce credible-sounding errors. ### Source excerpt AI is changing software engineering. But can it replace a manager? ## Three Mindset Shifts in the Transition from Engineer to Engineering Manager DevFeed: [Three Mindset Shifts in the Transition from Engineer to Engineering Manager]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Tom Bartel Published: 2023-01-03T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Trivago]() Topics: [Job](), [meetings](), [Code]() Tags: [engineering-culture](), [engineering-management](), [engineering-manager](), [leadership](), [management](), [manager](), [meetings](), [productivity]() ### AI overview This article discusses the transition from engineering to engineering management, emphasizing that it is a different job rather than simply a promotion. It focuses on redefining productivity when managerial work brings more meetings, interruptions, and less hands-on coding. ### Source excerpt You have always been an engineer, solving problems and writing code. Now, there is an opportunity to become an engineering manager. You are interested.However, questions arise. ## How to Successfully Hand Over Systems DevFeed: [How to Successfully Hand Over Systems]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2021-04-20T00:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [SoundCloud Backstage Blog]() Topics: [systems](), [Template](), [Pull Request]() Tags: [documentation](), [engineering-management](), [how-to](), [operations](), [project-management](), [systems](), [work](), [workshops]() ### AI overview This article presents SoundCloud's guideline for handing system ownership from one team to another during organizational change. It recommends collaborative planning, documentation, meetings, pairing sessions, workshops, tasks, and PR reviews so the new team can understand, maintain, change, and improve the system. ### Source excerpt In a product company, changes are inevitable so as to best support the strategy and the vision. Often during such a change, new teams are... ## Lessons from Leading a Remote Engineering Team DevFeed: [Lessons from Leading a Remote Engineering Team]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Lawrence Mandel Published: 2019-07-25T18:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Shopify Engineering](), [Shopify Engineering - Shopify Engineering]() Topics: [Production Engineering](), [Shopify]() Tags: [canada](), [career](), [engineering-management](), [global](), [health](), [mobility](), [production-engineering](), [remote](), [uk](), [work]() ### AI overview A Shopify engineering leader shares lessons from managing remote teams, including the benefits of a global hiring pool, a more diverse workforce, stronger employee retention, and location-based team capabilities. ### Source excerpt Shopify's Director of Production Engineering talks about the benefits of remote teams, building a remote team, and setting your people up to succeed. ## Managing Unplanned and Support Tasks DevFeed: [Managing Unplanned and Support Tasks]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2018-03-26T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [SoundCloud Backstage Blog]() Topics: [Process](), [Automation](), [systems](), [Slack]() Tags: [automation](), [bug](), [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [project-management](), [slack](), [support](), [systems](), [work]() ### AI overview The article describes how SoundCloud's Content Engineering Team developed a process for handling unplanned and support tasks. It explains how these tasks consume feature-development time, reduce visibility into team work, and create stress and context switching, then discusses problems with an open Slack-based request process and a single point of contact. ### Source excerpt One challenge engineering teams often face is dealing with work that doesn't revolve around developing new features but that still requires the team's attention and time. The Content Engineering Team here at SoundCloud is no exception, so we iterated on a process to deal with unplanned and support tasks to end up with fewer interruptions and more time to spend on implementing planned features. ## Deliver software faster by managing work in progress, not by adding overtime DevFeed: [Deliver software faster by managing work in progress, not by adding overtime]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2017-09-27T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [SoundCloud Backstage Blog]() Topics: [Software](), [Deployment](), [data](), [coding]() Tags: [bugs](), [code](), [deployment](), [development](), [engineering](), [engineering-management](), [metrics](), [monitor](), [product-development](), [project-management](), [reduce](), [software](), [strategy](), [workflow]() ### AI overview This article describes SoundCloud's efforts to improve product development flow by measuring lead time and cycle time and reducing work in progress. Its proposed strategy includes committing to fewer products, features, and tasks at once, reducing code inventory, and monitoring and reducing bugs instead of relying on overtime. ### Source excerpt Product development flow (flow) is the rate at which our products are developed, from idea to deployment. Good flow means that products should pass through the development cycle quickly and continuously.