Effective Engineering Manager

We share the key reasons and motivators for pursuing a engineering leadership position. Before you take on transitioning someone's or your own career to engineering management, check if you have the right motivations and strengths needed to take on the role.

We share a low-effort, highly effective approach to creating great performance reviews that we call "Engineer's Diary". Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

We continue our Team Building series and talk about knowing how to identify what you need based on the team you currently have.

We provide a do-or-die checklist for an effective SDLC that allows teams building software that customers love to use and engineers never have to worry about. Our check list includes: Documented user stories and use cases Version Control Issue tracking Unified IDE Code style Build automation Iterative development Design reviews Unit and integration testing Static code analysis Code reviews Continu...

We provide guidance on how to understand and avoid building All-Star Teams. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to build complementary teams, not all-star teams. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

We provide practical guidance on avoiding risks associated with 1:1s with a new boss. This continues the series on the Effective One-On-Ones. We also recommend checking out our episode "Practicing Observe and Absorb" that will help you to plan and implement a strategy for managing 1:1s with your new boss.

We provide guidance on how to build engaged teams by implementing a Kudos program. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to implement the Kudos program immediately. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

Practical suggestions on structuring 1:1s. Structure your 1:1s as 20 minutes to be your directs' and 10 minutes to be yours. Let your direct reports decide what they want to talk about. Avoid assigning work during your 1:1s. This episode continues the series of short notes on the Laws of Effective One-On-Ones. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or...

We provide recommendations on two powerful approaches to maintain the spirit of camaraderie in a team, celebrating birthdays and going to lunches. This is the first episode in the series dedicated to the most important activity any engineering manager is responsible for, building and maintaining effective teams. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com...

The more 1:1s you miss, the longer will be your next one. One-on-ones are the most effective people management tool. When it's used right, it's allows engineering managers building lasting relationships with their direct reports that pay in great performance. When done wrong, 1:1s can become ineffective or even harmful. In the the first episode in the series The Laws of Effective One-On-Ones we ta...

We provide guidance on how to effectively manage remote teams in an Agile environment. In the end we share a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are managing their remote teams effectively. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

Gap Analysis is an effective approach to identifying challenges in the areas of engineering processes, people and tools. Gap Analysis allows engineering managers to address challenges that prevent the team from delivering high quality software on time. In this podcast we provide a step-by-step guidance for conducting Gap Analysis and resolving the identified gaps. Please reach out to us if you hav...

Daily standups are one of the most important practices in Agile. We share our recommendations and experiences towards running effective Agile standups. The most important Agile event, standups provide a means to build a culture of consistency and focus on making progress on the team’s priorities for that sprint. In the end we share a succinct checklist that engineering managers can use to self-che...

Think-Plan-Execute is an effective technique to getting things done. In this podcast we discuss how it helps engineering managers and software engineers to deliver working software on time and provide practical examples of how to implement Think-Plan-Execute. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

In this podcast we continue in our podcast series on Effective Agile and discuss the importance of estimation and how it is a fundamental building block for effective teams. We share tips and techniques to help teams become better at estimating and also share practical experiences with estimation. In the end, we provide a concise checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they...

In this podcast we share the practice of guided self-study, discuss how it helps busy managers to elevate team’s skills, and provide practical recommendations on how to run the guided self-study practice. In the end, we share an approach to install the guided self study at your team and provide a checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are executing guided self-study ef...

In this podcast, we start a four-part discussion on Agile teams. We share key best practices for effectively managing Agile teams, discuss why these practices are important, and provide tools to implement them easily. In the end, we share a succinct checklist that engineering managers can use to self-check that they are building and managing Agile teams effectively. Please reach out to us at conta...

In this podcast we share the practice of effective software design reviews, discuss why they are important and provide practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to run design review meetings that deliver high quality software architectures. We provide guidance for executing one-on-one reviews, accommodating input, running team reviews and public reviews and sharing the final designs...

In this podcast we define the concept of "observe and absorb", discuss why it is important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to use this tool to unlock and build stronger working relationships. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

In this podcast we define effective effective engineering meetings, discuss why they are important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to run meetings that deliver results including. We provide practical guidance for setting meeting goals, defining agendas, preparing participants, building invite lists, managing the meetings and sharing the results. In the end, we sh...

In this podcast we define the effective time management, discuss why it is important and share practical recommendations to engineering managers on how to make most out of their time. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at: contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com .

In this episode Adam and Slava discuss why they decided to start the Effective Engineering Manager Podcast.