A collection of resources related to engineering management and tech leadership. Originally created by @notyce for his team of leaders.
| Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Managing Humans | Michael Lopp | Anecdotal and humorous take on a management book. Has some interesting insights into a daily routine of a manager, the importance of 1:1s and how to build trust with a team. With everything that Michael Lopp writes (also see his blog), it is more anecdotal and based on his own experience, rather than backed up by data or research. Nevertheless an interesting read, especially for first time managers. |
| The Manager's Path | Camille Fournier | From practical advice to real-life challenges, this book is a great read for first-time managers, or people considering a manager path. If you are already an experienced manager, some topics in this book might seem very obvious, but it’s always good to go back and reflect on certain topics and behaviours. |
| An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management | Will Larson | Systematized collection of Will Larson's (aka Lethain) articles and observations on Engineering Management. |
| The Coaching Habit | Michael Bungay Stanier | Quite short and a little obvious book about coaching, mentoring and how to lead conversations around that topic. For people new to people-management and having difficulties leading conversations, the questions outlined in this book might help a lot. |
| Leading Snowflakes | Oren Ellenbogen | More of a collection of blog posts about management topics. Interesting for first-time managers. |
| High Output Management | Andy Grove | The classic management book about productivity., team work, business goals, etc. Even though it is quite old (1983), it established and talks about a lot of tools we currently use, from OKRs to 1:1s, from culture values to performance reviews. |
| The Five Dysfunctions of a team | Patrick Lencioni | Another classic management book about a fictitious business, analysing what leads to team failure, politics and a lack of trust inside a company/team. For experienced managers this is a good book to come back to once in a while, reflecting on behaviours in your own teams and orgs. |
| Radical Candor | Kim Scott | A classic about giving and receiving feedback and how to lead difficult conversations. |
| The first 90 days | Michael Watkins | Lots of tips for new managers or managers in a new company. Breaks down the first 90 days of a job, and gives some valuable points in which area to focus in. |
| Emotional Intelligence | Justin Bariso | Connects the more theoretical topic of emotional intelligence to real world examples. Useful for leading tough conversations, conflict-resolution and building relationships. |
| Measure what matters | John Doerr | Deep dive into OKRs & business leadership. Especially the case studies and examples are very interesting and helpful. Also highlights the struggle of defining OKRs, which are more a story-telling device, rather than measurable increments. |
| Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| User Story Mapping | Jeff Patton | Great agile approach to build understanding, mapping user-journey and analysing requirements through story telling. |
| The Principles of Product Development Flow | Don Reinertsen | A very dry and mostly theoretical book about product development, but introduces and talks about a lot of interesting topics, like queue & batch sizes, visualising waste, the importance of calculating costs-of-delay, how to prioritise work etc etc. If you really interested in improving product development processes, this book is for you. |
| The Phoenix Project | Gene Kim | The most entertaining book about how to save a failing project. |
| Title | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rands in Repose | Michael Lopp (VP Eng Slack) aka Rands | |
| Lara Hogan on Management | Lara Hogan | Former VP Eng of Kickstarter writes about leadership and management topics. |
| Irrational Exuberance | Will Larson aka Lethain | The author of "The Elegant Puzzle" and "Staff Engineers" shares random articles on leadership in tech organizations. |
| The Pragmatic Engineer | Gergely Orosz (Uber, Microsoft, Skype) | This blog is actually more about management, hiring, and life at big tech but definitely full of insights. |
| Software Leads Weekly | Oren Ellenbogen | Weekly collection of links about management topics. |
| Management Series | Marlow Group Inc. | Bi-weekly newsletter about management topics. |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| 44 Engineering Management Lessons | Short guide to engineering management Do's and Don't's |
| Six Recipes for Software Managers | Short guide for engineering managers and best-practices. Especially the instructions and further reading material is interesting. |
| How to train engineers to become managers | A few (more high level) tips on how to train engineers to become managers. |
| The new manager death spiral | Michael Lopps classic post about new managers, and tips to avoid failure. There are also a couple of videos/keynotes where he explores this topic |
| Guide for new managers | A HowTo for new managers, long post but very actionable. |
| This 90-Day Plan Turns Engineers into Remarkable Managers | A detailed guide on turning engineers into successful managers |
| Managing Remote Teams | Andreas Klinger (ProductHunt) gives a crash course about working with remote teams. |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Honest 1:1s | |
| Awkward 1:1s | An interesting take on 1:1s - obviously not suitable for every situation, but useful to move beyond the usual 'status-update' character of most 1:1s. |
| The Update, the Vent, and the disaster | Michael Lopp's take on 1:1, what to ask and (more importantly) what to listen for. |
| First 1:1 questions | Tips for first-time 1:1s and what questions to ask - more about people management and building trust, than process. |
| Random Questions for 1:1s | Website that displays a random question to ask in a 1:1 (Useful for first-time managers, building a foundation, trust, etc) |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| On Standups | |
| RACI Framework RACI Matrix | Very useful tool to visualise and establish responsibilities in new teams. |
| Tuckman's Stages of group development | |
| Communication in Agile teams | |
| A Leaders framework for decision making | How to make decision as a leader, based on context and the Cynefin framework. |
| Agile Fluency | An agile model, divided into four distinct zones, based on proficiency, business need and key metrics. |
| Modern Agile | A modern take on agile principles, formed around people, safety, experimentation and delivering value. |
| Management 3.0 Tools | A set of tools for meeting and workshop facilitation to build healthier teams. |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Culture Codes | Collection of culture decks and handbooks of different companies. |
| Amazons Leadership Principles | |
| Netflix Culture Deck | |
| Successful Engineering Cultures | A look and comparison of engineering cultures at Netflix, Github, Buffer, Facebook, etc |
| Psychological Safety | |
| Culture vs. Strategy (in a scaling org) | |
| BICEPS framework for psychological safety | A framework that helps to understand and foster psychological safety in groups. |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Manager Tools | A huge series of podcats about management and business |