** 9th book of 2020: Recursive Programming Management **

Most people don’t start as a manager asking themselves, “what does it mean to manage other people?” Instead they find themselves in a situation first influencing what others do, then directing, and slowly looking at the ability to become an official manager for teams or teams of teams. Fournier leans into this ambiguity by creating a bottoms up approach of the skills needed for effective managers in the tech industry, and this is the best handbook that I could recommend to new managers on my team. Parts that I found useful:

** Teambuilding: ** Three personalities you probably don’t want to hire:

  • Brilliant jerk
  • Non-communicator
  • Dissident
  • debugging teams like code problem

**Estimating in the face of unknowns: **

  • The popular doubling rule of software estimation is, “Whenever asked for an estimate, take your guess and double it.” This rule is appropriate and good to use when you’re asked for an off-the-cuff guess. However, when you’re talking about projects that you think will take longer than a couple of weeks, go ahead and double the estimate, but make it clear that you’ll need some planning time before you’re sure about the timescale.
  • yes and, strategy for saying no: Similar to improve, you should never say no to a request. Instead, frame it as yes, and whatever consequences that such a request would entail. If it means more engineers, rebalancing priorities, or long term attrition on the team, these are all fine, but a flat out no is not an acceptable answer.
  • Don’t expect to get more than 80% worth of focused effort on the main projects per team member.

Leveling:

  • “Removing titles and pretending that the hierarchy doesn’t exist does exactly the opposite of creating a meritocracy. It most often creates a self-reinforcing system where shadow hierarchies rule the day and those outside the in-group have even less opportunity to see their ideas come to life. It frustrates newcomers, and alienates diverse opinions. It is, in short, the enemy of meritocracy.”
  • “And, furthermore, you need to be really, really explicit about what it means to actually be working at the level indicated by these titles. You need to first, make it really clear to yourself what is required at every level, and then make it really clear to your team what it means to be at every level.”

**Skip Level 1:1’s **

  • what do you like best/ worst
  • who is doing well on the team
  • organization overall
  • what’s keeping you from your best work?