Making the case for the "Technical™" manager

Sorry. This is a bit tongue in cheek, and the subterfuge is purely intentional, and kinda the point of this essay. But stay with me, picture this. You're sitting in an interview for an engineering manager role, feeling reasonably confident. And then the ape in recruiter disguise asks, “Are you technical™?” It is the kind of question that feels designed to make you squirm. What they usually mean is something like, “Can you write code? Could you dive into our systems and fix something if needed?” It’s a fair question, but it entirely misses the point.

A manager doesn’t need to know every intricate detail of every framework or tool their team uses. What a manager truly needs is to treat management itself as a craft. Like carpentry, software development, or baking a perfect soufflé, management is something you learn by studying principles, practicing techniques, and embracing a learning curve. It is a discipline that has been refined for decades by people who have thought long and hard about what makes teams work. Wing it, and the results will be about as predictable as a biryani made without reading the recipe.

And yet, we perpetuate this odd myth that a great engineer will naturally grow into a great manager. The two roles couldn’t be more different. The skills that make a brilliant engineer are not the same ones that make a great manager. Managing teams is an entirely different ballgame. It demands systems thinking, decision-making frameworks, and an understanding of how humans work in groups. Without intentional study and effort, the transition is less a natural progression and more like being dropped into an unfamiliar video game without the cheat codes.

Yet, I've often seen that the main and sometimes the only tool that managers use is Instinct. Well instinct is a wonderful thing for dodging flying objects or deciding whether to try that suspicious chicken 65, but it’s not enough for management. Instinct alone will not help you identify bottlenecks in a complex system or balance competing forces like speed versus quality. Management, like any other craft, requires tools, practice, and a touch of humility.

Over the years, several books have helped me make sense of this strange and wonderful discipline. Here are a few that have shaped my thinking:

1. Donald Reinertsen: The Principles of Product Development Flow
This book is not casual bedtime reading. It's a detailed guide to the mechanics of decision making in product development. Concepts like cost of delay, small batch sizes, and managing variability are essential tools for any engineering manager. If you’ve ever struggled to explain why work in progress is slowing your team down, this book will give you the language and the logic.

2. W. Edwards Deming: Out of the Crisis
Deming’s principles revolutionized manufacturing and remain just as relevant for engineering teams. His focus on systems thinking, continuous improvement, and feedback loops helps managers see teams as interconnected systems, not just a collection of individuals. Deming’s lessons are a must-read for anyone who wants to move beyond surface-level fixes. This book also solidified my utter disgust for the annual performance appraisal.

3. Mary and Tom Poppendieck: Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit
Concepts like eliminating waste, optimizing flow, and empowering teams are explored in depth - an essential read for managing with agility.

4. Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Managers make dozens of decisions every day, often under pressure. This book is a masterclass in understanding how cognitive biases—like anchoring or confirmation bias—can influence those decisions. Becoming aware of these biases is the first step toward better judgment.

5. Patrick Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
A deep dive into team dynamics, this book explores how trust, alignment, and vulnerability impact a team’s performance. If you’ve ever wondered why a technically brilliant team might fail to deliver, this book will shed some light.

6. Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford: The Phoenix Project
A highly relatable story about the chaos of IT operations and engineering management, this book illustrates key principles of DevOps and the importance of flow. It’s as entertaining as it is insightful.

7. Fred Brooks: The Mythical Man-Month
A classic in software project management, this book captures the timeless pitfalls of scaling teams and projects. From Brooks’s Law to the concept of “surgical teams,” it is packed with insights that remain relevant decades later.

8. Peter Senge: The Fifth Discipline
A learning organisation is an unstoppable force. This book challenges you to see teams and organizations as dynamic systems with interconnected parts.

9. Eliyahu Goldratt: The Goal
A novel that teaches the theory of constraints through a compelling story about manufacturing. Its lessons apply just as well to managing bottlenecks in software teams.

10. Andy Grove: High Output Management
A foundational book on management that explores topics like leverage, decision-making, and team productivity.

11. Will Larson: An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
A practical and thoughtful guide to the challenges of engineering management. Larson provides insights into balancing trade-offs, building resilient systems, and navigating the complexities of teams at scale.

12. Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
A timeless classic that focuses on the human aspects of software development. This book emphasizes the importance of creating an environment where teams can thrive, offering insights on everything from workspace design to communication and trust.

13. Keith Johnstone: Impro
Surprisingly practical lessons from the world of theater improvisation, showing how to create psychological safety and foster creativity within teams. I've learnt to carefully read and calibrate my interactions within and outside my teams from this lovely and fun book.

14. Randy Hodson: Dignity at Work
A grounding reminder of how to treat people with humanity in high-pressure environments. A bit dated perhaps, but a lot of takeaways.

15. Noam Chomsky: On Anarchism
While not at all about engineering management, this book explores systems of decentralized organization and empowerment, offering lessons in how teams can operate without rigid hierarchies.

These are some of the books that have shaped my journey, but they are just the start. If you have books, articles, or even wild opinions that have guided you, I would love to hear them. Because the truth is, no one ever masters this completely. And isn’t that the fun of it?

So, the next time the recruiter asks you, “Are you technical?”, you have two options: (1) dodge that bullet and go elsewhere, or (2) respond with, “Absolutely. I’ve read more technical manuals on managing humans than I ever did on programming languages.” The craft of engineering management is as technical as it gets, just in ways that don’t always involve compilers or IDEs. It’s about systems, flow, feedback loops, and, most importantly, people. 

Finally, don't forget to let me know books that I should read to become a better manager.