Meet Your Team

Joining an existing team as an engineering manager can be scary and awkward, but that's part of the job when you start a new position, or your teams reorganize in the company.

The first time I was jumping into an existing team, I tried to write down what I'll do in the first few weeks. There was no system to it, just intuition and some reasonable first steps. I've been through this a few times, and I'm doing this again, so here's what I'll do, and what I can recommend to you as well.

Let's unpack the definition of engineering manager's job in the context of your team. An engineering manager's job is to enable everyone around them to do their best work together, and grow as professionals and people.

• To help people do their best work, you need to understand what is the strategic direction of the team. Set aside time to drop your assumptions, and work with your leadership and peers, and ask for their expectations around what this team should do in the next 3 months, 6 months, and a year. Don't commit to deliverables yet — set an expectation that you need to take time and review your team's structure and roadmap.

• You need to understand what people on your team are like — professionally and personally. Duh, you say, obviously. You can kick-start this work by asking people who supported them before you joined, or their PMs and designers, what they're like.

  • For each person, what do people think are their strong sides? What are their growth areas?
  • Don't assume these opinions are true. They're just that — opinions, and the first feedback to you on your team.
  • Setup an intro conversation with each person on your team, and ask them the same — what do they think are their strong sides? What are the areas where they struggle?

• Related, to enable people to do their best work, and to support their growth, you need to know what they want to grow in. So just ask them.

  • What are the areas of your product, or perhaps technologies, that they would like to master in the next few months or a year? What is the type of work that they like, and the type of work that they hate, and the type of work that they would love to learn to do?
  • Ask everyone if they have any ongoing growth projects and conversations with their manager, and how can you best support the transition?
  • I usually explicitly say that I will not have any of the previous manager's notes such as 1:1s or anything else, unless the person would like me to have them and read them. In that case, I ask if that's okay for me to reach out to their previous manager and grab the notes from them.

• To help people work together, you need to be a good partner to each of them. You can support every person on your team by at least trying to make working together and communicating welcoming, and less awkward.

  • Ask how they like to receive feedback — in private, verbally, or in writing? Perhaps in a document that they can thread comments on, to ask for clarification and direction?
    • Even if you asked their manager about this — don't assume their opinion is true.
  • Ask about recognition and praise as well. Some people like to be praised in a meeting with others, some folks like a shoutout on Slack, but there are people who don't like to be praised in public at all. Don't assume. Just ask.
  • What did they like most about working with the person who led them before you joined? What worked well, and what are some things that they would like to adjust? (That feels like cheating, but nothing wins trust like listening for an ask, and being flexible. Chances are, these are easy wins)

• It's 2023, chances are your team works remotely. If that's the case, run a quick remote team healthcheck.

• It's okay to be vulnerable and admit that you're also just learning and listening to the team. But that's building trust, and you do in in whatever way that you like to lead.

Summary

• Figure out how the team fits into the company's strategic roadmap. What are the tactical expectations from the team in the next 3, 6, 12 months?
• Talk to their previous leadership, and for each person, figure out their strong sides, growth areas, preferences, any ongoing growth projects.
• Talk to each person on the team, and figure out: what are their strong sides, what are their growth areas, what kind of work they like doing, and want to do more? What are they learning in the next few months? What are their career goals this and next year, and what work are they doing to grow, how were they previously supported?

Good luck with your new team!