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The engineering manager's second architecture
A good manager shapes not just software architecture, but the operating architecture around a team.
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Essays on engineering leadership, systems, and execution.
19 published essays.
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Mentoring engineers by giving them real ownership
Engineers grow faster when managers give them meaningful responsibility, room to think, and enough support to learn from mistakes.
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Why I still code as an engineering manager
Staying hands-on as an engineering manager is not about control. It is about preserving technical judgment, credibility, and architectural clarity.
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Writing as a force multiplier for engineering leaders
Public writing creates leverage far beyond personal expression. It sharpens judgment, attracts talent, and compounds credibility.
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Platform thinking for smaller teams
Small teams benefit from platform thinking earlier than they think, as long as they avoid platform theater.
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AI for engineering managers without magic thinking
A practical guide to using AI as an engineering manager without outsourcing judgment, coaching, or accountability.
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Better 1 on 1s for engineering managers
How engineering managers can design 1:1s that create clarity, trust, and better decisions instead of repeating status.
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Building trust in distributed engineering teams
Trust in distributed teams comes from predictability, clarity, and good written systems more than constant calls.
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Developer velocity without metric theater
A practical view on engineering velocity metrics that improve decisions instead of incentivizing noise.
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Effective delegation for engineering leaders
Delegation is not dumping tasks. It is the discipline of transferring ownership with enough clarity to create growth and speed.
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How to run better incident reviews
Incident reviews should improve system behavior and team judgment, not just produce a document after a bad day.
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How to scale engineering decisions as teams grow
Growing teams need better decision design, not just more meetings, approvals, and stakeholders.
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Lessons from building in legal tech
Legal tech forces engineering teams to care deeply about precision, workflow design, trust, and usability under real business constraints.
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Manager and staff engineer partnerships that actually work
Strong manager and staff engineer partnerships reduce noise, sharpen technical direction, and create healthier team execution.
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Meeting hygiene for fast moving teams
Teams do not move faster by deleting every meeting. They move faster by making each one earn its place in the system.
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Platform roadmaps that engineers trust
Internal platform work earns trust when it removes friction clearly, ships visibly, and respects the realities of product teams.
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Runbooks that improve delivery instead of collecting dust
The best runbooks reduce uncertainty during repeated work and incidents without becoming bloated process documents.
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Skip levels that surface real information
Skip-level meetings are valuable when they reveal patterns, risks, and context that the normal management chain cannot surface quickly enough.
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The best career moat for engineers is judgment
Technical skills matter, but durable engineering careers are built on judgment about tradeoffs, systems, people, and timing.