Your Transition Playbook

Driving Alignment and Setting Direction
Driving Alignment and Setting Direction
Even the most talented team won’t succeed if everyone is moving in different directions. Alignment is what turns a group of capable individuals into a cohesive, high-performing unit. It’s the... Read more...
Handling Conflict and Difficult Situations
Handling Conflict and Difficult Situations
Conflict is inevitable in any team that’s doing meaningful work. When smart, passionate people care deeply about outcomes, disagreement will happen—between teammates, with peers, or even with you. The question... Read more...
Managing Up and Across
Managing Up and Across
As a manager, your job extends beyond your own team—you’re also responsible for how your team connects to the rest of the organization. That means managing up (with your own manager... Read more...
Building Psychological Safety and Team Culture
Building Psychological Safety and Team Culture
As a new manager, your first weeks were about earning trust—learning to delegate, manage time, give feedback, and make tough calls.  Culture isn’t what’s written in company values or all-hands... Read more...
Decision Making as a new Manager
Decision Making as a new Manager
As a lead engineer, you likely spent much of your time advocating for the “right” technical solution: scalable architectures, clean separation of concerns, and well-structured code. That instinct is valuable—it... Read more...
Avoiding Micromanagement as a New Manager
Avoiding Micromanagement as a New Manager
One of the hardest habits to break when moving from engineer to manager is the urge to stay in the driver’s seat. As a lead engineer, you were used to... Read more...
Building Relationships as a New Engineering Manager
Building Relationships as a New Engineering Manager
When you move from engineer to manager, one of the biggest shifts is realizing that relationships now play a central role in your success. As an engineer, you could get... Read more...
The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback as a New Manager
The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback as a New Manager
When an engineer steps up to manage the very team they once worked alongside, something shifts overnight. Yesterday, you were a peer. Today, you’re the authority. That change can feel... Read more...
Managing Your Time as a New Engineering Manager
Managing Your Time as a New Engineering Manager
One of the first surprises when stepping into management is how quickly your time fills up. As an engineer, you probably juggled two or three complex problems at a time.... Read more...
Adjusting Your Mindset: From Engineer to Manager
Adjusting Your Mindset: From Engineer to Manager
Making the leap from software engineer to engineering manager requires a complete mindset shift. Your success is no longer tied to your own code but to how well your team... Read more...