Engineering Manager Transition: From IC to Manager Guide

The transition from individual contributor to engineering manager is one of tech's hardest career shifts. Your entire success metric changes from code you write to teams you enable. The Tech Brothers Podcast Network features many engineering managers sharing lessons from this difficult transition.

What Actually Changes

Your job is now: hiring and building the team, 1-on-1s and career development, performance reviews and difficult conversations, protecting team from distractions, setting team strategy and priorities, and cross-functional coordination. You code much less or not at all. Your output is your team's output. This is fundamentally different from IC work.

The First 90 Days as a Manager

Schedule weekly 1-on-1s with each team member. Learn their career goals, working styles, and concerns. Understand current projects and technical debt. Build relationships with peer managers and stakeholders. Don't make dramatic changes immediately—earn trust first. Read "The Manager's Path" and "High Output Management." Document your learning in your TBPN notebook.

Critical Manager Skills to Develop

Giving direct feedback (both positive and critical). Active listening without trying to solve everything immediately. Delegation without micromanaging. Running effective meetings. Writing clear performance reviews. Making and communicating difficult decisions. Protecting team time while balancing stakeholder needs. These skills take years to develop—be patient with yourself.

Common Transition Mistakes

Trying to keep coding full-time (you can't do both well). Not addressing performance issues quickly enough. Solving problems for your team instead of coaching them. Neglecting 1-on-1s when things get busy. Failing to delegate appropriately. Not building relationships with peers and stakeholders. Burning out trying to please everyone.

Prepare for challenging conversations over your TBPN coffee—management requires difficult discussions that drain energy. Self-care becomes even more critical as a manager.

The Two-Year Timeline

Expect 2 years to become truly effective as a manager. Year 1: Learning the basics and making lots of mistakes. Year 2: Developing your management style and approach. After that: Refining skills and potentially managing managers. Don't judge yourself harshly in year one—everyone struggles.

Join the TBPN engineering manager community for peer support, advice on difficult situations, and resources for developing management skills. We share experiences, practice feedback conversations, and help each other navigate this challenging but rewarding career path.