A little over 3 months have elapsed since starting a new role as a software development manager. For context, I’ve spent the last 25 years as a developer and tech lead. This post is a quick reflection on the start of the management journey: lessons learned, tools I’m employing, and goals going forward.

Meetings, meetings, and more meetings: oh my!

A friend made the jump from an individual developer to management over 10 years ago. I consulted him for what to expect when taking the leap.

“Your time is not your own.”

He was spot on. In addition to handling 17–20 hours per week of regularly scheduled meetings, there are always a large portion of impromptu discussions taking an addition 5–10 hours. Somewhere wedged in there are deliverables I’m expected to work on, including code (CTO believes everyone should write code).

⭐ Action Item: Obsolete Myself

Meetings are inevitable, but I’m also sliding into an existing meeting schedule. It’s my goal to reduce the meeting burden not only for myself, but for all team members.

🤹‍♂️Juggling It All

From what I’ve read, my role is atypical of most management positions. In addition to leading 4 teams, doing some IC work, and participating in customer calls—there is a lot going on. This is all in addition to managing multiple release trains across two product lines.

Copious Meeting Notes

A lot of information is disclosed in meetings, regardless of the topic. To keep track, I use the following tactics:

  • Handwritten notes (stored in Google Drive)
  • Automated notes
  • Tracking Action Items

Handwritten Notes

A spiral, lined notebook (TRU RED from Staples) is the tool of choice for daily note taken. I did explore using a technical solution (ReMarkable) but ultimately decided to go low-tech for the following reason:

1) Simplicity 2) Still can convert to a digital format 3) E-Ink solutions just don’t have the same pen & paper experience

Format

Each day I start a new fresh page with the date at the top. For each meeting, I wrap the meeting title in brackets:

ex: [Weekly Engineering Staff Meeting]

For any action items that I am responsible for, place a ⭐ in front.

ex: ⭐ Reach out to so-and-so about PR XYZ

At the end of the meeting, add all action items to Todoist.

Digitizing Notes

At the end of the day, I use Google Drive’s mobile document scanner to convert pages into PDF files and drop them into a folder. The beauty of using the PDF format is that Google Gemini can perform summarization and Q&A on the documents. Individual days PDF files are organized into folders by month.

Automated Notes

For many meetings, I enable Google’s automated transcription functionality. It does a surprisingly good job of transcribing entire meetings, including who was talking. This is valuable for the same reason as digitizing notes: performing summarization and Q&A at a later date and time.

⏳ A new definition of “productive”

It feels very strange to finish a work day, or sometimes an entire week, and feel as though I have not directly contributed to the product. No code written, or checked in. At best, some PR reviews or merging others’ code into protected branches. In the back of the brain, there’s a nagging voice quietly reminding me that I’m not being productive.

What does it mean to be a productive manager?

My role is to now be a force multiplier. Help others do the best work they can, with as much velocity as possible.

That’s a unique shift.

At the end of the day, I hang my hat on other’s productivity. Did I help, or hinder? If I was removed from the picture, would anything change?

I’m still not a huge fan of that part of the job.

🏛️ Politics

Holy hell. Moving up the org chart from IC to manager has exposed me to much more of the political wrangling that goes on within a company. It’s quite the game. I’m still learning the ropes but am keeping eyes wide open to learn how others are positioning themselves.

Everyone has an agenda.

Person X needs to achieve task Y.

Helping them get to a successful outcome is how you deliver value.

Getting in the way is how you lose favor.

📣 Cheerleader

There’s a heavy component of cheerleading in the day-to-day job of leadership. Simply saying “good job” “thank you” and expressing gratitude for the efforts of the team. It’s not fluff—I genuinely am thankful for the efforts that my teams put forward. Especially during customer emergencies. At a small company, it’s easy to fall into a negative bias when everything seems to be on fire…all the time.

What’s next ❓

The first three months of this new journey have been eye-opening. There is still a lot to learn with regard to leadership. This summer I’d like to read some books and talk with career-long leaders to learn where to focus next.

Agile & Scrum

The jury is still out as to if an Agile development process is useful from my current seat within the organization. Running four different teams, the Agile process takes up quite a bit of time.

Status Updates

As mentioned previously, I’d like to reduce my own meeting overhead while still keeping track of everyone’s status. That will likely require some kind of tool or automation.

AI in management?

I’ve been playing around with Antrhopic’s new models. They’re impressive. I’m going to explore if there’s a way to use AI in my day-to-day flow. Not sure what the integration point looks like, but there certainly is an opportunity for augmentation.