[latigidigital]

The new role itself was not challenging, per se, except getting used to approaching unrealistic demands by non-technical people who have a say in the project. (There is a near constant influx of requests that are made without appreciation for the difference between ones that take 60 minutes versus 600 hours, and explaining such things tactfully and in human terms is an important highlight.)

That said, the thing I would personally place emphasis on is not letting yourself fall behind in the development world, both because (1) it's easy to let happen as you get busy, and (2) maintaining a solid understanding of what you're doing is crucial to efficiency in this capacity.

Disclaimer: personal experience derives from contract work

[blablabla123]

I'm working as developer, now since approx 8 years. At my first job I had a boss with Engineering background but he worked a long time in Management as well. So this was quite nice and when he asked me implement things that would take a long time or would be risky to build, I'd tell him and he would prefer me doing other things. At other jobs this changed, I had to talk to more people but doing the programming mostly alone. Although I sometimes got help from other technical people. Ever since on a regular base I'm confronted with this 60 minutes vs 600 hours problem. Just that it's my problem to write these things myself. But I don't really see myself as anything close to Management.

[humanrebar]

Managers are allowed to delegate parts of their job. A good manager will allow engineers with interest and potential to get some experience in this sort of thing. Individual contributors should be able to give feedback to the manager if they aren't equipped or prepared to take care of those sorts of tasks. Similarly, if the manager is missing something (like making a mistake on a ballpark estimate), an individual contributor should feel able to bring this up and be taken seriously.