[agoodthrowaway]

I am on the fence about this. I think it sounds great in theory and it may even work for smaller companies. However, a problem I’ve encountered with this approach to engineering management is that it ignores what the managers need to do to develop and advance. My current company has a very similar role for managers. The problem is that for the managers to advance they have to make an impact to the wider org. So this leads to the craziest, most toxic politics I’ve ever seen. In my opinion, when managers can be judged on their ability to make good technical decisions, it leads to a more objective outcome when judging the performance of a manager.

My take is managers are there to support their engineers but also to make decisions when the team does not have consensus.