[mrzimmerman]

I’ve been an Engineering Manager, a VP of Platform, and Head of Engineering at a startup I’ve confounded. Here’s my input:

Individual contribution is my last priority. Generally, if I try to continue in my previous role as a software engineer than I become a bottleneck for everyone on my team. I need to focus on quality of issues/stories in Jira, code reviews, deciding on library or package usage, discussing code styles, and meeting with other managers to broadcast what the team is doing and our general status. Every time I let myself focus on doing development work instead of smoothing out the process for the rest of the team I’m actively harming my team and our process.

I usually look at writing software as a luxury at this point (though it varies at a startup where I’ve got to pull a lot more weight come hell or high water). If I do it, I aim to take on bugs or upgrade packages. Maybe I try to grab low hanging performance improvements. But whatever I do I’m grabbing things that are on the periphery so I’m not holding anyone back who may have a dependency on the work I might pick up.