The Engineering Leadership Playbook

In today's business landscape, software engineering teams must deliver innovation faster than ever. However, outdated management approaches centered on tools and metrics rather than people strangle velocity and creativity. Legacy leaders cling to rigid structures mismatched with market dynamics, draining effort and morale from burnt-out teams. The Engineering Leadership Playbook provides a modern framework to unlock your team's potential through empathy, clarity, and empowerment. Unlike traditional leadership books fixated on delivery metrics, Raphael Neves offers a refreshing people-oriented leadership model tailored to nuances of engineering culture. With 15+ years leading high-growth tech teams, Raphael demystifies how to balance autonomy with alignment, reconstruct feedback models on psychological safety, and sustain excellence amidst uncertainty. You'll learn his proven conflict resolution blueprint for defusing clashes through mutual understanding while tangibly tracking progress. Additionally, his continuous feedback system grounded in evidence spotlights gaps early while accelerating strengths. This playbook moves systematically from foundational concepts like emotional intelligence and leading by example into team development frameworks around high-impact coaching, mentorship, and performance reviews. The method is brought full circle through innovation catalysts that maintain creative momentum at scale. Step-by-step, Raphael unpacks human-centered leadership aligned with accelerating market realities. Apply his engineering management playbook, and your teams will thrive fueled by vision, trust, and care. What You'll Learn Study different leadership styles and how to switch their approaches depending on circumstances Review critical communication skills, especially in technical fields Create IDPs for team members, especially senior engineers and leaders Who This Book Is For Current engineering leaders, aspiring engineering leaders, senior engineers, HR professionals and recruiters, and professionals in related fields

A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt. There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies. Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.

This book focuses on the essential elements of understanding what is necessary to stand up an effective engineering organization.

Leadership principles from a master of the business turnaround In Reinvent, renowned CEO and business leader Fred Hassan explains how to transform a struggling business into a raging success by reinventing the culture, attitude, and behaviors of organizations and people. Leaders who want to change cultures and individuals need a cool head, a clear vision, and a well-refined ability to inspire that change. Here, Hassan explains how a productive organizational culture leads to real success. The first part of the book focuses on how you, as a leader, can unleash your full powers by learning to be authentic, purposeful, and connected with your organization. The second part of the book focuses on groups, how to lead them, how to be a role model for the effort you expect, and how to keep winning and innovating. Taken together, these principles fuel smarter strategies, more effective execution, and better governance. Features practical, proven guidance appropriate for every business leader in any industry Ideal for corporate executives, managers, team leaders, human resources professionals, board members, and consultants Written by a renowned public speaker and former CEO known for turning around struggling companies Revealing how you can make culture your secret weapon, Reinvent is the perfect tool for business leaders in highly competitive industries.

This book is meant to help the many engineers who are thrust into an engineering management position with little or no training. The book will cover everything from “where to start” on your first day to the management process, which is a feedback process designed to manage the engineer. Finally, we will cover the “Art” of managing engineers, which will address many of the difficulties you will face in your job and end up with how to transform yourself from a great engineering manager to a leader and earn the respect of your team. The book is organized into seven chapters. It starts with a description of “what” really is an engineering manager. It addresses the roles and goals of the engineering manager and covers a few simple rules that are humorous but will serve you well. Next, the book goes into where to start. Many engineers are put into a management position after they have been with a team long enough or their boss has moved on. They have little or no training on what to do and will often mimic their boss’s behavior, which can be good or bad, depending on the boss that they had. Following this, the book goes into the Science of Engineering management. This is a process designed to manage the day to day activites of the engineer. Then, the book describes what I call the “Art” of the engineering manager. How to deal with the unique characteristics of many engineers as engineers in general can be very opinionated and difficult to manage. Finally, the book will address how to transform yourself from just managing the team, to becoming a leader and how to earn the respect of your team.

At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior Software Engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At that career level, you'll no longer be required to work towards the next pro? motion, and being promoted beyond it is exceptional rather than ex? pected. At that point your career path will branch, and you have to decide between remaining at your current level, continuing down the path of technical excellence to become a Staff Engineer, or switching into engineering management. Of course, the specific titles vary by company, and you can replace "Senior Engineer" and "Staff Engineer" with whatever titles your company prefers.Over the past few years we've seen a flurry of books unlocking the en? gineering management career path, like Camille Fournier's The Man? ager's Path, Julie Zhuo's The Making of a Manager, Lara Hogan's Re? silient Management and my own, An Elegant Puzzle. The manage? ment career isn't an easy one, but increasingly there are maps avail? able for navigating it.On the other hand, the transition into Staff Engineer, and its further evolutions like Principal and Distinguished Engineer, remains chal? lenging and undocumented. What are the skills you need to develop to reach Staff Engineer? Are technical abilities alone sufficient to reach and succeed in that role? How do most folks reach this role? What is your manager's role in helping you along the way? Will you enjoy being a Staff Engineer or you will toil for years to achieve a role that doesn't suit you?"Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track" is a pragmatic look at attaining and operate in these Staff-plus roles.