Learnings from 10 years as an engineering manager

Learnings from 10 years as an engineering manager
12 minutes by Jampa Uchoa

Jampa shares unconventional lessons from managing across multiple companies. Key insights include understanding that the role has no standard definition and shifts between product, process, people, and programming needs. He emphasizes that everyone must care about the product, processes should be questioned regularly, and managers should be transparent with their teams while strategic with executives.

Tests are dead. Meticulous AI is here.
sponsored by Meticulous

Meticulous automatically creates and maintains an exhaustive e2e UI test suite that covers every corner of your application – with no developer intervention required whatsoever. Dropbox, Lattice, Bilt Rewards and hundreds of organisations rely on Meticulous for their frontend testing. It is built from the Chromium level up with a deterministic scheduling engine – making it the only testing tool that eliminates flakes.

Demystifying capex and opex for product leaders
10 minutes by Jacob Clark

Product and technology leaders often confuse capex and opex, leading to poor investment and delivery decisions. Jacob explains the difference between funding approval and accounting treatment, and why mixing them causes teams to optimise for financial rules instead of customer value. He offers a clear mental model to help leaders work better with finance and make smarter product investment decisions.

Closing the software loop
5 minutes by Benedict Brady

AI coding agents are transforming software development by automating the entire product loop. The key is giving agents full engineering tools and establishing clear product guidelines. Human engineers will shift from writing code to defining product vision and taste, while agents handle implementation and learn from user feedback to propose improvements autonomously.

First agree on the tradeoffs
7 minutes by Jade Rubick

Jade presents a method for resolving team disagreements by focusing on tradeoffs rather than arguing positions. The approach has three steps: generate at least three solution options, outline and agree on the tradeoffs of each approach, and clarify who will make the final decision. Getting everyone to agree on tradeoffs creates a shared understanding of the problem and shifts thinking from positional to analytical.

Look for what's true
2 minutes by Patrick Dubroy

A principal engineer once criticized Patrick for being overly negative in a meeting. Initially defensive, Patrick searched online for help and found useful advice: look for what's true in critical feedback. Instead of focusing on what feels wrong or unfair about criticism, ask yourself what kernel of truth exists. This simple reframing helps set aside emotional reactions and enables objective thinking.

And the most popular article from the last issue was:

• Autonomy and clarity in leadership styles