Jul 17, 2019, 7:47 AM ETInterview

Camille Fournier on Managing Technical Teams

Many individual contributors (ICs) never experience effective managers due to a historical industry sentiment (circa 2010–2011) that viewed management as bureaucratic overhead.
This "anti-management" ideology in startups incorrectly attributed success to simply hiring smart people and removing hierarchy, ignoring the need for coordination as teams scale.
Camille Fournier argues that management is a distinct technical discipline requiring specific skills rather than a generic administrative role.
Effective management becomes critical when teams grow large enough to require coordination beyond "joined at the hip" communication.

New managers must establish weekly or bi-weekly one-on-one meetings to create a structured, safe space for employees to raise issues before they become crises.
Managers should treat one-on-ones as protected time where they respect the employee's schedule, encouraging open dialogue about career pathing, benefits, and interpersonal conflicts.
Building "psychological safety" requires managers to model vulnerability and treat employees as human beings, which reduces competition and encourages admission of mistakes.
Teams should be transitioned from "parallel play" (individuals working in isolation) to a cohesive unit through regular team meetings that discuss project status and foster shared identity.
In remote or distributed settings, managers should institute virtual rituals (e.g., non-work "afternoon tea" on Zoom) to replicate water-cooler interactions and build comradery.
Teams spanning multiple time zones require strict overlap rules; forcing employees to work unsociable hours (e.g., 2:00 AM) is counterproductive.

Writing code to solve team problems: Managers should avoid jumping in to code when deadlines are missed; instead, they should analyze planning failures and remove blockers (e.g., acquiring assets, downscoping).
Dealing with code: While staying slightly hands-on in the first two years is acceptable for small teams, defaulting to coding as a management strategy rarely works for mature teams.
Ignoring interpersonal issues: Managers must proactively address conflicts rather than letting them fester; approaches include mediation, role changes, or termination.
Firing toxic individuals: Removing a negative, draining employee—even a high performer—often yields a shocking, positive impact on overall team productivity and morale.
Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs): PIPs are unsuitable for personality clashes or fundamental attitude issues; they are designed for specific, measurable performance gaps.

Engineers should not force themselves into management if they are unhappy after six months to a year, as most modern companies offer a separate Senior/Principal IC track.
Side projects are valuable for learning but risk leaders developing false confidence in technologies they cannot scale compared to production environments.
Non-engineers running engineering teams often fail due to a lack of technical credibility and the inefficiency of "management telephone" (translating between technical and business teams).
To maintain technical legitimacy, non-IC managers must stay current through peer networks, reading design docs, and asking insightful questions about system architecture.
Management is a subset of leadership; successful managers require execution skills, strategic vision, and interpersonal charisma, whereas leadership can exist in any single area.
Leadership is defined by the ability to provide clarity in ambiguity, simplify complex problems, and build trust, not just by holding authority.

Teams fail to "gel" primarily due to values mismatches (e.g., independent hackers vs. collaborative process-driven teams) rather than technical skills.
Hiring processes should screen for cultural fit and specific working styles, though standardized technical interviews often fail to distinguish between "hackers" and "reliability wonks."
Trial periods are ideal for testing fit but are difficult to implement in a competitive labor market; companies should instead focus on internal mobility to find the right role for misfit candidates.
Recognition should be specific, public when appropriate, and encouraged among peers (e.g., "kudos" rounds) rather than solely coming from the manager.

Camille Fournier is editing the upcoming book 97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know, published by O'Reilly.
The book is scheduled for release in the fall or early winter timeframe.