Force Multipliers

It’s harder than ever to be an engineering manager. Fewer resources, higher expectations, and a public conversation actively questioning whether the role should exist at all. Less support than ever, in a job that already often felt hard and lonely. That’s why Jean and I built the Engineering Manager Survival Guide – and I’m so glad we did, because the first cohort just wrapped, and it confirmed everything we thought was true about the gap, and how rewarding it would be to help people close it.

We spent weeks debating what an EM actually is before we could build the course around it. The definition is both poor and variable. Same job title, completely different jobs. We eventually landed on force multiplier for the team – and then spent the rest of our build time working out, tactically, what that means and how to do it.

We knew going in that the role was variable, but there’s a difference between knowing that intellectually and seeing it up close. The exercises where we asked people to go through every direct report, one by one – what they’re working on, what they need, what’s getting in their way – I love seeing how deeply people understand and care about their teams. I know, as a manager, how often conversations were dominated by the problems. It’s good to create space for all of it.

Recording our wrap up audio, Jean pointed out the frameworks are simple – what you get out is what you put in. But the process of systematically looking through things, identifying the gaps, and figuring out the changes you need to make: it can be hard to do when so much of your job is responding to what people expect from you. Carving out space, support and structure to think is valuable.

In DRI Your Career we’re often encouraging people to widen their frame. With EMs it was the opposite – what they lack most is time and perspective, and our role was more to help them narrow in on which of their many ideas could have the most impact.

I wrote recently about the role middle managers were supposed to be doing, the flawed metric of headcount that defined them, and how unsurprising it is that people feel adrift when that metric collapses. I’m now three months into something new, and what I notice is that the mindset – the orientation toward making everything around me better – hasn’t changed, even as the work has. Process and efficiency, abstracted by skill.md files now instead of people. The work of being a manager, in a different form.

What I want for every EM is the same thing I wanted for myself, when I started being an EM, when I wrote The Engineering Leader, what I now try (with Claude) to create for myself each day, each week: a clear enough definition of the job that you can have a sense of whether you’re doing a good job and be able to call it when the day is done. Something concrete enough that you can still hold onto when the org chart shifts under you.

The course covers what a force multiplier actually does, across four modules: sustaining yourself, leveraging feedback, leading with clear direction, and expanding your range as a leader. We read and comment on every exercise submission.

The next cohort of the Engineering Manager Survival Guide starts in June. You can find out more and sign up at driyourcareer.com/em-survival-guide.