The First 90 Days: Transitioning into Engineering Management
The transition from Individual Contributor (IC) to Engineering Manager (EM) is one of the most jarring shifts in tech. You go from having clear deliverables to having ambiguous "impact." You go from flow state to meeting state.
Many new managers try to "manager-plus"—trying to be the best dev and the manager simultaneously. This is a recipe for burnout.
Month 1: The Listening Tour
Your goal in the first 30 days isn't to fix everything. It's to understand everything.
- 1:1s with everyone: Not just your reports, but your peers and stakeholders.
- Listen for patterns: Don't just hear what people say; hear what they aren't saying.
- Ask "Why?": Understand the history of the current systems before you try to change them.
Month 2: Establishing Your Systems
By day 60, the novelty has worn off and the chaos has likely set in. You need systems to survive.
Capture Everything
You'll be hit with a firehose of information. You cannot rely on your memory. Start a system for:
- Tracking individual team member goals and growth.
- Documenting team wins (and losses).
- Managing your own task list (that isn't just Jira).
The Feedback Habit
Start giving small bits of positive feedback early. This builds the "trust bank" you'll need when you eventually have to give difficult feedback.
Month 3: Strategic Alignment
In the third month, you should start making your first "moves."
- Quick wins: Identify a process bottleneck and fix it.
- Goal setting: Work with your reports to establish clear, measurable growth targets.
- Calibration: Start assessing where the team is versus where it needs to be.
The Identity Crisis
The hardest part of the first 90 days is the feeling that you "didn't do anything" because you didn't ship code. You have to redefine "doing work."
Work is now:
- Resolving a conflict between two engineers.
- Unblocking a project before it stalls.
- Providing the context someone needs to make a decision.
Conclusion
Success in management isn't about being the smartest person in the room—it's about making everyone else in the room smarter. By focusing on listening and systems in your first 90 days, you lay the foundation for a sustainable and impactful management career.
About the Author
Carlos Corrêa da Silva is an Engineering Manager and the builder of Ledger, a tool designed to help engineering managers maintain context on their teams. He focuses on making people management more systematic and less reliant on memory.