Topic: Engineering Management

The promotion earns you the title. It does not teach you the job.

In March 2026 we ran Tech Lead School, an honest attempt to close the gap between what earns the promotion and what the role actually demands. Here is what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised us.

Senior engineering management is mostly subtraction. The brief you don’t over-specify. The standard you don’t leave verbal. The conversation you don’t have because the team is already having it.

But subtraction is not absence. It only works when the infrastructure underneath is honest: a clear end state, written standards, accountability that survives your calendar, and protection from the org above. This is the version of the job I’ve been learning the hard way.