As you might know, Shopify allowed me to try the people management track and become an engineering manager. I've been doing that for the past two years. Along the process I learned a lot and made so many mistakes and I don't regret having given it a shot. In hindsight, I think the experience will help me be a better engineer.

This post is a list in no particular order of the things that I learned and experienced:

  • People are unpredictable. - Management work is hard to measure. You can't count it and it's hard to reflect on it. - Achieving a balanced team state is an impossible task because of external factors that you don't control: reorganizations, people leaving, priority shifts. - A team larger than 5 people is not a good idea. Your management starts to suffer and your team notices it. - Exiting someone from the company is tough. - Being recognized for your work is unusual, but when it happens and it comes from your reports, it's very rewarding. - Sometimes you don't have answers for all the questions, and that's fine. You need to be comfortable being in that situation. - Seeing people leaving is sad. It's hard to to wonder if you could have done things better. - It's great seeing people progressing in their career and growing the impact of their contributions. - A road map you come up with today won't be valid in a few weeks from today. The world is dynamic, so is the company and its priorities. - Reorganizations are sometimes hard to digest. When they happen people move around, other people leave, and you have new objectives you have to accommodate to. - Context switching is an important skill to have. You mustn't let it make you a zombie at the end of the day. - The role of business partner is crucial to find answers to your questions and provide guidance when necessary. - Getting feedback from other managers when doing impact reviews is very useful.

And at this point you might wonder what led me to go back to individual contributor. I enjoy building. I enjoy opening my laptop, putting my headphones on, and creating things with code. I do that with Tuist and I used to that before taking the manager role. I also like mentoring people through working together in problems. That's how I met Marek, who recently joined the organization.

Shopify is a great place to grow as a manager. You have great tools and excellent managers you can learn from. There's even a framework to ensure management is consistent across the organization. However, and as I mentioned earlier, my path is on the technical track, and I'd like to continue solving problems with code.