Summary

Throughout this chapter, we have seen how small oversights in your approach can lead to unexpected outcomes that are hard to undo after the fact. I hope this chapter will help you to avoid difficult and costly failure scenarios in your journey as an engineering manager.

Here is a review of the takeaways from these failure modes:

• Make time to connect with your engineers to help you avoid being blindsided by problems happening beneath the surface of your team. Leverage one-on-one conversations, create a safe environment for feedback, and ask blameless questions regularly.
• Take action to maintain relationships and mutual respect between cross-functional teams. Set a strong example with your own behavior, define success at the product level, and speak up immediately when you hear other teams being disparaged.
• Keep teams focused and happy by being careful about how and when information is shared. Resist the urge to divulge information before it has been finalized...