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What questions should I ask the engineering team I'm going to manage?

29 points by angebracht ↗ HN
Tomorrow I have an on-site interview with the members of a software development team I might become the manager of.

What kind of questions should I ask each of them to learn as much as I can about the role and indicate that I'm an effective tech leader?

14 comments

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runT1ME
What is the single biggest bottleneck your team has in terms of delivering new features?

If you could spend a month fixing/refactoring/changing any component of the system, what would it be?

What % of time is spent on planning/estimating/ vs. implementing, is this the right ratio for the team?

slipwalker
how do you spend those hours, on office hours, when there's nothing urgent to be done ? It's a tricky question, there aren't many possible "right answers". Either the place is on constant fire, or there's too much free time ( maybe the team is too large, maybe a downsizing is coming ? ) or people does not have their priorities in order... And you can also pinpoint the brown noses, and backstabbers based on their "PC" answers.

Edit: and make sure to check the restrooms. Employees take on the toilets and sinks all their frustration with the company ( break and soil things ).

paulcole
"How can I help you?"
gus_massa
I think that I agree. It would be good to hear a lot and not talk all the time, to understand the current situation.

But some more specific questions are good to start a conversation that can then follow it's own path. I like the questions in the other comment as starter questions.

I also like the Joel Test https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s... , but if they have a low score it could be judgmental and make them angry before your first day. Perhaps you can use it as a template to make a few assorted questions, without keeping an official score and not make all the questions if it's clear that they are scoring too low.

cvaidya1986
What is the vision everyone is working towards and what are the urgent and important challenges facing us right now?
playing_colours
Recently, I try to follow the idea of three elements of motivation at work: autonomy, mastery, and purpose [0].

So my questions would cover those elements:

What is the decision making process at the team, how empowered are engineers to make their own technical decisions?

Are they learning anything new at work? Do they have challenges? Trying new things? Learning budget, learning groups?

Do they see the big picture? How is their everyday’s tasks contribute to the company’s mission? Are they proud of their work?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive:_The_Surprising_Truth_...

roflchoppa
the best managers that I was working with always seeked to understand. Whether is was dealing with clients, or something technical were our hand was forced. There was also a level of trust that she had with us, were she gave us autonomy to build as we needed.

10/10 manager, would love to work with her again.

mvpu
1. What did you learn in the last 6 months that was super exciting? 2. What's on your todo list for the next 3 months? 3. Who are the engineer(s) you learn from most / admire the most? 4. What can QA / DevOps do to make you more productive? 5. What can your manager do to make you more productive / happy?
blihp
The most important thing is to understand is if the role is actually a 'lead' or 'manager'. Since it sounds like you're going onsite (at least partially) for the team to interview you, it doesn't sound like a manager role. (just based on my experience: lead roles you'll often be interviewed by the team, management roles not so much)
bra-ket
What happened to the previous manager
binarynate
1. Ask them if they saw this HN post.
Endy
I'd ask what each team member is passionate about. Then ask them what they feel they need a manager to do in order to help them do more of that.
luckydude
When I was at Sun John Entemann was an engineer who got promoted to manager. We all laughed like crazy. John? Really?

And then he walked into each of our offices and said "what do you need? I'll get it"

And he was suddenly our hero, our favorite manager.

So do that. Help them.

telebone_man
Just some food for thought based on some recent experiences.

Sometimes, you'll be taking a job that someone in the team thinks they should have been offered - but didn't for whatever reason (perhaps current management weren't aware... or they simply aren't appropriate skilled...)

These people can also be well respected by others in the team. And winning their respect is therefore particularly important, as they may be the ones to validate you on behalf of others.

You can normally spot them, as they will lean back, fold their arms and keep to themselves (out of frustration). Or act the opposite and be completely outspoken over the top of others.

I would consider that these people do exist, and need to be wooed in a slightly different way. Instead of asking 'what do you want?' perhaps it'd be better to ask 'where do you think the problems are?'.