Software Manager Startup
Software Manager Startup
Allow remote management of kernel extensions and automatic software updates: Authorizes remote management of legacy kernel extensions and software updates using a mobile device management (MDM) solution.
During the eight years I spent as an engineering manager, I regularly tracked how I spent my time. As a startup engineering manager, I was responsible for a wide range of duties, so keeping track of which areas I spent the most time on helped me plan and schedule appropriately.
Since many prospective software engineering managers ask me about my job and what it entailed, I decided to create this detailed look at how I spent my time. While every company and role is different, I hope this post gives you some firsthand insight into a day in the life of an engineering manager.
After I left Packback to join The Graide Network, I started over as an engineering manager. Initially, my team was just a contractor and me, but over my four years at Graide, I hired three other engineers and took on more of the product management duties.
While my day-to-day work changed a lot over the years, as a software engineering manager, I was ultimately responsible for helping my team ship software that worked as expected, on schedule and within budget.
It was relatively easy for me to tell how productive I had been as a software engineer. I usually made progress on shipping a feature or opened up a pull request, but as a manager, I had a really hard time telling whether my day was productive or not.
This includes direct people management, creating timelines, strategic planning, and meetings with technical and nontechnical team members. Making sure my team was happy, advocating for them in business meetings, and helping our product team create technical specs were all part of my engineering manager duties at Packback.
At The Graide Network, I took a more strategic role by consulting with the founders on software choices and jumping in on important sales calls. Interestingly, while the tasks I took on were different, the time breakdown was pretty similar.
While I spent more of my time on recruiting when I had an open engineering job, smart engineering managers are always hiring. The best candidates are usually the passive ones who rarely look for a job, so I spent a portion of my time getting in front of them each week.
The product manager, or PM, position has responsibilities in many areas. A professional product manager is, first of all, a great manager and strategist. Besides that, they are versed in programming, testing, design, business analysis, and other areas that touch upon software development.
Startups usually have a limited number of talents in-house, so a PM in a startup is someone who wears even more hats. An experienced PM who has worked with different projects is of great value for a startup business. In addition, such a specialist can take full responsibility for managing the product and the team, creating a practical development and promotion strategy.
Tech startups usually focus on solving previously unsolved problems. Such an approach entails a high level of risk for the founding team. Without product expertise, startup founders cannot be sure whether the target audience will be interested in the product.
The PM makes the startup more predictable and creates a detailed scenario for product development and growth. A PM is necessary to find the perfect market fit through well-defined tools, methods, and frameworks. Product managers use advanced strategies and tactics that lead startups to business success.
To dig deeper into your competitors, sometimes it makes sense to decompose their products into subcategories. As a result, the product manager gets a list of different product features (modules, epics, use cases). Finally, they clearly understand how the competing product is designed.
A problem is a thing that makes the existence of each startup purposeful. For example, some people or companies face