Starting a new technical management job

General tips:

1. Be humble in your approach¹
2. Listen more than speaking¹
3. Don’t try to contribute value to early¹
4. Don’t belittle past efforts¹
5. Have opinions not dogmas¹
6. Focus on evolution, not a revolution (don’t flip over the table)¹
7. Don’t chase ghosts, I.e. don’t bring the problems of your previous company and assume the same issues are relevant to the new company².
8. One of the the things that the best new executives will do is get the lay of the land, talk to a ton of people, put together an org plan, and put together a time-based roadmap for their function³.

Erik Bernhardsson wrote a narrative for on-boarding as technical leader in data⁴. Much of the narrative is data specific, but the approach is generalizable as a technical leader: identify problem areas, find ways to deliver business value, re-trench on people / org issues, meet with stake holders.

1. Rubinstein, N. How to start a new tech exec job. Medium (2021).

2. Larson, W., Scanlan, B. & Reddy, D. Calm’s Will Larson on how to build a technical leadership career.

3. Gil, E. When Executives Break.

4. Bernhardsson, E. Building a data team at a mid-stage startup: A short story. Erik Bernhardsson.