In one of my previous posts, I talked about performance quantification for IC engineers, and recently I’ve been thinking about whether we can map the same framework (or way of thinking?) to quantify engineering managers’ performance. Quantifying performance is always hard, and it is especially hard for engineering managers.

Not every project will succeed. I know that. But when one drags for months, drains motivation, and ends in a dead stop - it still stings.

I’ve been consistently writing and journaling for the past 5–6 years. Nothing complicated - just pen and paper, coffee, and it worked pretty well. But over the last 5–6 months, I’ve noticed both the frequency and desire to write starting to decline. At first, it was a gradual slowdown. Now, it feels like a rapid fall.

Managing a team of individual contributors (ICs) is already a demanding role, but once your team grows beyond 12 direct reports, everything changes. The complexity increases, the range of challenges expands, and the strategies that worked for a smaller team may no longer be effective.

Many people start thinking about promotions only when the cycle is approaching—polishing their self-review, gathering achievements, and putting together a compelling case. But by that point, it’s often too late.