web01.fireside.fm Fri, 08 May 2026 17:45:27 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) ctrl-alt-expletive - Episodes Tagged with “Engineering Management” https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/tags/engineering%20management Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Join us for a laid back catch up on what's going on in the world of software, enterprise business, news for software and tech, and miscellaneous bureaucracy. en episodic Weekly catch up with Michael, Mark, and mates, about software, business, news, and brews Mark McCracken & Michael McCarthy Join us for a laid back catch up on what's going on in the world of software, enterprise business, news for software and tech, and miscellaneous bureaucracy. yes technology,news,software,cloud,data,infrastructure,careers Mark McCracken & Michael McCarthy mark.mccracken@ctrl-alt-expletive.com Episode 12: Engineering Management, with Director of Engineering Sam Jones https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/12 00050de2-1d3e-4a87-bc9c-1e06f02b2e78 Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000 Mark McCracken & Michael McCarthy 12 Engineering Management, with Director of Engineering Sam Jones full Mark McCracken & Michael McCarthy We've got Director of Engineering Sam Jones talking all things Engineering Management. How to get into it, how she stays organised, great books to learn from, and how she approaches the challenges of the job. 1:18:21 yes <p>We've got Director of Engineering Sam Jones talking all things Engineering Management. How to get into it, how she stays organised, great books to learn from, and how she approaches the challenges of the job.</p> <ul> <li>Michael prepares for putting together an event on developer experience</li> <li>Sam helps merge 2 companies together</li> <li>RIP duolingo bird</li> </ul> <p><strong>Who is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammiej/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Sam Jones</a>?</strong></p> <p>loosely...</p> <p>Frontend Dev<br> -&gt; Team Lead @ gamesys<br> ---&gt; Eng. Manager @ Monzo<br> -----&gt; Director of Eng. @ Benifex</p> <p><strong>Quickfire Questions</strong></p> <ul> <li>One to ones, all in one day or evenly spread throughout the week?</li> <li>Best new joiner swag you’ve ever had?</li> <li>Scrum or Kanban?</li> <li>Longest probation period you’ve ever heard of?</li> <li>Ever failed someone’s probation? Ever failed probation yourself? </li> <li>Interviewing off camera – yay or nay? </li> <li>Best team building activity?</li> <li>Slack or Teams?</li> </ul> <p><strong>Breaking Prod</strong></p> <p>The near miss that could've topped our leaderboard, working on trading systems</p> <h2>Big Topic</h2> <ul> <li>How do you get into it? What does training look like, for an engineering manager? </li> <li>Skip levels – do you do these? How often?</li> <li>Best way you’ve improved your abilities as an engineering manager?</li> <li>The danger zone! What it is and how to work through it?</li> <li>Is AI coming for your job?</li> <li>How do you see signs of burnout in people you’re managing?</li> <li>What are your KPIs as an engineering manager?</li> <li>Stack ranking employees – necessary evil? </li> <li>How do you make the jump from managing engineers, to managing managers?</li> </ul> <p>## News</p> <ol> <li> <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy081nqx2zjo" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Alphabet drops a longstanding ban on AI being used for developing weapons</a> (BBC)</li> <li> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/the-elon-musk-act-aims-to-ban-special-government-employees-from-having-federal-contracts/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">ELON MUSK act</a> (TechCrunch). The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for “Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy” </li> <li> <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/ashai_linux_head_quits" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Asahi Linux Hector Martin project leads resigns – maintainer burnout</a> (The Register)</li> <li> <a href="https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/elegnt-expressive-functional-movement" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Apple Lamp - Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot research paper</a> (Apple)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv_S7KrOlfk" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Hauwei release tri-folding phone</a> (Youtube - Marques Brownlee)</li> </ol> <h2>Recommendations</h2> <h3>Engineering Management Books</h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://resilient-management.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Resilient Management, Lara Hogan</a></li> <li><a href="https://management30.com/books/management30/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Management 3.0</a></li> <li> <a href="https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-managers-path/9781491973882/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Manager's Path, Camille Fournier</a> (O'Reilly)</li> <li> <a href="https://press.stripe.com/an-elegant-puzzle" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management, Will Larson</a> (Stripe Press)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50363684-become-an-effective-software-engineering-manager" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager</a> (Good Reads)</li> <li><a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4302-4315-1?gtmf=s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Managing Humans: Biting and Humourous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager, Michael Lopp</a></li> <li> <a href="https://press.stripe.com/scaling-people" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Scaling People, Claire Hughes Johnson</a> (Stripe Press)</li> </ul> <h3>Non Engineering Management Books</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-staff-engineers/9781098118723/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Staff Engineer's Path</a> (O'Reilly)</li> <li> <a href="https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/platform-engineering/9781098153632/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Platform Engineering, Camille Fournier</a> (O'Reilly)</li> </ul> <h3>Music</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="https://music.apple.com/gb/album/i-love-you-honeybear/931563362" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">I Love You, Honeybear - Father John Misty</a> (Apple Music). <a href="https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2025/father-john-misty" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Royal Albert Hall Event</a> </li> </ul> <h3>Movies</h3> <p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32063050/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy</a> (IMDb)<br> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2049403/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_5_nm_2_in_0_q_beetlejuice" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Beetlejuice Beetlejuice</a> (IMDb)</p> <h3>Miscellaneous</h3> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUa6c7DNmQY" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Canada vs. USA ice hockey match, 3 fights in first 9 seconds of play</a> (YouTube)</p> <h2>Next Time</h2> <p>Rax talks about Scaled Agile frameworks</p> <p>Listen to the end to hear this episodes bloopers!</p> <hr> <p>If you've enjoyed the show, please recommend us to someone else who would like it, leave us a rating/review, or give us some feedback.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ctrl-alt-expletive.com/feedback" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Give us your feedback about the podcast</a></p> <hr> <p>Special Guest: Sam Jones.</p> Engineering Management We've got Director of Engineering Sam Jones talking all things Engineering Management. How to get into it, how she stays organised, great books to learn from, and how she approaches the challenges of the job.

  • Michael prepares for putting together an event on developer experience
  • Sam helps merge 2 companies together
  • RIP duolingo bird

Who is Sam Jones?

loosely...

Frontend Dev
-> Team Lead @ gamesys
---> Eng. Manager @ Monzo
-----> Director of Eng. @ Benifex

Quickfire Questions

  • One to ones, all in one day or evenly spread throughout the week?
  • Best new joiner swag you’ve ever had?
  • Scrum or Kanban?
  • Longest probation period you’ve ever heard of?
  • Ever failed someone’s probation? Ever failed probation yourself?
  • Interviewing off camera – yay or nay?
  • Best team building activity?
  • Slack or Teams?

Breaking Prod

The near miss that could've topped our leaderboard, working on trading systems

Big Topic

  • How do you get into it? What does training look like, for an engineering manager?
  • Skip levels – do you do these? How often?
  • Best way you’ve improved your abilities as an engineering manager?
  • The danger zone! What it is and how to work through it?
  • Is AI coming for your job?
  • How do you see signs of burnout in people you’re managing?
  • What are your KPIs as an engineering manager?
  • Stack ranking employees – necessary evil?
  • How do you make the jump from managing engineers, to managing managers?

## News

  1. Alphabet drops a longstanding ban on AI being used for developing weapons (BBC)
  2. ELON MUSK act (TechCrunch). The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for “Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy”
  3. Asahi Linux Hector Martin project leads resigns – maintainer burnout (The Register)
  4. Apple Lamp - Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot research paper (Apple)
  5. Hauwei release tri-folding phone (Youtube - Marques Brownlee)

Recommendations

Engineering Management Books

Non Engineering Management Books

Music

Movies

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (IMDb)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (IMDb)

Miscellaneous

Canada vs. USA ice hockey match, 3 fights in first 9 seconds of play (YouTube)

Next Time

Rax talks about Scaled Agile frameworks

Listen to the end to hear this episodes bloopers!

If you've enjoyed the show, please recommend us to someone else who would like it, leave us a rating/review, or give us some feedback.

Give us your feedback about the podcast

Special Guest: Sam Jones.

]]> We've got Director of Engineering Sam Jones talking all things Engineering Management. How to get into it, how she stays organised, great books to learn from, and how she approaches the challenges of the job.

  • Michael prepares for putting together an event on developer experience
  • Sam helps merge 2 companies together
  • RIP duolingo bird

Who is Sam Jones?

loosely...

Frontend Dev
-> Team Lead @ gamesys
---> Eng. Manager @ Monzo
-----> Director of Eng. @ Benifex

Quickfire Questions

  • One to ones, all in one day or evenly spread throughout the week?
  • Best new joiner swag you’ve ever had?
  • Scrum or Kanban?
  • Longest probation period you’ve ever heard of?
  • Ever failed someone’s probation? Ever failed probation yourself?
  • Interviewing off camera – yay or nay?
  • Best team building activity?
  • Slack or Teams?

Breaking Prod

The near miss that could've topped our leaderboard, working on trading systems

Big Topic

  • How do you get into it? What does training look like, for an engineering manager?
  • Skip levels – do you do these? How often?
  • Best way you’ve improved your abilities as an engineering manager?
  • The danger zone! What it is and how to work through it?
  • Is AI coming for your job?
  • How do you see signs of burnout in people you’re managing?
  • What are your KPIs as an engineering manager?
  • Stack ranking employees – necessary evil?
  • How do you make the jump from managing engineers, to managing managers?

## News

  1. Alphabet drops a longstanding ban on AI being used for developing weapons (BBC)
  2. ELON MUSK act (TechCrunch). The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for “Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy”
  3. Asahi Linux Hector Martin project leads resigns – maintainer burnout (The Register)
  4. Apple Lamp - Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot research paper (Apple)
  5. Hauwei release tri-folding phone (Youtube - Marques Brownlee)

Recommendations

Engineering Management Books

Non Engineering Management Books

Music

Movies

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (IMDb)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (IMDb)

Miscellaneous

Canada vs. USA ice hockey match, 3 fights in first 9 seconds of play (YouTube)

Next Time

Rax talks about Scaled Agile frameworks

Listen to the end to hear this episodes bloopers!

If you've enjoyed the show, please recommend us to someone else who would like it, leave us a rating/review, or give us some feedback.

Give us your feedback about the podcast

Special Guest: Sam Jones.

]]>