So, You Want To Manage Devs?
Hey Me-Of-Five-Years-Ago,
We quite enjoyed being the DevOps engineer, from what I can remember. Everything was fresh, and new tech was crawling out of the walls. In between being rapt by what Ansible could do and leering at Docker with skepticism, we thought about running teams. How hard could it be? we mused. Well JC-2014, let me give you the skinny:
You’re going to be anxious a lot.
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How do I prepare for this? you ask.
There’s a ton of books on different methodologies, so you might want to get a head start. Read a lot. Check out them Eric Ries books that everybody keeps talking about. Jeff Sutherland. Edward De Bono. Memorizing the details won’t matter as much as getting a ‘taste’ for how different models work.
More importantly though, talk to people.
What you’re going to find is that a lot of the more transformative moments in your career are going to be driven by picking the brains of people you look up to. You’re also going to find out that people are happy to share — heck, just ask someone out for a coffee. Ask some heady questions: What are you challenged with right now? Why do you care about what you do?
At some point, you’re going to be wondering why there’s no One Right Way of doing stuff. Resist any line of thought that starts with “It’s easy — everything will be better if we all just _____”. That shit’s hubris.
No one has the answer. No one knows how to fix everything, and it’s okay.
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The first few days of leadership are going to be rough. You’re going to suddenly realize that hey, there’s been a whole host of decisions that people now trust you to make. There’s a whole class of problems that had been outsourced away that you now have to deal with — small ones like defusing clumsy Slack comments, to big ones like Why is our delivery so slow? You’re going to have to make up the answers now.
Don’t stress: instead, be grateful for all the excellent people who have done this for you in the past.
You will live and die by the trust that you earn. This means standing up for the people that you serve. Sometimes this will be hard, but those are the times that count.
Over time, you’ll get a feel for how things work. At the best of times, you’ll get it right and the team will hum; when everything is going well and you’re smacking stories right out of the gate. There will be times when everyone will go home feeling good about how much they’ve accomplished. Cherish these.
But things won’t always be pretty, and this is where you’ll need to step up.
The uncertainties of organizations will hit you in a different way. Sometimes, you’ll be pinned to commitments you’ve never had input for. Sometimes, budgets move in a way that don’t make sense. Sometimes, this will affect you and your team in a way that you’ll find distasteful, but you’ll nevertheless have to put on a brave face and tell everyone that it’s going to be okay. “I know that it doesn’t look that good, but what this actually means is…”
This will never get easier.
Know that you can fix things, but sometimes change happens in degrees. Sometimes it takes a lot of mental effort. Sometimes it takes hearts and minds. But you don’t have to fix everything right now.
You’re going to find that people are just shit at communicating. Laugh at the fact that in an era where orgs are using Skype and Slack and Teams and emails in parallel, no one can seem to get a clear message across. Get used to the fact that you’re going to have to unpack things and be laconic and make your points very clear. Get used to sucking your breath in, and trying to stay calm. Get used to the fact that you’re gonna do this a lot.
It’s okay. People are almost never malicious, just clumsy.
But hoo boy, sometimes people are malicious and this is where it hurts the most. There is nothing in the manual about dealing with sociopaths, with aggressive narcissists, with misogynists. And to be honest, I don’t really have an answer for you. But try to face everything with kindness: it is a muscle that needs to be exercised to get stronger.
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It’s going to be a lot, so take care of yourself.
A lot of people are going to tell you to go somewhere else, to meditate — but let’s be honest, that’s never really worked for you. Know that it’s possible to find peace in the clang and the clatter of pots and pans, in the din of everyday life. Peace is about finding your place, and you were always a creature of chaos. It just takes practice and time.
But the anxiety never goes away. There are people with their jobs at stake, after all. There’s millions of dollars on the table, and you’re gonna have to make some dicey calls. The voice of doubt at the back of your head that screams, “What if I’m making the wrong call?” never wanes. Use this self-awareness as a weapon.
Sometimes this will get too much, and there’s a ton of cheap ways to release stress. But this is where discipline comes in: try not to lean into your vices. It’s alarming how quickly alcohol can take a hold of you. You need to be whole to serve people well.
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I know this sounds terrible, and to be honest it is sometimes. You’ll understand that a some people are drowning, but every now and then there’s pockets of air.
If you get it right, people upskill and get promoted out. People get to go home, happy with what they’ve accomplished. People get called less at night, and get to enjoy their time with their families without worrying that something might go wrong. Things get delivered, and those things might get successful, and you get to watch a band of nerds in awe at what they’ve done.
People improve, get better. People look forward to coming to work. People learn new things. And if you do really get it right (and I hope you do), people get kinder and pass it on to the next team, the next job they take.
And if those things are matter to you, that might just be worth it. Sometimes you’re gonna have to dig deep inside of you, but if I know you well (and I think I do?), it might just be enough sometimes.
Besides, it’s really not that big of a deal. It’s just software.
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