Ghost Note Agency’s Post

Engineering Management is a technical discipline, not just a set of "people skills". To command the respect of your team, they must see you as technically credible. Engineering Managers that don't stay in the code risk making themselves technically obsolete. Your ability to communicate with other departments, such as Product, Design, and Marketing is easier when you're confident in your ability to evaluate how easy or difficult a feature is to implement. It's certainly possible to be a good non-technical manager, but you face a very steep uphill climb. #softwareengineering #engineeringmanagement

My short summary on the value of Engineering Consultant.

Are you managing an engineering team or product development effort right now? Companies big and small are facing challenges and outsourced engineering models offer solutions for getting products to market more efficiently, managing product costs, and improving product quality. Learn more about how our US-based engineers can help you meet your project needs in our video and blog! 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗮 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀: https://lnkd.in/giTftUY8 #Engineering #ProductDevelopment #ProductDesign #OutsourcedEngineering

Trying to figure out whether to bring expertise in house or to partner with a firm like the TriMech PEG group? Here are a few things to consider when making the decision. #design, #engineering, #outsource

Engineering Reviews The easy way to perform an engineering review is to go in with a list of best practices, and tick off the ones which are not being followed. However, the teams that follow all the best practices are very special. And exist in very special environments. A few days of interviews, observations and a report isn't going to change anything (unless you really want a list of reasons to sack an engineering leader... but that isn't what I'm there for) The second easiest way is to have one practice which you believe solves everything. And go in, and explain why the team is doing that badly, and how doing it right will solve all their problems. The big advantage here is that you can reuse your old reports. The disadvantage is unless you really have discovered a magic bullet, you're not helping anyone. What I do is assume the team, and their leadership are competent. I assume there is something getting in the way of delivering the results the person paying for the review wants. And I help the leadership learn to become the sort of leaders who can solve that problem - or to hire the right people to solve the problem. Because you want a leadership team and an engineering team who don't need to pay for someone like me to spot and solve their next problem. And you want people to work together, improving the quality of life for each other, rather than having to keep justifying themselves to outsiders.

Yesterday someone said to me that the true Engineering Managers job description is: To enable really smart people to make them look good. I think in truth there is a bit more to it than that phrase. I like that they have included the word 'enable' and that they are highlighting really smart people. If I had to try and rewrite this in the same vain perhaps: To empower and enable really smart people to achieve business outcomes and deliver business value. How you empower and enable those is the art of Engineering Management.

Are you in Systems Engineering, new to the field (1-2 years), and looking to get that extra jump start to your career? Read below for a tip many overlook - plus an extra pro-tip! Want to get picked for the "cool" projects? Line up a lead systems engineering role a few years down the line, or even move into engineering leadership (management)? Then something you can do as a new Systems Engineer is to focus on helping be the solution to the issues facing management. These are often related to scope, cost and schedule - but not always. In the past, I spent extra time on presentations we were giving to customers. While not my "day job", management really wanted these interactions to go well. Recently I was working in a systems team - and we had some difficulty developing some requirements. GREAT! I'm super at writing requirements from needs statements, CONOPS, and early rough drafts. HOWEVER that was not the problem management wanted me to solve. They wanted to solve the problem of the line engineers being too busy to meet consistently enough to develop the requirements themselves. This for me, was not an authorship task - but a herding-cats task. I then when on and facilitated about a year's worth of meetings, with 1-2 per week, walking through requirements, sequence diagrams, even a few use cases. At the end, the right artifacts were developed - specifications, diagrams, process flows - BY THE RIGHT PEOPLE management wanted to work this task. In short, leadership was very happy with my work - and it even led to a promotion! More importantly I became known as being able to solve a teaming and people problem not just a requirement problem. This in turn helped me get my current engineering spot on a highly-visible program with a tight deadline and a lot of technical content. If this is what you want also - getting the inside track for the key assignments in systems engineering by increasing the types of problems you can solve - then at least occasionally step into management's shoes and try to solve some of their problems. Extra pro-tip: do this, WITHOUT BEING ASKED FIRST! COMMENT BELOW, what you think. Has this worked for you? Is this something you are willing to try? #systemsengineering #management #engineeringleadership #softskills LinkedIN is where I post my new content: https://lnkd.in/gtc9RzQx

Not all stereotypes are accurate. But based on preconceptions of what engineers are and do… People assume we’re boring. For most of my career leading business development in engineering: - I was put into the “boring technical guy” bucket - I repeatedly take technical info & find consumable info - I think about specs & what matters most to each buyer Today, I bring the same SME-level leadership to in-house engineering marketing teams. My take? It’s rare for an engineer to be able to translate complex R&D topics. Especially in a way broad audiences can understand. But engineers also carry a lot of credibility based on the complexity of our discipline. The preconception led me to: - Gain the trust of client SME to talk peer-to-peer - Surprise commercial teams by telling their own story - Finding new ways to connect products, tech, and people with marketing Boring? (up for debate) But you’d have to add another word to the same sentence. Results. I’m a self-admitted engineer. And I’d be happy to describe the importance of what you’ve created in a way you’d never expect. Stereotypes make me smile. Sincerely, A technical, boring engineer (who gets results)

Product engineering services are increasingly being asked for in product development. But what exactly are product engineering services? And why do you need them? Product engineers provide product de... Read the full post: - https://lnkd.in/dedaHkek Written By George Petropoulos at Inorigin. #productengineeringservices - #ProductEngineering