I like half of my job

Here are some engineering-manager-y activities I don’t like doing:

• Technical architecture
• Roadmap planning
• Code review
• Backlog refinement

And here’s the good stuff for me:

• Jelling teams
• Helping people grow
• Team retros
• Resolving conflicts
• Tweaking process
• Improving velocity

The theme here is that I like making people happy and productive, and I’d be fine not knowing what we’re actually building. But “what we’re actually building” is half of the job of an engineering manager. So I’ve been doing the minimum with that half for the past few months, and the guilt is real. I miss feeling useful.

Does my ideal role exist? Am I realizing that I want to be an agile coach instead of an engineering manager? Email me if you’ve come out the other side of this.