This post is part of my weekly engineering manager competency review series. At the end of each week, I publish a review of the notes I thought over the past week. My goal is to create a log where I can capture these insights for future me to review.

The competencies below are from Square's Software Engineering Career Ladder.

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Prioritization & Execution

The goal is to drive execution by organizing team work, setting goals, and holding the team accountable.

Accomplishment

• Facilitated a kickoff meeting for one of our engineering goals

Three weeks ago, I facilitated a kickoff meeting for improving our squad onboarding material. The agenda consisted of aligning the team on the vision, proposing a 4 week timeline, and discussing how we'll keep the accountable. Overall, I think the meeting went well, but as always there is still room for improvement. I wish I scheduled a longer meeting so that there is more opportunity for everyone to ask questions.

Challenge

• Figuring out next steps for goals that are at risk

Two weeks after the kickoff meeting, I checked in with the team to ask about their progress. Some teams are on-track but some are bit off-track. The challenge now is to understand what happened, what are the blockers, and what are the next steps we can take.

Action Item

• Host a retrospective meeting with the team