From Individual Contributor to Manager
Tags: team, lead, tech, management
Published: 2021-09-02 05:51:47

---
title: From Individual Contributor to Manager
published: true
description: My experience about the transition from individual contributor to manager.
tags: #team #lead #tech #management
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lh04lc9840efwwxy978b.jpg
canonical_url: https://www.avelasco.dev/from-individual-contributor-to-manager/
---

## Past

Since 2008 I have been playing my career mostly as a an _individual contributor_, something I do not regret in any way, and that role belongs to a period focused on improving technical skills based on __experimentation, deep study and failures__.

As an _IC_ I have had awesome mentors and team leads, who did all their efforts to build a **safe environment** for failures, which I think it is the key for enhancing and boosting your self confidence when you are designing and developing solutions to given problems. We could speak out and deeply about other factors that allow such environment (CI/CD, automations, etc), but it is out of scope for this post.

I was asked to change my role from _IC_ to **Manager** two years ago for a different project, and all I could say in the following months was that _I had played in better places_. A few keys I struggled with at the beginning:

* **Huge Impostor syndrome**: I knew I could do the job better because I was before a reliable and resourceful professional, but something in my mind was telling me the opposite.

* Very poor definition of **responsibilities and accountability**: If doubts exist about _who_ is in charge of specific errands, then something is wrong.

* **Burned and overwhelmed** team which was eager to go on vacation instead of pulling issues from _TODO column_ because of the biggest toxic stakeholder I have ever known.

On top of that, I had to be in charge of management tasks I had never done...very interesting scenario, isn't it?

## Present

Two years later: _I have never played in a better place_

My world is different right now, I love my colleagues, they are very committed to the project, and as a result we have a high mature and productive environment.

### How did we solve the _hot parts_ ?

* **Impostor thing**: frequent personal retrospective, feedback loops with the team and being open to experimentation.

* **Responsibilities and accountability**: open loud and clear, respectfully, with different stakeholders of the project, and do  feedback loops (again).

* **Toxic stakeholder**: fire them, put away from the project. _Do you want to work with that guy anymore?_ No, then do the first move, I do not know where to, but do it. And ask for help, do not be ashamed, in my case the Product Owner and CEO were the key to remove toxicity from the environment, without their help I could not have done it.

### Management

Since I started this new role, I may claim right now that being IC means that there is **another person** who:
* removes **stones** for you when you can not lift them.
* shows a **tiny light** at the end of a tunnel for a problem no one has a right clue of how to solve it.
* manages **feedback** loops for the team.
* does **interviews** for candidates.
* builds an invisible wall to allow the ICs be productive without **noise** from Product Management.
* is **accountable** for a whole development workflow.
* is able to play as an **IC** for specific issues and push stuck situations.
...

That is a small list of things a Lead role must be in charge of and they can not be avoided, so there is always a need to have someone in charge of those errands. 

The question here is: _do you want to try?_ Give it a chance, do not worry if you think that you are not ready right now, because **you will never be**.

## Future

I am just a lucky guy who learned the pits and falls of a migration process from a non-desirable environment to a high productive and motivating one. 

A **good team** is built with **good professionals**, not necessary ninjas, gurus or unicorns on specific topics, so whenever I interview someone I need to check if he or she fits our **team values** first, instead of tech skills or certifications.

Remember that technical skills are far easier to learn that people management, which can not ever be mastered.


Header image attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/solutionist/48227526067