The First 90 Days as an Engineering Manager: Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Congratulations!! If you are reading this, then you have been promoted (or are expecting) to be an engineering manager. It’s an exciting, rewarding and challenging transition. This transition from IC to EM is not just a role change - it is a mindset change as well. As an EM, your success isn’t measured by the complexity, quality or scalability of the code you write. But, it will be measured based on how well your team performs, grows and delivers.

Many new EMs struggle in the first 90 days because they unknowingly fall into traps that hinder their growth. One wrong step can strain team relationships, damage trust and make leadership doubt their decision.

Common Pitfall First Time Engineering Managers Face

In this article, we will discuss these common pitfalls and learn how to avoid them, so that you can start your new role on the right foot.

1. Staying Stuck in the IC Mindset

Your job as an IC technical lead was to do code reviews, get into the depth of technical problems and solve technical queries of juniors in the team. But when you move into the EM role, you continue these things with higher authority and end up becoming the sole decision-maker.

If you zoom in on this situation a little, you will realize that you have become a bottleneck. Your team awaits your input instead of taking ownership. You also burn yourself out by doing both IC and EM work.

Fix: Learn to take a step back and let your team take charge of technical decisions. Your role is to enable them and not execute them. Focus on the bigger picture - strategy, alignment and team’s growth.

2. Trying to prove yourself by doing too much

As a recently promoted EM, you feel the need to justify your promotion. So, you stay late fixing prod issues, jump into tech discussions and take technical decisions to show that you are a “Hands-on EM”.

In your quest to prove yourself, you have turned yourself into someone who is competing with his team. Instead of leading them, you have created a situation where your team is comfortable deferring tasks to you and is not taking ownership. Worse, your seniors will wonder why you are focusing on code instead of people.

Fix: Instead of proving your technical excellence, prove you can enable others. Focus on removing blockers for your team so they can make the right decisions. Let them own the technical decisions and learn from their mistakes, but guide them whenever possible.

3. Micromanaging Instead of Delegating

You know exactly how you would implement a feature, so you start dictating the solution to your team. Now, since you have dictated them all they have to do is implement. So, you now check too often if the work is done, making small corrections and reviewing PRs very closely because you want to check if they did everything like you said.

In situations like this, your team feels suffocated. They stop making decisions, and everything slows down. Micromanagement destroys trust and autonomy.

Fix: Whenever a new feature comes, instead of thinking “How can I do this?” to “How can I support my team in doing this?” Give them clear directions but let your team figure out the execution. TRUST them. Your job as an EM is to trust your team and give them guidance in the form of questions and not answers. “Do we have retry logic in place for transient failures? If yes, how is it configured?“

4. Focusing only on Engineering, Ignoring the Business Side

I have seen EMs constantly push for better technical solutions and completely ignore the business needs. They push for service rewrites & fixing technical debts in the name of “engineering excellence” while delaying business critical deliverables.

If you are someone who has done this, then please back off immediately. Leadership will see you as someone who is out of sync with business goals. What you are trying is not wrong i.e. push your team for technical excellence, but without business alignment, your priorities won’t hold weight.

Fix: As an EM you should understand your company’s goals for the quarter, current year and long term. Make sure your team is aligned with them and contributes towards achieving them. Work closely with Product and Leadership to balance excellence with business impact.

5. Avoiding Tough Conversations

As a newly appointed EM, I understand you have a lot on your plate and you feel things should keep on going as it is and the harmony of the team is not disturbed. You intentionally choose not to give constructive feedback and are hesitant to take action against underperforming team members.

This is the worst thing you can do for your team. Soon they will see the gaps and start feeling frustrated. They will wonder why they should compensate for someone else’s lack of performance.

Fix: Feedback is a gift. Deliver it early and back it up with Data. The earlier you address problems, the easier they are to fix. I am working on a 1:1 guide, stay tuned.

90 Days Plan of Success

Based on my experience, I think any EM’s first 90 days are very critical. Without proper guidance, they will end up focusing on the wrong things like pure execution or trying way too hard to win the respect of the team. I have listed down some main pointers that should act like guiding principles for any new EM.

Day 1-30: Learn and Observe

1. Schedule 1:1s with each of your team members. As a part of these 1:1s ask them about challenges, workflows and motivations.
2. Understand the team’s current projects, roadmaps, and tech stack.
3. Identify key stakeholders and how engineering fits into the bigger picture.
4. Schedule 1:1 with the product owner and understand their challenges, concerns and plans for the team. Also, try to see how their plan aligns with the bigger picture or if are there any gaps.
5. Meet with other EMs and HR to understand company-wide expectations.

Day 31-60: Build Trust and Make an Impact

1. Based on observations made in the first 30 days, identify issues and start making small but meaningful improvements. You can focus on cleaning blockers and improve team rituals.
2. Similar to point one - Identify gaps in engineering culture and work towards building that. You can take this as an opportunity to shape team culture and ways of working.
3. Balance quick wins with long-term goals. Quick wins are the best way to hype up the team and gel with them.
4. Strengthen cross-team collaboration by regularly engaging with other EMs.

Days 61-90: Drive Results & Lead with Impact

1. Plan and align the team’s roadmap with business objectives.
2. Establish a culture of feedback and growth. Make yourself comfortable with these difficult conversations and the team will follow.
3. Think beyond execution - start planning for the team’s long-term success.
4. By now you should have a good idea of the team’s roadmap and competencies of the current team. You should now focus on working with HR on team development, hiring strategies, and career growth plans.

Final Thoughts

Your first 90 days as an EM set the stage for your success. Avoid common traps, embrace the mindset shift, and focus on people along with processes. You need to understand one critical thing: you’re no longer just an engineer — you’re a leader.