I never planned to be a manager. Like many engineers, I just wanted to build great software and solve interesting problems. But as the work grew more complex, I found myself spending less time debugging code and more time trying to understand people: how they think, how they communicate, how they make decisions together. The hardest challenges in tech were never just technical; they were human.
Building software at scale changes the kinds of questions you ask. Why is it so hard to do consistently well? How do you get many people moving in the same direction without losing creativity or momentum? How do you make products that not only work but genuinely help someone? Over time, I began to see that good engineering and good leadership rely on the same instincts: curiosity, adaptability when things don’t go as planned, and a genuine care for how technology and people work together.
For me, leadership came gradually. I started as the first woman in a small tech company, grew into senior engineer, then tech lead, and eventually VP of Engineering. Each step forced me to see the work differently: the systems, the people, the trade-offs. I used to think good engineering was mostly about logic and precision. It turns out it’s more nuanced than that.
Over the years, those questions have shaped how I work and how I lead. A few lessons have stayed with me:
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Software quality. Early in my career, I didn’t have a clear grasp of what it truly takes to build high-quality software. I learned that computer science foundations matter more than the tools. But ultimately, good practices don’t mean much unless you build a culture where people are genuinely driven by the goal of delivering quality work.
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Recruiting and growing talent. Writing code is not the hardest part of our job. What’s difficult is finding people who care about growing into better developers. Learning how to identify those people is tough, and during my time recruiting I focused on building a process to do exactly that: treat people with respect, identify talent, and help it grow. More importantly, I learned how to cultivate that passion and energy into becoming exceptional developers. If there’s something I’m most proud of, it’s the amazing people I mentored.
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Acknowledging mistakes. We all make mistakes, but what matters is how we acknowledge them with our teams. As a manager, when was the last time you admitted a mistake? For me, it took years to learn how to do this without seeing it as a personal defeat. Over time, I realized it’s one of the most powerful tools for building trust.
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Exceptional results are driven by motivated people. Exceptional engineers are easy to spot, they make life easier for everyone, they strive for quality, and they don’t wait to be asked. If they see problems, they fix them. But being exceptional isn’t easy; it requires energy, effort, and, above all, caring about the company’s vision.
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Our responsibility as managers is to match that effort. As engineers strive for excellence, we must do more than reward their behavior, we must also create the conditions for organizational health, so they feel empowered to help build a stronger company. Exceptional talent should also be trusted to hold leadership accountable, because in a healthy organization, responsibility isn’t one-sided.
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Trust. We often hear about open-door policies, but they don’t mean much if your direct report has never once told you that you’re wrong or they avoid disagreeing with you. On the flip side, even the best engineers make mistakes sometimes, and it’s perfectly fine to inspect their work and call it out. Trust cannot be blind; otherwise it turns into neglect. But inspection cannot be constant either. The answer to this might be adapting our leadership style to the situation.
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Radical candor and cultural differences. Candor works differently across cultures, and understanding those nuances is crucial to building trust without creating friction.
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But above all, none of these points matter if the business doesn’t succeed. Our job is to deliver: to build reliable products, to collaborate across teams, and to make the company stronger.
Becoming a manager taught me a lot about people, what motivates them, what slows them down, and what helps them do their best work. It also taught me a lot about myself: how I react when things get uncertain, how I make decisions when there isn’t a clear answer, how I recover from mistakes, and how much empathy and clarity matter when leading through uncertainty.
I don’t know what comes next, and maybe that’s a good thing. I just hope to keep learning, building, and leading with the same curiosity and care that made me want to start in the first place.