review.firstround.com · 2023-12-04 · 912d

Engineering Manager Transition: Why New Managers Fail and How to Fix It

Marcel Weekes, VP of Engineering at Figma, explores why approximately 50% of engineers transitioning to management roles fail and leave the position. He outlines a playbook for identifying suitable manager candidates based on motivations rather than technical excellence, and addresses common pitfalls in the IC-to-manager transition including misaligned selection criteria and managers remaining stuck in individual contributor work.

2 metrics· Cited 0× in the knowledge base ·Open source ↗

Metrics in this report

Engineering Manager Transition Failure Rate

50%

estimated

newly-promoted engineers leaving management roles

Top Engineering Manager Technical Percentile Ranking

not top 1%percentile

self-reported

world-class engineering managers as engineers