Your first days as a Manager

To succeed as a manager, you need clarity on where you're heading and a team that trusts you to take them there.

Your first days are critical for absorbing context and establishing trust. They're also a key opportunity to leverage first impressions and make the most of the free time you'll have before your regular responsibilities take over.

Therefore, your two main goals for the initial weeks should be to get context and build rapport.

What you need to know

Your Company and the Industry

Start by understanding how your company operates within its industry and how it compares to competitors. The key is identifying how the business actually makes money — outsiders often guess this wrong.

For example, while mobile games might seem to profit from ads or microtransactions, the reality is often that a tiny fraction of players (known as "whales") drive most of the revenue. Without attracting and retaining these high spenders, even popular games can fail. When you join the company, you might think the objective is "making games that attract players" but it might actually be "making games that attract whales."

This reflects how many large mobile game companies need to operate. While indie studios can survive on modest earnings, larger companies with high payrolls and overhead costs often cannot.

Understanding how the company makes money also reveals what people value when discussing projects and how they measure success.

Your team's operating style will also depend on whether your company is an industry leader or a challenger. Leaders tend to avoid risks to their reputation and often have more processes to prevent serious incidents or outages. Challengers, on the other hand, typically prioritize speed and delivery over polish. Knowing where your company stands helps shape your team's approach to shipping features.

Your Company and Your Team

As an Engineering Manager, part of your job is figuring out why your team exists and what role it plays within the company. Usually, teams exist for one of two main reasons: either to solve a critical problem or to pursue a strategic bet for the company.

Knowing your team's primary purpose helps you understand whether it's generally viewed as a cost center (focused on solving critical problems, like maintaining infrastructure) or a profit center (focused on strategic bets, like launching a new product). Cost centers often face tighter budgets because companies aim to minimize these operational expenses. Profit centers, on the other hand, are typically seen as drivers of company growth.

If you lead a team that's primarily seen as a cost center, try to find ways its work can either generate revenue or directly boost growth. Doing this can help change the perception of your team, positioning it closer to a profit center.

Learning from documentation

Documents are often outdated, but they contain invaluable knowledge. They are key to understanding past decisions and lessons learned. They show what's been tried already and the current alignment on future plans.

• Product Docs: Even with a dedicated Product Manager, you need to care about your product – you’re the bridge between the vision and the execution. Review documents outlining future goals, current strategies, and past objectives (like OKRs). These will set baseline expectations for your team's performance in the upcoming quarters.

• Technical Docs: Look at the team’s recent tickets (e.g., from the last three months) to see how deliverables were handled, the delivery process, and who contributed. Finally, check the codebase — but avoid the common new-manager trap of jumping straight into coding.

Onboarding Tip: Create an onboarding while you are onboarding. Document what you learn by creating short notes or even a brief presentation, as if the next new team member were starting right after you. This isn't just useful for remembering details later, the act of writing also helps solidify the information in your memory. Plus, it's immensely helpful when you eventually start hiring people for your team.

Learning while building rapport

Conversations will often provide more current and candid insights than documentation alone. While there’s no single “wrong” person to talk to initially, prioritize those you’ll interact with most frequently: your squadmates (engineers, designers, PMs), your manager, and perhaps other Engineering Managers in your group.

Meeting with your Manager

Schedule a meeting with your manager on your first day—don't wait for them to reach out to you. Just send them a message as soon as you're set up and ready. Discuss their expectations for your role and ask for the documentation mentioned above. Be open about your strengths and areas where you might need support since their guidance will be crucial to your success.

Follow up by setting up recurring 1:1 meetings. You might start frequently (perhaps every other day for the first week) and then transition to a weekly cadence as you settle in. Prioritize asynchronous updates when possible, as you'll likely interact more frequently with your squad day-to-day than with your manager.

In these initial meetings with your manager, share what you're learning and confirm any hypotheses you're forming. Your goal is to align with them so you can gradually take ownership of your responsibilities.

1:1s with teammates

Schedule 1:1s with everyone on your immediate team (engineers, designers, PMs, etc.) and any key collaborators you'll work with regularly. Focus on understanding their roles, what motivates them, and any challenges they face.

When scheduling these meetings, respect "maker time": Developers often dislike context switching caused by midday interruptions, whereas managers are more accustomed to frequent meetings. Aim to cluster your 1:1s near existing team meetings or at the start/end of the day to minimize disruption.

Frame questions around their experience. Find out what motivates them, what they enjoy about their role, or how they prefer to communicate. Ask open-ended questions like "What excites you most about the project right now?", "What challenges are you currently facing?", or the classic "If you had a magic wand, what's one thing you'd change?" (This often surfaces common pain points).

Avoid rigidly sticking to a script. Listen actively, let the discussion flow naturally, and don’t shy away from small talk—it’s essential for building rapport.

Approach these like normal conversations. Ask open-ended questions (e.g., “What’s top of mind for you this week?”) and practice active listening. For 1:1s with Individual Contributors (ICs), let them set the agenda and guide the conversation.

After the first meeting, propose a follow-up cadence (e.g., weekly, bi-weekly) based on how closely you'll work together. You might start weekly with your direct reports and manager, and perhaps bi-weekly for other key collaborators. Adjust the frequency later based on how valuable the ongoing conversations feel for both of you.

Group Meetings

Don't hesitate to ask “silly” questions in group settings. Your fresh perspective often reveals issues others have overlooked or gotten used to.

Observe discussions actively. Share insights from your past experiences when relevant, but hold off on making decisions until you feel confident and have enough context.

Keep things running as they are for the first few days. Avoid the urge to immediately change course before you feel confident. Some new managers make the mistake of trying to reshape their new team or company in the image of their previous workplace without first understanding the how the current company operates.

Take the time to learn and adopt the positive aspects of the new culture. Some companies have a reserved, straight-to-business approach with minimal small talk. Others might operate more like a passionate, outspoken pirate crew. Embrace the culture you're joining.

Getting out of the onboarding phase

Onboarding doesn't have a strict end date, but you can consider it complete when your manager has transferred all the responsibilities they were covering for your role. This will happen gradually. Be proactive about signaling when you feel ready to take on more, progressively removing the "training wheels".

Once you’re fully running your squad, remember you’re not alone and continue to rely on your team and make decisions together.

The skills and knowledge you gain during these first weeks and months will be invaluable in shaping your team’s future. That doesn't mean you will stop learning, but that you are feeling comfortable in making decisions that will result in your team's success.