How to Measure the Output of an Engineering Manager
- Marko Belusic
- Dec 22, 2024
- 5 min read
The question of how to measure an engineering manager's effectiveness continues to challenge organizations. While individual contributor roles often have clear metrics like code quality, deployment frequency, or bugs fixed, the impact of engineering leadership is more nuanced and complex to evaluate. This complexity often leads to misaligned expectations and vague performance evaluations.
At its core, "An engineering manager's primary purpose is to create an environment where the team can consistently deliver valuable, reliable software that meets business goals". Everything that follows builds upon this foundation.
Note: This framework is specifically designed for engineering managers in companies focused on building and maintaining software products. While some principles may apply broadly, the focus here is on software engineering leadership.
Four Key Pillars of Effective Engineering Management
Effective engineering management can be distilled into four core pillars: Laying the Groundwork, Delivering with Precision, Cultivating Growth and Ownership, and Future-Proofing for Success.
The metrics listed in the subtopics under each pillar are just examples of possible metrics. When evaluating a manager, you would want to add more metrics to subtopics and make sure they align with your company values.
1. Laying the Groundwork
This pillar focuses on building trust, alignment, and open communication.
Psychological Safety and Team Culture
A high-performing team openly shares ideas, admits mistakes, and respects differences.
Metric: Results from engagement surveys about feeling safe to propose new ideas.
Critical Reflection: How often does the team challenge decisions openly, and what happens when they do?
Clear Communication and Alignment
Everyone should understand how their work connects to business goals.
Metric: Percentage of team members who can articulate their objectives and how they align with company goals.
Critical Reflection: If team members were asked why their work matters, would their answers align with the company’s vision?
Stakeholder Collaboration
The manager serves as a bridge between engineering and non-engineering teams.
Metric: Stakeholder satisfaction scores or feedback surveys.
Critical Reflection: When was the last time a stakeholder escalated dissatisfaction, and how did the team respond and learn from it?
Indicators of Strong Foundations:
Team members can articulate how their work impacts business goals.
Cross-functional stakeholders report positive collaboration experiences.
Conflicts are addressed openly and constructively.
Decision-making processes are transparent and well-understood.
2. Delivering with Precision
This area measures the processes and technical rigor that ensure reliable, on-time delivery.
Reliable Delivery Processes
Agile, Scrum, or Kanban frameworks help teams establish predictable workflows.
Metric: Track how often the team releases code to production, indicating delivery agility. Sprint goal completion rate.
Critical Reflection: What is the slowest part of the team’s workflow, and why hasn’t it been fixed yet?
Focus on Engineering Excellence
High-quality software demands robust coding standards, architectural scalability, and manageable technical debt.
Metric: Number of escaped defects in production or code review turnaround time.
Critical Reflection: What’s the biggest production incident in the last quarter, and how did the team adapt to prevent recurrence?
"Debt in code is inevitable; great managers ensure it's intentional and repayable."
Metrics and Measurement
Tracking data provides visibility into process health and product quality.
Metric: The average time taken to recover from a failure in production, or technical debt burndown ratio.
Critical Reflection: How does the manager balance delivery speed with quality or technical debt?
Indicators of Effective Delivery:
Consistent, predictable delivery patterns.
High-quality code that meets business requirements.
Minimal production incidents.
Efficient code review processes.
Strategic technical debt management.
3. Cultivating Growth and Ownership
Empowerment and professional growth drive accountability and team leadership.
Empowerment and Ownership
Allowing team members to make decisions about their tasks and projects, such as choosing technical solutions, setting priorities, or resolving blockers, builds trust, boosts confidence, and helps them take responsibility for outcomes.
Metric: Number of initiatives driven independently by team members.
Critical Reflection: When was the last time someone on the team made a decision the manager initially disagreed with but supported anyway? How often do team members proactively identify problems and propose solutions?
Continuous Learning and Growth
Investing in individual development leads to a stronger team.
Metric: Rate of participation in training or skill development programs.
Critical Reflection: Which new skill did the team collectively adopt in the last six months, and why?
Strong Team Leadership
Provide a clear vision, set expectations, and model professional conduct.
Metric: Promotion rate or percentage of high-performance ratings within the team.
Critical Reflection: What is the most challenging feedback delivered recently, and what was the outcome?
Key Aspects of Growth and Ownership:
Intentional mentorship and coaching.
Opportunities for technical and leadership growth.
Ownership of projects and initiatives.
Constructive feedback and recognition.
Proactive adoption of best practices.
4. Future-Proofing for Success
Sustainable success depends on today’s decisions about tomorrow.
Effective Resource Management
Balanced workloads and the right tools keep teams energized.
Metric: Workload balance index (via time-tracking or capacity planning).
Critical Reflection: How does the manager detect early signs of burnout, and what measures are taken to address it?
Resilience and Risk Management
Anticipating and mitigating risks minimizes disruption.
Metric: Number of risks identified and resolved each quarter.
Critical Reflection: What is the biggest risk facing the team right now, and what is being done to mitigate it?
Long-Term Vision
Strategic investments in infrastructure and automation prepare teams for future growth.
Metric: Percentage of investment in technical improvements per sprint or quarter.
Critical Reflection: If the team doubled in size tomorrow, what would break first, and what is being done to prepare? “What trade-off has been made in the last six months that will make the team stronger a year from now?”
Key Aspects of Future-Proofing:
Investment in automation and infrastructure.
Proactive risk management.
Scalable processes that grow with the team.
Balanced allocation of resources for near-term and long-term goals.
Measuring Holistically
While the categories above provide clear focus areas, true success lies in balance. No single metric can fully capture an engineering manager’s impact. Leaders must look for patterns across these dimensions.
Holistic Success Indicators:
Team Retention Rate: Are talented team members staying?
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Would team members recommend working in this team?
Stakeholder Satisfaction: Are other departments confident in the team’s delivery?
Technical Debt Management: Is the team addressing long-term scalability concerns?
The best engineering managers create self-sustaining ecosystems where:
Teams operate effectively with minimal intervention
Quality and productivity continue to improve
Innovation happens naturally
People grow and advance in their careers
Business objectives are consistently met
Final Thoughts
An engineering manager’s output or performance is best measured by looking at the environment they create and the sustainable impact they generate. Through purposeful alignment, consistent delivery, cultivation of growth, and anticipation of future needs, a well-rounded leader ensures their team delivers high-quality software that aligns with business objectives, even when they are not in the room to oversee every detail.
"A manager's value is not measured by the number of fires they extinguish but by the ones they prevent from starting."
This framework isn’t just a guide for measuring performance of engineering manager, it’s a blueprint for building high-performing, resilient engineering teams that drive meaningful impact.