Delegating work based on task relevant maturity

I’m not an engineer manager (and I’ve come to realize that I don’t want to be), but one thing I’ve learned is how there’s different ways of supporting engineers.

In a blog post, Ben mentions some learnings about being a new manager, but the part that resonated with me is:

Instead of “don’t micromanage,” the advice I wish I’d gotten is:

1. Manage projects according to the owner’s level of task-relevant maturity.
2. People with low task-relevant maturity appreciate some amount of micromanagement (if they’re self-aware and you’re nice about it).

One thing that really helped me calibrate on this was talking about it explicitly. When delegating a task: “Do you feel like you know how to do this?” “What kind of support would you like?” In one-on-ones: “How did the hand-off for that work go?” “Is there any extra support that would be useful here?”

Over the last 10 years, I’ve had to support many engineers and this advice is spot on. Some people require more guidance than others: they don’t know the codebase, they haven’t done that type of task before, they’re not good at it, etc.

Knowing how to tailor your mentoring and feedback based on their skillset on that particular task is crucial. It can be the difference between everyone having a good time, and chaos and disappointment.