Management
We believe in the value of managers to drive results for the company, support teams and enable growth for individuals.
A manager’s job therefore can be divided into two areas.
- Making the company successful
- Taking care of their people
Making the company successful means delivering on company goals.
A manager has to deliver results with their team. They have to set the right context for their team. The other nature of your role is being a consultant for the company; when you are an engineering manager, you get questions about engineering and need to be able to have or get the answers.
Taking care of their people is the other part of the role.
You can have great goals, but what are goals without a team to help work towards them? As a manager, you have to build and retain a performing team by growing individuals, fostering collaboration, and recruiting talent. Taking care also means affording the team enough freedom to do their best work.
These areas are not only connected, but they depend on each other. Making the company successful is the WHY and taking care of their people is the HOW.
It doesn’t help if the company is successful, but its employees are frustrated. But there is also no value in having a happy team when the company is underperforming.
One manager should not have more than 8 direct reports over a longer period of time. This limit makes it possible to build genuine and trusting relationships.
Management career path
Here's an overview of our management career path. To dive in deeper, please refer to the career development handbook.
Manager stage 1
The shift from individual contributor to team lead comes with new responsibilities. Managing daily work, identifying improvement areas, and addressing skill gaps become central. Involvement in technical decisions and a solid grasp of agile principles help navigate team dynamics. A focus on team performance, using metrics like flow, ensures steady progress. Strong communication skills enable effective collaboration. Over time, the role evolves into proactively improving workflows, removing obstacles, and fostering a motivating environment through structured feedback and support.
Manager stage 2
With growing experience comes a shift to more strategic responsibilities. Decisions are driven proactively, methods and frameworks refined, and team improvements aligned with the bigger picture. Providing feedback, collaborating with the agile coach, and addressing skill gaps strengthen team maturity. A belief in growth through feedback shapes leadership, along with an understanding of key drivers like autonomy, results, and purpose. Over time, the focus expands to coaching, creating space for reflection, and ensuring the team’s work aligns with the company’s mission. Communication and leadership styles adapt to each individual, while influence extends to organization-wide decisions.
Senior manager
Leadership expands to multiple teams, focusing on driving the organization forward and translating company goals into action. Developing teams through strategic initiatives ensures long-term growth while supporting key initiatives without becoming a bottleneck. Decision-making extends across the organization, with a focus on balancing strategy and execution. Thoughtful use of team strengths and weaknesses fosters development and sustained progress.
Leadership learning path
To ensure our managers are well-prepared for their roles, we offer an internal leadership training program. This program consists of five modules designed to build essential leadership knowledge. The training is primarily aimed at new leads, but all managers are welcome to participate.
- Module 1 covers the foundations of classic management 3.0 and is currently conducted externally.
- Module 2 focuses on employee communication and team leadership, including communication essentials, practical exercises for handling difficult situations, and guidance on structuring 1:1 meetings.
- Module 3 explores the entire employee lifecycle, providing a solid understanding of attraction, recruiting, onboarding, retention, growth, and offboarding, along with relevant resources.
- Module 4 delves into labor law and HR essentials, covering key legal principles while specifically addressing the manager’s responsibilities.
- Module 5 focuses on self-management, resilience, team performance, and maturity. It provides resources, tools, and methods to help managers build high-performing teams.