Role Clarity

One of the most common things new EMs say, when they're being honest, is some version of: "I'm not totally sure what I'm supposed to be doing." They show up, they do things — they answer questions, attend meetings, write some code, respond to Slack — but there's no clear framework for whether any of it is the right work.

This chapter fixes that.

Why Role Clarity Matters So Much Early

Without clarity on your role, you default to what you know: writing code, reviewing PRs, solving technical problems. Those things feel productive. They're also a trap. Every hour you spend doing IC work is an hour you're not doing EM work — and EM work doesn't get done by anyone else if you skip it.

More importantly, your manager and your skip-level are evaluating you on EM outputs, not IC outputs. You can be the best engineer on the team and still get a mediocre review because your team isn't growing, isn't shipping predictably, and isn't clear on what they're supposed to be doing.

What This Chapter Covers

Two lessons:

• Your Role and What's Expected — the actual job, for four different audiences: your company, your team, your manager, and yourself
• Your Key Functions — the specific things you're responsible for running: understanding the business, planning, communicating team state, managing feedback, coaching, and performance reviews

By the end of this chapter you'll have a clear answer to the question "what do I actually do all day?" — and more importantly, you'll know how to explain it to anyone who asks.