This is one of my favorite questions that I use while hiring Engineering Managers. How would your rampup look like and what can go wrong/what would be your biggest challenges?
The reason this question is interesting is because it gives me insight about how well this candidate understands about the team and the role. It gives me a signal on engagement and how invested they have been in the process. It also gives me insight into how effective our interview process has been in terms of explaining our role, opportunity and challenges.
From the interviewee manager's perspective, it also gives them an opportunity in terms of showcasing how seasoned they are on all the manager dimensions : people, project, product, process. At the director level, I also look for signal regarding cross-org collaboration and setting right team structure.
A key quality of a good leader is to anticipate problems(in all the above dimensions) before they arise and to evaluate all possible options on an ongoing basis. While ramping up on a new team, it is very important for managers to absorb as much information as possible from team, partner teams, PMs and all other cross functional POCS. Even though it may be prudent to hold onto judgement quickly, it is important to detect and diagnose pain points effectively and analyse.
Based on my experiences hiring and onboarding managers and from my friends/colleagues who have onboarded as managers in the past, I have developed a thick skin. Gray hair has taught me to believe in Murphy's law - "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" , especially in every dynamic and fast growing workplaces.
I will cover each of the manager dimensions in more detail in future posts. In the mean time, if you have interesting manager rampup stories, would love to hear from you in comments below.
Pro tip : for EMs interviewing for new roles, this is a great question to flip around and ask the hiring manager. With an element of surprise, this question can be a great tool to get some insights about the team.
