Keeping Your Technical Edge in 2025

Put the "engineering" back into Engineering Management.

When I became an Engineering Manager, the most common advice I got was: stop coding. “Delegate all technical work to your team so you can focus on scaling yourself.”

It seemed logical. Other managers were doing the same, focusing more on climbing the ladder than staying connected to the codebase. So, I followed along.

Three years later, I realized this approach doesn’t work. Not in 2025, and probably not ever for Engineering Managers.

The Problem With Being Non-Technical

The world of software engineering evolves rapidly. Even more so now with AI into the mix. As an EM, stepping away from development creates a disconnect that does more harm than good. Here’s how:

• Shallow Conversations: Without technical depth, it’s hard to engage in meaningful discussions. I remember sitting in meetings about buildpacks for a new pipeline, asking generic questions, and nodding along. I felt like an outsider.

• Loss of Credibility: Engineers respect leaders who understand their challenges. Without that technical foundation, earning trust and influence becomes a struggle.

• Reduced Problem-Solving Skills: When you’re far removed from the work, it’s easy to miss patterns or inefficiencies. One time, I discovered a way to improve a legacy service only because I decided to take a closer look at recurring issues.

• Weakened Decision-Making: How do you set priorities or allocate resources without understanding your team’s workflows? For example, I once underestimated how long an API change would take because I didn’t grasp the complexity of the release process.

Your goal is not to become a full-time coder in the team but to stay sufficiently technical so you can help your team and understand their challenges.

Another, more selfish point of view is that staying technical gives you a competitive edge. With the market’s focus on efficiency, middle managers are at the losing end of the bargain. Having technical skills give you the flexibility to pivot, whether that means targeting broader roles or stepping back into an IC position.

Six Ways to Stay Technical as an Engineering Manager

Here are six practical ways to maintain your technical edge while still excelling as a leader:

1. Draw Architectural Diagrams

Invest time in deeply understanding your system’s architecture. Start with your team’s services and then expand to the company’s broader product landscape.

This gives you insight into how components interact, potential bottlenecks, and trade-offs. With this knowledge, you can ask informed questions and provide valuable input during discussions.

Start today: Review your team’s architectural diagrams. If they don’t exist, create them with the help of your team.

2. Follow Your Team’s SDLC

Set up your local environment, use the same tools, and go through the same build and deployment processes.

Experiencing the SDLC firsthand helps you understand the friction points, from flaky tests to CI/CD issues.

Start today: Pair with an engineer for an hour to set up your environment. Use this as a chance to learn and identify areas for improvement.

3. Develop Features or Fix Bugs

Pick small tasks in the sprint. Whether it’s building a feature, bug fixes, or refactoring. Contribute consistently, even if it’s just a few hours per sprint.

This is the one I debate a lot with myself. Building a full feature is time consuming and could backfire if not delivered correctly. But if you’re up for it, this will give you an opportunity to write production-quality peer-reviewed code. You may learn first hand the major challenges with your team’s codebase.

Start today: Choose a low-priority bug or a minor feature in the next sprint.

4. Write Tests

Testing is a practical way to stay technical without being worried about breaking product functionality. Focus on unit tests, integration tests, or improving test coverage.

You’ll understand the codebase better, spot gaps in coverage, and contribute to overall quality.

Start today: Pick an under-tested module in your codebase and write a few test cases.

5. Build Utilities or Scripts

Automate repetitive tasks or create tools to simplify workflows. These can be scripts to analyze logs, visualize data, or other mundane work.

Small utilities provide immediate value while keeping your development skills relevant.

Start today: Automate your own pain points. E.g. a few months ago I wrote a script to review all github repos in the org to track a project migration.

6. Work on Side Projects

If you don’t have opportunities to contribute in your job, then build something on the side.

Choose a problem or technology you’re curious about and build something small. Like an app to track your expenses but AI powered. I did a fun little project with openai API and streamlit.

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Staying Technical Won’t Be Easy

As an EM you already have tons of things to do. Staying technical takes time and it isn’t easy. Some tips to help out:

• Block Time for Technical Work: Dedicate a few hours each week to hands-on contributions.

• Be Transparent: Let your team know you’re staying technical to better support them, not to take over their work.

• Leverage AI: Use coding assistants or agents to stay efficient and understand modern workflows.

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Closing Thoughts

EMs operate at the intersection of engineering and management. So you can’t expect to succeed by only focusing on management.

The path to EM is not an MBA. It’s years of software development in the real world.

So why stop developing now?

But don’t try to become the best developer on your team. The idea is to be close to where the work is happening, so you can lead with greater context, empathy, and credibility. You'll stay competitive in the market that is constantly shifting and disproportionately impacting managers.

So let’s put the “engineering” back into Engineering Management!

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