Books and newsletters for engineering leaders (managers, directors)

I’m sometimes asked by team members about books recommendations. So I’ve wrote here my recommendations. Books and newsletters are classified by management levels for which they match the most. It doesn’t mean that EM shouldn’t read books for SEM or ED: this will likely be useful. But it may be more effective to move to the next level books only when all books/newsletters from current levels look too boring and easy.

Resources here are only about leadership, management, business and related topics. Engineering knowledge is extremely critical for engineering leaders but it’s a topic for another article.

Engineering Manager (EM)

Recommended:

• The Manager’s Path
• Radical Candor
• Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager
• The Lean Startup
• blog theengineeringmanager.com
• newsletter Software Lead Weekly
• newletter The Pragmatic Engineer

Extra:

• Software Engineering at Google
• High Output Management
• Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track
• INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
• The Mom Test

Senior Engineering Manager (SEM)

Recommended:

• An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
• The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever
• newsletter Irrational Exuberance
• newsletter Scarlet Ink

Extra:

• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention and other Netflix books
• Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google
• The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
• The Coaching Manual
• The HeART of Laser-Focused Coaching
• EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
• newsletter Level Up by Ethan Evans
• newsletter Lenny’s Newsletter
• newsletter The Beautiful Mess

Engineering Director+ (ED+)

Recommended:

• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
• The Engineering Executive’s Primer
• How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart About the Numbers
• Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters // there is a newer similar book The Crux, I didn’t read it
• Thinking in Systems: International Bestseller
• newsletter Joshua Burgin’s Substack

Extra:

• Amp It Up or some other CEO books
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
• Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps
• newsletter First Round Review
• newsletter Lessons
• industry news The Information
• hardware newsletter Semianalysis

How to Learn

It may look unimportant but some simple techniques of learning can make huge impact on learning efficiency. See more on that article.