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The Engineering Manager Handbook (Development Manager) · Capstone Case Studies

Capstone: Take Over a Struggling Team

You inherit a team with slow delivery, high attrition and low trust. Diagnose, plan your first 90 days and set measurable goals.

Scenario

Example company: you join as engineering manager (the role is titled Development Manager) of the orders team: nine engineers, one tech lead, after the previous manager left suddenly.

Evidence

  • Delivery: median change lead time 9 days (organisation median 2); deploys once a week on Thursdays; change fail rate 28%.
  • Incidents: 14 in the last quarter; postmortems exist for 3.
  • People: 3 regretted departures in 12 months; engagement survey 52% favourable (organisation 71%); lowest items "I know what is expected of me" and "My work is recognised".
  • Process: sprints planned at 100% nominal capacity; carry-over ~50%; 1:1s "when needed".
  • Relationships: product calls the team "unreliable"; the tech lead is burned out and covers on-call most weeks.
  • Your director's ask: "Fix delivery this quarter."

Deliverables

  1. Your diagnosis: the main problems and how they connect.
  2. Your 90-day plan, by month.
  3. Three to five measurable goals for six months, and how you'll report them.
  4. How you'll handle the tech lead, product, and your director's expectations.

Hints

  • Which problems are causes and which are symptoms?
  • What do the two lowest survey items tell you?
  • Is "fix delivery this quarter" realistic — and what would you offer instead?

Draft each deliverable below before revealing the model answer and rubric.

Further reading: DORA metrics · Understand team effectiveness

Deliverables

Diagnose the main problems and how they connect.

Model answer

  • Large, infrequent, risky releases: weekly deploys and 9-day lead time make each release big, so the change fail rate is high and incidents frequent.
  • Incidents without learning: few postmortems, so the same problems recur.
  • Overload: 100% planning plus incidents gives 50% carry-over and an "unreliable" reputation.
  • People system missing: irregular 1:1s, unclear expectations, little recognition (survey items) — consistent with attrition.
  • Single point of failure: the tech lead carries on-call and is burning out. These reinforce each other: incidents eat capacity, overload drives attrition, attrition reduces capacity.

Rubric

Look for: linking delivery, quality and people problems into a system, and separating causes from symptoms. Misses: treating 'slow delivery' as the root problem or blaming the team.

Your 90-day plan.

Model answer

  • Month 1: weekly 1:1s with everyone (same questions), meet product and stakeholders, review incidents and data; immediately share on-call fairly (a rotation) to protect the tech lead; start postmortems for every significant incident.
  • Month 2: share a "what I heard" summary; plan to real capacity; introduce small, frequent deploys (daily target) with the tech lead; write role expectations from the career ladder for each person.
  • Month 3: agree 6-month goals with the director and product; start monthly delivery and health reviews; recognise wins publicly; career conversations with everyone.

Rubric

Look for: listening first but acting immediately on safety and burnout; sequencing people and delivery fixes; involving the team. Misses: big reorganisations in month one, or waiting three months to act on the tech lead's overload.

Three to five measurable goals for six months.

Model answer

  1. Median change lead time 9 → 3 days; deploy frequency weekly → daily.
  2. Change fail rate 28% → under 15%; postmortems for 100% of significant incidents, with actions tracked.
  3. Planned vs done ≥ 80% for three consecutive sprints.
  4. Engagement: "I know what is expected of me" and "My work is recognised" up 15 points.
  5. No regretted departures in the period; on-call load spread across at least six engineers. Report monthly to the director and product with trends and what's being changed.

Rubric

Look for: goals covering delivery, quality, predictability and people, with baselines and targets, and a reporting rhythm. Misses: only delivery goals, or goals without baselines.

How do you handle the tech lead, product and your director?

Model answer

  • Tech lead: in week one, take them off default on-call and agree a fair rotation; ask what they need; agree the tech lead/manager split of responsibilities; give them ownership of the deploy-frequency work.
  • Product: acknowledge the reliability problem, agree planning to real capacity and weekly written updates, and involve them in the 6-month goals.
  • Director: reframe "fix delivery this quarter" as visible progress this quarter (rotation, postmortems, planning accuracy, first lead-time gains) and the full improvement over six months, with monthly reporting.

Rubric

Look for: protecting the person at risk immediately, rebuilding trust with product through predictability and transparency, and managing up with a realistic, measured plan. Misses: promising a one-quarter turnaround.

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