Hands-On

The core idea is that staying hands-on doesn't mean coding full time; it means taking focused, high-impact activities that keep you connected to the technology and the team. The author shares five roles that make this possible: logging friction in developer journeys, digging into KTLO (keep-the-lights-on) analysis, joining the on-call rotation, acting as the team archivist, and doing a short, purpose-driven "engineerication" sprint. Each role is illustrated with real examples-from a KTLO review that uncovered hidden rollbacks at Google Compute Engine to a quick on-call response that eliminated repetitive support pings by adding a simple FAQ link.

Friction logging turns a manager into a data-collector for hidden pain points. By systematically testing user or developer journeys and recording what works and what doesn't, you surface inefficiencies that affect not just your team but the broader org. The author recounts using this at Stripe to surface platform integration issues that informed product, engineering, and GTM decisions.

KTLO analysis is presented as a diagnostic lens. The author's own deep-dive at Google revealed a misleading release cadence, leading to a focused effort that boosted weekly releases and unblocked 20% of technical deal blockers. Similar incident-trend and bug-factory analyses illustrate how turning maintenance data into strategic insight can justify infra projects and drive business outcomes.

On-call participation gives you visceral awareness of system failure modes and the chance to provide immediate air-cover and praise. A personal story shows how a simple FAQ response during a busy on-call shift eliminated dozens of repeat queries and freed the team to focus on higher-value work. The archivist role extends this by curating documentation, post-mortems, and learning assets, turning chaotic knowledge into searchable, actionable resources-especially powerful when paired with LLMs for insight extraction.

Finally, "engineerication" is a structured, bite-sized immersion into the codebase. The author outlines practical tips: pick non-critical, representative tasks; stay vulnerable and ask junior engineers for help; and frame the work with a clear start, middle, and finish. This approach accelerates a manager's technical fluency without the burnout of trying to be a full-time IC. Together, these five roles give engineering leaders a roadmap to stay technically relevant, make better decisions, and protect their teams from hidden waste.