They Know More Than I Do! Managing an Expert Team When You Can't Do Their Jobs

A manager doesn't need to be the world's top coder to get a technical team to ship. The article shows that the real job is to produce outcomes, and that starts with owning the fact you aren't the expert. By being upfront about your limits, you remove the fear of being exposed and let the team's expertise fill the gap.

The piece lays out eight concrete habits. First, admit you don't know the details and invite the team to teach you. Second, ask questions constantly - not just to fill your knowledge gaps but to surface hidden assumptions and encourage engineers to articulate their work. Third, share whatever context you do have, from business goals to constraints, so the team can align their decisions.

Clarity is the fourth habit: spell out what needs to be done, the purpose, deadlines, and what's out of scope. Avoid making assumptions; state them and get correction. Use "Gemba walks" - sit in on a pairing session or a deployment - to see the work firsthand and spot process friction. Pull expertise to the work by bringing the right people into discussions and encouraging public knowledge sharing.

Finally, act as a facilitator rather than a gatekeeper. By mapping where expertise lives, you can quickly connect the right people to the right problems, keep the team's momentum, and protect them from unnecessary micromanagement. The result is a higher-performing, more self-directed team that delivers quality work even when the manager's technical background is limited.