12 "Manager READMEs" from Silicon Valley’s Top Tech Companies

The piece compiles twelve publicly shared manager readmes from some of Silicon Valley's most influential tech companies. Each readme spells out what senior engineering leaders expect from their managers, from how they run one-on-ones to the metrics they own. The collection includes examples from Google, Netflix, Uber, and others, showing both cultural nuances and concrete accountability standards.

Readers get a window into the day-to-day responsibilities that high-growth companies use to keep engineering teams aligned. The documents reveal recurring themes: transparent decision-making, data-driven performance tracking, and explicit communication cadences. They also surface company-specific quirks, such as Netflix's emphasis on radical candor or Google's focus on cross-team collaboration.

For a technical leader, the value lies in benchmarking their own expectations against industry standards. By comparing the readmes, a manager can spot gaps in their own processes-maybe they lack a clear escalation path or need more structured feedback loops. The article encourages leaders to adopt the most effective practices and adapt them to their own context, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Overall, the collection serves as a practical cheat sheet for engineering managers who want to raise their team's performance, improve communication, and align more tightly with executive goals. It turns abstract leadership advice into concrete, actionable guidelines drawn from companies that have scaled successfully.