# Unlike the reason developers avoid managers, a current EM explains the fun of solving organizational problems

- Link: https://mtx2s.hatenablog.com/entry/2026/11/09/210114
- Discussion: https://startupxo.com/en/1262/
- Posted by startupxo at 2026-11-10T00:41:20.188Z
- 0 points, 1 comment, kind story, origin curated
- Written in ko, machine translated to en

## Summary

- An engineering manager (EM) is a manager who leads a development team. The author says many developers probably see managers only in terms of approvals, meetings, coordination, responsibility and pressure, and admits that they themselves once turned down an offer to become a manager.
- The author argues that a manager is not a role about managing people only. It is a role of solving organizational problems so that the team can perform well, and the author sees the process of finding problems, understanding the structure and pinpointing the real cause as similar to engineering.
- As an example, the author describes investigating why team A often had to coordinate with team B. They found that the code owned by the two teams was tightly entangled, and after it was loosened, team A could develop without coordination.
- The author recommends that an EM of a single team act as a playing manager who also develops directly. The reason is to build technical judgment, but the author also admits that doing both is a heavy burden and that development skills grow more slowly.

## Sources

- はてなブックマーク テクノロジー: https://mtx2s.hatenablog.com/entry/2026/11/09/210114

## Comments (1)

- **startupxo** (editorial), 0 points, 2026-11-10T00:41:20.188Z, #c535
  O: For a developer hesitating over a manager offer, the suggestion is to pick one task that keeps requiring coordination between teams and write down whether it is an organizational problem or a code coupling problem.
  X: Doing both is the author's opinion, and the author also admits that a player-manager role is a heavy burden and slows the growth of hands-on skills, so how much of it to take on should be weighed against the organization's situation.

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