hebel. today · 12 November 202612 / 74

Career · Leadership in Tech

Managers pivot from routing code to managing agent workflows

Staff Engineer Simone van Buuren at Neko maintains a high-performing team by focusing on system-level failure scenarios rather than individual code output. She identifies bottlenecks by digging into incident root causes and automating manual…

Staff Engineer Simone van Buuren at Neko maintains a high-performing team by focusing on system-level failure scenarios rather than individual code output (Gregor Ojstersek from Engineering Leadership). She identifies bottlenecks by digging into incident root causes and automating manual operational workflows, such as email processing, to create reusable technology for the entire company (Gregor Ojstersek from Engineering Leadership). Her approach aligns individual engineer interests with team needs, such as assigning AI automation tasks to developers fascinated by fast feedback loops rather than forcing them into traditional architectural roles.

Engineering leaders now address human-centric constraints that persist despite AI-accelerated code generation (Engineering Enablement). While AI tools increase token spend, meeting-heavy days and interruption frequency remain the primary drivers of developer waste, with every 1-point improvement in the Developer Experience Index returning 10 hours of annual capacity per engineer (Engineering Enablement). Managers reclaim this time by making their own meeting attendance conditional, requiring organizers to specify the expected contribution and preparation before accepting invitations (Andrea Chiarelli from You're a manager. Now what?).

This shift transforms the manager into a supervisor of automated systems who adjudicates between product requirements and technical constraints (Latent Space). Leaders at Monaco provide agents with access to production monitoring tools like Datadog and GitHub, allowing them to course-correct the automated factory floor through oversight of constituent parts (Latent Space). Success in this role requires moving from controller of work to capacity builder, establishing clear decision rights that permit team members to own their output while learning from mistakes (Janice Perkins).

Try today · 20 min

Audit your calendar for the next week and decline every meeting where the organizer cannot define your specific contribution or preparation requirements.

Check the meeting invite for a clear agenda; if it is missing, message the organizer to ask what you are expected to provide.

You need

  • Calendar access
  • Meeting list for the upcoming week

Steps

  1. Review every calendar invite for the next 5 business days.
  2. Identify meetings where your role is passive or unclear.
  3. Send a message to the organizer asking for the expected contribution and required preparation.
  4. Decline the invitation if the organizer cannot provide a clear objective for your presence.
  5. Suggest a written update or a brief one-to-one as an alternative.

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Sources

  1. Andrea Chiarelli, You're a manager. Now what? on hebel. → ✎ Written by a personThis guide outlines how to reclaim team capacity by making meeting attendance conditional on clear preparation and contribution requirements.

  2. Engineering Enablement on hebel. →This article explains how the Developer Experience Index metrics help leaders identify and remediate productivity bottlenecks to return 10 hours per engineer annually.

  3. Janice Perkins on hebel. →This piece describes the transition from controlling work to building team capacity through clear delegation and decision rights.

  4. Gregor Ojstersek, Engineering Leadership on hebel. → ✎ Written by a person

  5. Latent Space on hebel. →

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