Top Recommended Books for Engineering Managers
Published on Feb 16, 2019
2 min read
Amazon.com returns over 100,000 results for “management books.” Which are the best ones?
I interviewed 65+ engineering leaders since late 2017. Here are the top books that engineering leaders on managersclub.com recommended in answer to the question, ”If you could recommend one book to engineering managers, what would it be and why?” (Some people gave more than 1 recommendation.)
Here are the top books were recommended by more than one leader in order of the number of recommendations. I’ve also included links to their interviews.
“The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change” by Camille Fournier was recommended by 7 leaders.
- Daniel Dvorkin, Director of Engineering at Modern Tribe
- Tom Bartel, Germany-based software developer, engineering manager, speaker, and author
- Bryan Gebhardt, Senior Engineering Manager at Microsoft
- Bella Kazwell, Web Engineering Lead at Asana
- Katie Womersley, Director of Engineering at Buffer
- Sue Nallapeta, Sr. Director, Engineering/Acting Head of Engineering at Zoosk
- Patrick Joyce, Director of Engineering at Stitch Fix
“High Output Management” by former Intel president Andy Grove was recommended by 6 separate leaders.
- Tom Bartel, Germany-based software developer, engineering manager, speaker, and author
- Allen Cheung, Senior Director of Engineering at Affirm
- James Stanier, VP Engineering at Brandwatch
- Bryan Gebhardt, Senior Engineering Manager at Microsoft
- Raylene Yung, Head of Payments at Stripe
- Chuck Groom, Director of Engineering at VTS
Mickey Mantle and Ron Lichty’s book “Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams” was recommended by 5 separate leaders. You can read Ron’s interview here, and Mickey’s interview here.
- John Van Heteren, Director of Treatment Delivery Applied Research at Varian Medical Systems
- Joe Hudson, Engineering Manager at Citadel LLC
- Ron Lichty, Consultant, Interim VP Engineering and Author
- Chuck Groom, Director of Engineering at VTS
- Mickey Mantle, Co-author: Managing the Unmanageable and Founder/CEO Wanderful interactive storybooks
“Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni was recommended by 4 leaders.
- Matt Newkirk, Engineering Manager at Etsy
- Bryan Gebhardt, Senior Engineering Manager at Microsoft
- Yagiz Erkan, VP of Technology at Motive Retail
- Natasha Vinnik, Senior Engineering Manager at Google
“Managing Humans” by Michael Lopp VP of Engineering @slackhq was recommended by 3 leaders. You can read Michael Lopp’s interview here.
