In Depth artwork

Why is the transition from IC Engineer to Manager so tricky (and how to get it right)? — Marcel Weekes, VP of Product Engineering at Figma

In Depth

English - May 25, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - ★★★★★ - 51 ratings
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Previous Episode: How to pull off the ‘zoom-in pivot,’ and other lessons in early-stage building with Luminai’s Kesava Kirupa Dinakaran
Next Episode: How to design a high-impact growth org for a PLG startup — Webflow & Dropbox’s Melissa Tan

Our guest today is Marcel Weekes, VP of Product Engineering at Figma and former VP of Engineering at Slack.

In today’s conversation, he unpacks why most startups get it wrong when they uplevel someone from IC engineer to eng manager and unfurls what stellar engineering management looks like at high-growth companies, including:

Setting appropriate expectations and goals 

Turbocharging the team’s effectiveness 

Delivering high-impact feedback

Going from a peer to a manager

What leaders risk when they drag their heels on managing out low-performers

You can email us questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.  

Our guest today is Marcel Weekes, VP of Product Engineering at Figma and former VP of Engineering at Slack.


In today’s conversation, he unpacks why most startups get it wrong when they uplevel someone from IC engineer to eng manager and unfurls what stellar engineering management looks like at high-growth companies, including:



Setting appropriate expectations and goals 
Turbocharging the team’s effectiveness 
Delivering high-impact feedback
Going from a peer to a manager
What leaders risk when they drag their heels on managing out low-performers


You can email us questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.  

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