Managers usually have different problems from developers.
Examples of problems faced by managers:
- I'm battling to keep track of who is working on what
- I'm not sure how we're doing as a team - were we more productive this week or last?
- I don't know how long things are going to take
- I don't know the status of this particular ticket
- I don't have enough information to do fair performance reviews
Examples of problems faced by developers:
- I don't have enough time to implement things to our quality standards
- There are too many meetings and it breaks my concentration
- There is too much mindless admin that doesn't help anyone
- There are too many priorities: everything is important and urgent
Because of the power imbalance, managers usually lean on developers to make them solve 'manager problems': do more meetings, more check-ins, more estimates, more updating of tickets.
Instead, managers should be solving their own problems and in addition help solve 'developer problems'. Sometimes by doing exactly the opposite of what they are already doing.
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