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LeadershipEngineering5 min read
The first quarter of leading engineers
The first 90 days as an engineering lead are mostly about what you don't change. Most new managers learn this the hard way.
Your first quarter leading an engineering team is a strong test of restraint. The mandate feels like change. The actual job is mostly observation, trust-building, and identifying which changes will earn the right to be made later.
What to do
- Sit in every recurring meeting once. Decide which to keep.
- Have a 1:1 with every engineer in the first three weeks.
- Read the last six months of decisions before challenging any of them.
- Pick one small, visible improvement to ship in the first month — earns credibility.
What not to do
Big reorganizations. New planning processes. Anything that pattern-matches to "this is how we did it at [previous company]." Each of those signals you're not yet listening, which makes the changes you actually need to make later much harder to land.
Your first quarter as a lead is not when you reshape the team. It's when you earn the right to.