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Found 13 Skills
Helps engineering managers assess and improve team health across morale, cohesion, delivery culture, and engagement — produces Google's 5 Factors (Project Aristotle), a 4-state team health diagnosis (Falling Behind / Treading Water / Repaying Debt / Innovating), a 5-zone intensity model, the Engagement Stack, the Trust Battery, Teamicide patterns (Peopleware), a blameless postmortem format, and a library of team activities organized by driver. Use when the user says "team morale," "team is struggling," "burnout," "engagement," "attrition risk," "psychological safety," "team dynamics," "something feels off," "team culture," "team is unhappy," "retros aren't working," "team isn't working hard enough," "ideas for team activities," or "how do I run a team offsite." Do NOT use for individual performance concerns (use `managing-high-performers`), team staffing or hiring (use `team-composition`), or individual motivation interventions (use `engineer-motivation`).
Helps engineering managers identify, quantify, and reduce hidden capacity drains that make teams miss commitments even when everyone is busy. Use this skill whenever the user mentions invisible work, untracked work, support requests consuming the team, glue work, shadow backlog, sprint spillover, capacity planning being wrong, teams always underestimating, senior engineers burning out, or "we are busy but nothing ships." Produces a diagnostic, evidence plan, and concrete interventions.
Guides managers out of the bottleneck role — provides the Team Rep pattern, Epic Ownership model, Task-Relevant Maturity framework, kingdom ownership, and three-layer assignment strategy. Use when the user wants to delegate work or says "I'm doing everything," "team isn't taking ownership," "I can't let go," "team rep," "project ownership," "I'm the go-to person," "bus factor," "I work weekends," "how do I delegate," or "engineers don't take initiative." Do NOT use for managing a specific underperformer (use performance-reviews) or deciding what work to prioritize (use roadmap-planning).
Helps engineering managers respond to high-urgency requests and use deadlines effectively — produces a five-question framework for evaluating unreasonable deadlines, guidance on scope/staffing/intensity decisions under pressure, Parkinson's Law applied to engineering, and five common deadline mistakes to avoid. Use when the user says "urgent deadline," "everything is on fire," "we need to ship fast," "fake deadline," "unreasonable timeline," "crisis mode," "working weekends," "Parkinson's Law," or "leadership is pushing for faster delivery."
Explains business financial terms and frameworks for engineering managers — produces term definitions (ARR, COGS, CAC, LTV, gross margin, burn rate, EBITDA, AARRR), translation formulas for making engineering work visible in business language, and a three-layer framework for building business credibility. Use when the user says "business terms," "EBITDA," "burn rate," "CAC," "LTV," "gross margin," "ARR," "how do I speak to business people," "I don't understand finance," "make the case for engineering work," "connect engineering to business outcomes," "talk to the P&L owner," or "business impact." Do NOT use when the user wants to connect engineering metrics (DORA, velocity) to business metrics — use developer-productivity instead.
Helps engineering managers understand and act on what drives each engineer — produces a three-driver framework (Growth, Connection, Impact), techniques for identifying someone's primary driver, driver-aligned delegation patterns, and a team composition diagnostic. Use when the user says "this person isn't motivated," "nobody picks up tasks," "I keep reminding people," "what drives my engineers," "how do I motivate my team," "what should I delegate to this person," "engineer seems disengaged," or "what growth activity should I give this person." Do NOT use when someone is actively leaving or at risk of quitting (use retaining-developers) or when the engineer is a high performer with specific management challenges (use managing-high-performers).
Helps engineering managers prevent and respond to engineer attrition by diagnosing retention risk, choosing the right intervention, and preparing retention conversations. Use when the user says "developer quit," "attrition," "someone is disengaged," "how do I retain," "engineer is leaving," "developer unhappy," "keeping the team," "someone seems checked out," "engineer received another offer," "retention risk," or "my best engineer may leave." Produces a five-state diagnostic, action plan, conversation script, compensation/equity guidance, zero-budget recognition ideas, and warning signs. Do NOT use when the issue is day-to-day motivation only; use engineer-motivation.
Helps engineering managers plan roadmaps, prioritize work, and communicate priorities effectively — produces the 20% tech debt framework (and its 5 traps), a phased release pressure-test, a maintenance cost model, the Always Green delivery method, sprint anti-patterns, hidden costs of custom features, a critical deadline playbook, the Iron Law of Projects with reference-class forecasting, a "no technical projects" framing, and feature factory warning signs. Use when the user says "roadmap," "quarterly planning," "OKRs," "prioritization," "what should we work on," "planning cycle," "backlog grooming," "stakeholder alignment," "capacity planning," "technical debt," "we're always late," or "leadership doesn't understand engineering work."
Helps engineering managers support direct report growth — produces a stage-by-stage model of engineering impact (Circles of Influence), a framework for non-linear career planning (Tarzan Method), diagnostic signals for stalled growth, conversation scripts for career talks, and a promotion readiness vs. timing distinction. Use when the user says "career growth," "promotion," "career path," "this person wants to grow," "career conversation," "what's next for this person," "career ladder," "IC vs manager track," "how do I help my report advance," "help someone grow," or "engineer wants a promotion." Do NOT use for formal written performance reviews or underperformance — use performance-reviews instead.
Helps engineering managers diagnose team skill gaps and make better hiring and assignment decisions — produces the Dungeon Party archetype model (Warrior, Tank, Healer, Wizard, Rogue), the Barrels and Ammunition framework for understanding throughput limits, the Commandos/Infantry/Police phase model, and a minimum team size guideline. Use when the user says "team balance," "what roles do I need," "who should I hire next," "team is missing something," "skill gaps," "team is slow despite headcount," "this person thrived before but struggles now," or "what type of engineer should I hire."
Helps engineering managers measure and improve team delivery — produces a history of why common metrics fail, the DORA four-key-metrics framework (deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, MTTR), DevEx's three dimensions (feedback loops, cognitive load, flow state), a translation layer from engineering metrics to business outcomes, and a list of measurement anti-patterns to avoid. Use when the user says "how do I measure productivity," "DORA metrics," "velocity," "cycle time," "developer experience," "DevEx," "how do I show our team is performing well," "metrics for engineering," "team is slow," "engineering performance," or "connect engineering to business." Do NOT use for managing an underperforming individual — use performance-reviews instead.
/cs:vpe-review <plan> — Throughput-first VP of Engineering interrogation of any plan that touches delivery, eng hiring, team structure, or production discipline.