An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management

I bought this book without too many expectations: most management books are usually either poorly written, either full of banalities, either too abstract. However, this book is one of the rare excellent ones, and most probably a must-read for any manager (probably even outside tech). I'm a junior manager and I initially thought the book was not a good fit for me as I started to read the first chapter: this book is written by an upper-manager and talks about many problems related to upper-management that a junior manager does not encounter himself, especially in the first two chapters. However, I kept reading and it was the right thing to do: the book is incredibly complete and covers everything. Many points are actually relevant whether you are a junior manager or a more experienced one. For the other parts more related to upper-management (for example, restructuring a department), those are still very interesting and eye-opening to read for a junior manager: you get to better understand what your own manager is doing now, or what challenges he will face soon. It truly allows you to connect the dots and reflect more about your own company environment. Besides that, this book is very practical. It's very easy to understand each point and how to approach each problem. Of course, each company is different and you can't have a cooking-recipe that works everywhere: you still need to adapt based on your environment, but you are much clearer on how to do it, and what should you pay attention to. This is much better than most other books out there that focus on banalities everyone already knows, or only stick to an abstract level such that you don't know much more than when you started reading them. I can't recommend enough that book.

There's a lot to admire in this book by Will Larson. It's clearly a labour of love but it covers so much of the same ground from so many angles it feels like it's sometimes battering you over the head with its opinions. Despite saying it's not a manual for the engineering manager - I would totally disagree. I think this is an excellent manual for the new or old engineering manager - a perfect resource for you to dip into when you are confronted with tricky situations. I would certainly lean on this and learn from Will's experience so long as you put the advice into his context. In the post-VC world we need to be a bit more human but there is still great value here.

An Elegant Puzzle is to date the most hands-on perspective on engineering management within a high-growth, tech-first organization, that I have read. It's a long overdue book for engineering managers and leads. I like how it takes an engineering-focused view on management, instead of taking a management-focused view on software engineering, that other books on this topic have. Having read many management and engineering management books, what set Will's book apart is it starts right where the others end. An Elegant Puzzle wastes no time - especially not in the beginning - on covering the generic manager's toolkit, such as 1:1s, giving feedback, team building, which many other books devote a good chunk of their content. Instead, it talks about the engineering pain points that come with a high-growth organization and team, once management fundamentals are in place. What to do when our systems are slowing us down, but we have too many migrations? What's a good way to pay down tech debt? How do we say no, when there is so much work, but not enough people? How do we grow seniority evenly across the team? The tone of the book is casual: it feels like we're sitting with Will, having coffee, while he talks about problems he's faced at different companies, systemic approaches he's seen work best, then giving examples of things that worked for him, in the past. I like how the book rarely presents "best" approaches, instead, Will shares what worked for him - with a healthy dose of systems thinking - and approaches he recommends to his peers and managers on his team. The book is a good read for product managers and engineers working at high-growth companies will find it a good read. Other disciplines working with engineering - such as recruiters or operations - can get more empathy towards engineering, when reading it. The head of product at a large startup recently told me how she was devouring over the book and a recruiting manager, who read the book, shared how he thought the book translates well to managing people in his field.

I recently completed a read of this on my Kindle, and promptly bought three physical copies to share with other leaders within my workplace. Page for page, this is the best contemporary IT management book I've read in the past year. That the author (as of this review) works at Stripe, and that the company saw fit to publish this book, is one of the best bits of endorsements for a company I've encountered in quite a while. The author and their editor have done a superb job of distilling a significant amount of value into a brief and accessible text. Included within are recommendations on everything from organizational design, tools to improve the act of engineering management, higher-level approaches to tackling common problems within the field, and specific methods by which you can shape an organizational culture. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover more than a token acknowledgement of the importance of creating and fostering a diverse workforce, something too easily overlooked in the tech industry. Finally, there are a wealth of additional book recommendations (thoughtfully re-listed in the appendix) to further your own learning. I have worked in management roles within the tech startup scene and in more traditional enterprise IT environments. Of the recommendations found within this book that I've personally implemented or seen in my career, I agree with the author's perspective on their value. Of the ones I haven't, this gave me the vocabulary and a framework to explain how they can address problems of which my current workplace is suffering. I look forward to trying them out.

He’s a very intelligent, passionate author and applies some important, practical opinions to engineering management. Good collection of blog posts.

I really like this book. An Elegant Puzzle really clicked for me especially the way it ties DevOps principles to broader team architecture. Will Larson ownership and iteration shape real outcomes. I appreciated how it reinforced quality as a cultural choice. The book’s take on continuous improvement felt grounded, practical, and surprisingly motivating.

I enjoyed the approach taken by the author, although I felt the author was a bit overly prescriptive at times. I'd still recommend this book as a practical introduction to a no-nonsense attitude towards supporting organizations.

I am new to EM and needed a primer. I appreciate how the author just dives right in! Everything is explained concisely and often visually. The book design is excellent for a quick reference. I would recommend this over many other management books I have ready lately.

While ordering this book online, I was little sceptical about getting an original one or a copied version. Had faced it before, but kudos to seller this is original version. Delivered in good packaging. Happy with purchase.

Real life ideas and experiences shared by Will. I got several notes for things that I want to apply to my team.

The book wasn't as easy to read as I anticipated. The author gives some good insights, but most of them don't go too deep. Sometimes I felt the book was giving so many ideas on how to approach a lot of things. It's a good way to start thinking about many aspects of leadership.

The book is an extensive, hands-on collection of practices for engineering managers at different stages of their career and their toolkit evolving with them as time goes by. It also gives a sense of the various constraints that apply at different organization sizes and how to work with (or around) them.

Great book for developing managers.