What does a SDM do

A SDM is a leader and manager at the same time. Leaders walk in the front; while managers push from behind. Leaders inspire and managers deliver. Both roles are necessary to grow people and get the job done. A SDM needs to have four pillar skills: 1. People management. A SDM needs to handle the end to end of talent sourcing, hiring, growing, rentention, reviewing, promotion, compensation and occasionally low performance management. But more importantly a good SDM creates the org structure that maps nicely to the desired system architecture. Conway's Law states that “Organizations, who design systems, are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” A SDM sets up the feedback loop to promote good behaviors and discourage bad behaviors. A SDM earns trust from their own team, their peers and people they report to. 2. Technical leadership. A SDM may not write code on daily basis but a good one needs to be well versed in system architecture and software development best practices. A SDM needs to make calls on “why and when and what” to do, while a team leader focuses more on “how” to deliver results. At the end of the day, a good SDM can connect the dots of projects into a line that drives towards a cohesive vision, while a bad SDM only reacts to circumstances, “one damn thing after another”. 3. Project management. A SDM should be knowledgeable to all the modern project management methodologies: waterfall, agile, scrum, kanban, lean and six sigma etc. But a pragmatic SDM is not a fanatic of any one particular methodology. They understand these are just tools that help a group of people to achieve common goals, and communicate to stakeholders effectively. They use milestones and dates to manage stakeholders’ expectations. They practice delivering incremental values and collecting feedbacks from stakeholders early and continuously. They understand the heuristic nature of engineering. They use iterations to improve and gain deeper understanding on requirements. They “keep eyes on the moon, not the finger pointing to the moon”. 4. Product sense. Product sense is about emphacy to customers’ need (Customer Obsession), working backwards from there, and come up with creative solutions (Invent and Simplify, Think Big). Product sense is strategic while project management is tactical. Project is a tree while product is a forest. A good SDM can work on a tree while sharpening their awareness on the forest. Nobody can excel in all four pillars but a good SDM is aware of their strength and weakness. They maybe opinionated but they understand the importance of “Are right a lot”. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” Lao Tzu