First Principles
Universal truths about leadership, systems thinking, and human behavior — foundational ideas that guide how great leaders operate.
Coming soon!Engineering Leadership Handbook
A reference for engineering leaders at all levels — grounded in systems thinking, human behavior, and real-world experience.
What You’ll Find Here
Section titled “What You’ll Find Here”The Foundation
Section titled “The Foundation”These are universal in nature and provide the foundation for all other layers.
Laws
Well-known patterns and system laws observed in organizations, from Conway’s Law to Goodhart’s Law — each grounded in research or real-world experience.
Explore laws →Context-Specific Guidance
Section titled “Context-Specific Guidance”These are context-specific and provide guidance for how to proceed in specific situations.
Values
Values are the abstract ideas we hold most dear. Values inform our beliefs and guide our actions. Principles and tenets flow from our values and describe how we put them into practice. Every company chooses and prioritizes its values, but the set of distinct values to draw from is finite.
This section captures the vast majority of common values with reasons for and against. As values are context-specific, these are meant as a resource for you to draw from when deciding your own organization’s values rather than a recommendation.
Coming soon!Tenets
Great tenets provide clear direction for how to proceed when forced to choose between competing values. They provide a clear guidance for what your organization should prioritize. As tenets are based in values and context-specific needs, you must choose the tenets which are most-applicable to your organization’s needs.
While tenets are not universal, many common tenets have stood the test of time. Here we attempt to present a balanced view as well as guidelines of when to consider adopting them for your organization.
Coming soon!Recommended Practices
Repeatable leadership behaviors and implementation patterns — from “never surprise someone in a review” to “run skip-levels quarterly.”
Coming soon!Books & Resources
A curated list of engineering leadership books for new and experienced managers.
Explore books →Designed for engineering leaders at all levels
Section titled “Designed for engineering leaders at all levels”- Senior+ Engineers who influence others without formal authority
- Engineering Managers seeking clarity and confidence
- Directors, VPs, and CTOs who want to document, teach, or challenge leadership beliefs
- Leadership coaches and community contributors who want a structured way to engage
What it is
Section titled “What it is”- A curated set of foundational truths, laws, and principles spanning behavioral psychology, human nature, communication, leadership, management, and engineering.
- A trusted, open resource grounded in universal truths, not opinion.
- A foundation others can cite, disagree with, or expand upon.
- A community-curated reference
What it’s not
Section titled “What it’s not”- How To’s for implementing specific patterns.
- Architecture or low-level code quality advice. This is out of scope, and there are many excellent resources for that.
Why this exists
Section titled “Why this exists”The Engineering Leadership Handbook exists to help technical leaders:
- Make better decisions by understanding universal and contextual truths
- Communicate more clearly using shared language and documented tradeoffs
- Contribute to a larger body of knowledge without reinventing the wheel
- In particular, this is a resource the project creator wishes existed when they were first learning about leadership