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Engineering Management
What engineering managers should actually measure.
September 3, 2026 · 6 min read
Every metric changes behaviour. That is the point — and the danger. Measure lines of code or tickets closed and you get more lines and more tickets.
01
Signals worth watching
| Signal | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Lead time for changes | How quickly an idea reaches users |
| Deployment frequency | Whether releasing is routine or scary |
| Change failure rate | Quality of what ships |
| Time to restore | How the team handles incidents |
| Escaped defects | What testing misses |
| Unplanned work share | How much capacity firefighting takes |
02
Use them as questions, not targets
These numbers are conversation starters. A spike in lead time might mean a hard problem, not a slow team. The value is in asking why, together.
I build and lead teams around systems where reliability matters. If you're designing an offline workflow, evaluating an architecture, or untangling a queue that has become part of your product, I'm happy to compare notes.
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