The Manager's Path

The standard book for the individual contributor-to-manager transition in technology companies, structured as a progression from mentoring an intern through managing a team, managing managers, and eventually running an engineering organisation. Fournier, who was CTO of Rent the Runway, writes from direct experience and avoids the abstract leadership platitudes that plague most management books. The chapter on managing managers is particularly valuable because it addresses a transition that most engineering organisations handle badly — the moment when your job stops being about technical decisions and becomes about building the system that makes good technical decisions possible. It has become the de facto onboarding text for new engineering managers across the industry.