First-Manager Trial: A Practical Charter for Startups

Before making an engineer’s first management appointment permanent, agree what the temporary role involves, which engineering work comes off their plate, who supports them, and how the assignment ends. Put the return to an individual contributor role in writing too. A first-manager trial needs a real job, enough authority to do it, and a decision date.

The Hacker News discussion of Mandy Brown’s November 3 essay, Petered, brings promotion pressure back into view. Brown’s commentary raises a useful question for a founder: does the next title lead toward work this person wants and can learn to do? A temporary assignment gives you a way to examine that question together. It does not guarantee a good promotion decision.

This guide starts after someone has expressed interest in management. It gives you a charter to fill in and a worked example of recording and interpreting observed work.

Confirm there is management work to try

Start by naming the organizational need. Perhaps a founder can no longer give engineers useful feedback while coordinating delivery. Perhaps an existing manager needs someone to take responsibility for a defined group. Write down the responsibilities that need an owner before choosing the title.

Then ask the engineer whether they want to try that work. Resolving technical incidents does not tell you whether someone wants to coach colleagues, give difficult feedback, or spend their day helping others make decisions. Keep a credible technical career path available.

There is empirical reason to separate current performance from readiness for a different job. In their 2019 Quarterly Journal of Economics study, Alan Benson, Danielle Li and Kelly Shue examined sales workers at 131 firms. They found that employers prioritized current-job performance in promotions at the expense of other observed characteristics that better predicted managerial performance. The study concerns sales workers; it does not establish how often engineering promotions fail or prove that management trials work.

You also need a sponsor who remains available when the new manager reaches the edge of their authority. If nobody can coach them, handle escalations, or take over when necessary, fill that gap before starting. Direct reports still need dependable management during someone else’s career experiment.

Fill in the first-manager trial charter

Complete this together before announcing the assignment. The charter below is an operating worksheet, not a validated assessment instrument. Keep it in the appropriate restricted record and share the parts that affected colleagues need to understand.

Make the engineering handover specific. “Spend less time coding” leaves every previous commitment in place. Name the project, maintenance duty or on-call responsibility that moves, and the person accepting it. If a technical responsibility stays, include it in the agreed workload.

Do the same with authority. Running planning meetings while the founder privately changes every priority gives you little evidence about independent management judgment. Explain which tradeoffs the person can settle and when they should ask for help. Keep sensitive employment decisions with the appropriate authorized owner.

GitLab’s engineering handbook offers a first-party example of trying management responsibilities and planning a possible return to the technical track. Its promotions and transfers guidance distinguishes temporary acting roles from interim promotion paths. Those are GitLab’s practices, rather than universal rules for titles, pay or duration. Choose your decision date around the work the person will have a genuine opportunity to perform.

Collect evidence from the work you agreed

Use concrete management behaviors to decide what to observe. Google’s account of its manager research highlights coaching, empowerment, communication, development and decision-making. Those behaviors are useful prompts; Google’s findings do not turn your worksheet into a universal management test.

For each observation, record the situation, what the person did, the context and what remains uncertain. Ask for feedback from affected people without requiring them to disclose personal concerns in a shared document. The sponsor should provide a separate route for sensitive feedback and support.

Keep three states distinct: observed, not yet observed, and blocked by the setup. Someone cannot demonstrate delegation if every decision returns to the founder. An assignment without a relevant opportunity leaves a question open; it does not establish inability.

Consider this fictional example. Sam is a senior engineer temporarily managing a small product team. The founder sponsors the assignment, transfers Sam’s migration project to another engineer, and retains approval of employment decisions. At the agreed review, they examine this evidence:

This record supports a conversation. It cannot calculate whether Sam should become a manager. Nor does one favorable example establish sustained competence. The sponsor and Sam still need to consider the role’s full scope, the team’s experience and Sam’s wish to continue.

If your discussion drifts toward ranking general potential, return to the actual responsibilities. A nine-box talent review addresses a broader development question; this assignment needs evidence about specific work.

Decide how the assignment ends

Hold the decision meeting on the agreed date, even when the evidence is incomplete. Review what happened against the charter and identify any changes in scope or support. Give the engineer room to say the management role does not suit them.

There are three useful outcomes:

• Make the appointment permanent: explain the evidence, remaining development needs and agreed responsibilities. Complete the normal role and pay process.
• Extend for a named missing opportunity: state what remains unobserved, how that opportunity will occur, who provides support and the new decision date. Avoid an indefinite temporary role.
• Return to engineering: activate the agreed IC role and management handover. Tell the team who now owns decisions and support.

A promise that someone can return means little if their previous work has vanished and no alternative has been discussed. Revisit the return arrangement when circumstances change during the trial. Do not wait until the final meeting to discover that the option is no longer available.

If the business still needs a manager after a return, treat that vacancy separately. Your engineering manager hiring plan can guide an external search without turning the engineer’s choice into a failure label.

Keep a small progress record in Kit

If you use Kit, the participant can create personal goals for a few agreed development responsibilities and choose due dates that match the review plan. A goal such as “Delegate planning for the next release” gives a check-in something specific to describe. Record a note when the work changes, including a blocked opportunity or an adjustment to scope.

Kit’s Performance goals and check-ins support that record. Authorized managers can use it alongside the evidence plan. The progress percentage records progress on the goal; it is not a score for managerial ability. Keep direct reports’ sensitive personal details in the appropriate restricted records.

The charter and final role decision remain your team’s work. Kit does not provide a built-in manager-trial workflow. Use the next conversation to complete the charter, remove the displaced engineering work and agree who will make the decision when the trial ends.