korrents
Ben Kuhn

What Ben Kuhn thinks about management

@ben-kuhn · 23 positions · On ppll ↗

Software engineer and writer; former CTO of Wave, now at Anthropic. Blogs at benkuhn.net on attention, engineering management and doing hard things well.

Ben Kuhn did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

Filter management · Newest first
Topic
All 23management 13ideas vs execution 2ambition 1America 1behavioural science 1developer tools 1hiring 1infrastructure 1mental models 1
7 more topics
optimism 1patience 1social media 1software quality 1taste 1team size 1writing 1
Sort
NewestOldest

Only Ben Kuhn on management. See everyone on management

13 dated positions, 2023 to 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Ben Kuhn has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingPeople who can reliably make outcomes happen without oversight are rare and are the real bottleneck on how much an organization can take on at once.

    Their wordsPeople who can be trusted to make something inevitable are really rare, and are typically the bottleneck for how many different things a team or company can do at once.

    ↗Impact, agency, and tastebenkuhn.net 2nd of 3 in this piece

  2. 3 weeks earlier

  3. Our readingA manager's own individual technical output drops by roughly 10-20% per engineer they manage.

    Their wordsyou should expect to have something like 10-20% less individual output per engineer you manage, depending on how experienced you are, they are, etc., and with substantial week-to-week variance.

    ↗Advice for time management as a managerbenkuhn.net 1st of 2 in this piece

  5. Our readingNew managers are more likely to under-manage (be too hands-off) than to micromanage.

    Their wordsThe stereotype is that new managers often micromanage, but at Wave, I've noticed that new managers often err on the side of undermanaging, or being too hands-off, perhaps out of a desire to signal that they trust their reports.

    ↗Advice for time management as a managerbenkuhn.net 2nd of 2 in this piece

  6. 2 weeks earlier

  7. Our readingThe biggest risk in a large project is failing to raise the alarm early enough, and a concrete plan is the best defense against that.

    Their wordsOne of the most common megaproject failure modes is to not freak out soon enough, and having a concrete plan is the best antidote.

    ↗How I've run major projectsbenkuhn.net 1st of 3 in this piece

  9. Our readingThe best project managers are usually not the strongest technical individual contributors.

    Their wordsThe best project-managers are often not the strongest technical ICs.

    ↗How I've run major projectsbenkuhn.net 2nd of 3 in this piece

  10. 8 months earlier

  11. Our readingIt is rare to find one person who is great at every dimension of team leadership.

    Their wordsTeam leadership covers a huge array of things-as you can see from how long this post is-and trying to find someone who can be great at all of them is often a unicorn hunt.

    ↗Categories of leadership on technical teamsbenkuhn.net 1st of 3 in this piece

  13. Our readingA people manager needs enough technical depth to follow discussions and judge debates without relying on trust, but not the deepest technical expertise on the team.

    Their wordsThe bar I typically suggest is that the people manager doesn't need to have the most technical depth on the team, but they need enough depth that they can follow most discussions without slowing them down, understand who's correct in most debates without needing to rely on trust, and generally stay oriented easily.

    ↗Categories of leadership on technical teamsbenkuhn.net 2nd of 3 in this piece

  15. Our readingGood project management is nearly invisible when things are going well.

    Their wordsGood project management is barely visible-it just feels like "things humming along."

    ↗Categories of leadership on technical teamsbenkuhn.net 3rd of 3 in this piece

  16. 8 days earlier

  17. Our readingTrust between colleagues comes from shared mental models built through mutual investment.

    mental models

    Their wordsTrust comes from common knowledge of shared mental models, and that takes investment from both sides to build.

    ↗Trust as a bottleneck to growing teams quicklybenkuhn.net 1st of 2 in this piece

  19. Our readingFast-growing companies will never achieve full pairwise trust between all employees.

    Their wordsIn a large, fast-growing company you'll probably never get to the utopian ideal of full pairwise trust between everyone-it takes too long to build.

    ↗Trust as a bottleneck to growing teams quicklybenkuhn.net 2nd of 2 in this piece

  20. 5 months earlier

  21. Our readingMost workplace problems have more than one person contributing to them, not a single culprit.

    Their wordsSometimes this is true, but usually problems aren't a single person's fault!

    ↗How I build and run behavioral interviewsbenkuhn.net 3rd of 3 in this piece

  22. 10 months earlier

  23. Our readingDelegation and oversight should be matched to how experienced and autonomous a person is at that specific task, not applied uniformly.

    Their wordsManage projects according to the owner's level of task-relevant maturity.

    ↗Some mistakes I made as a new managerbenkuhn.net 1st of 3 in this piece

  25. Our readingPeople with little experience at a task often welcome a degree of close oversight, provided it is given thoughtfully.

    Their wordsPeople with low task-relevant maturity appreciate some amount of micromanagement (if they're self-aware and you're nice about it).

    ↗Some mistakes I made as a new managerbenkuhn.net 2nd of 3 in this piece