💻 You're Already Managing. Here's How to Do It on Purpose.

We tell two contradictory stories about engineers: that they're great because they're deeply technical, and that management is soft skills. Put them together and you get the myth that great engineers make bad managers — and the assumption that moving between individual contributor, lead, and manager work means starting over each time. Zoe traces her own path from software engineer to team lead to engineering manager inside a fast-moving startup, and what she noticed along the way: the women around her weren't short on the skills leadership looks for, they just weren't seeing enough people who looked like them doing the job. That led her to look closely at what actually separates the three levels, and how much of the next job you're already doing in this one. She'll share the Triple Threat framework she built from it. Seeing precisely what you're already capable of makes you a sharper advocate for yourself, and puts you in a position to be that familiar face for someone else.