1:1 with Andrew Heine, Engineering Manager at Figma

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Oct 28, 2020

• 12 min read

For our series, 1:1 with Engineering Leaders, Code Climate and Codecademy for Business are speaking to managers and VPs about their career journey, leadership strategies, and advice for the next generation of engineers.

Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Andrew Heine, Engineering Manager at Figma. Andrew shared his thoughts on setting learning goals, finding opportunities to take on management responsibilities, and the importance of getting enough sleep. Edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about your current role and how you got there.

My current role is Engineering Manager at Figma on the prototyping team. Prototyping is a feature in Figma...As a manager, you will get some exposure to writing code, but you’ll have way less time to do it. So it worked out well.

What interested you about management?

That aspect of it... it’s valuable for any career path to invest in relationships. As a manager, you do have to really care how people are feeling.

Can you talk a little bit about your transition from IC to manager?

It was great because if you’re at a growing company, it’s super easy to get support in this because often times your own manager might be interested in saying, ‘Hey, I want to manage managers.’

What was it like to manage people who used to be your peers?

It’s interesting and mixed...There could be potential downsides...but at the same time people do want to have a leader, and I think people are pretty encouraging, pretty supportive.

What do you see as a primary role of a manager on an engineering team?

If you were managing a football team...You can change your team by hiring and by training, and you can change the strategies your team uses based on the personality types and the skillsets that you have available to you.

Ultimately, you’re kind of accountable for everything, even though you’re not doing much of the work...you could blame the quarterback for missing a field goal, but really you’re accountable for that quarterback missing the field goal.

Is there a difference between being a manager and being a leader?

There is a difference between management and leadership, but oftentimes it’s the same person.

What are the biggest challenges that you’ve faced since stepping into a management role?

One is time management...It’s pretty easy to over-commit...You also can’t let go 100%.

How do you help your team members grow?

As individuals, there are a couple of ways to grow. One is by doing a thing that’s challenging...Being very conscious about goal setting is also important.

What advice do you have for new managers?

The number one priority is to build good relationships with people...Your number one deliverable as a manager is trust.

Is there anything else that you think is important to say that we didn’t touch on already?

Drink lots of water...get regular sleep. Software engineering is such a mental thing, but taking care of your body is going to pay off pretty quickly when you don’t have wrist issues and you’re not burnt out.