Effective Engineering Manager

The Effective Engineering Manager podcast provides proven solutions and best practices to software engineering managers of all levels that allow them to effectively manage teams to deliver results on time and with high quality. This podcast is presented to you by Slava Imeshev and Adam Axelrod. Sharing our knowledge, we leverage 25+ years of our combined engineering management experience in getting stuff done. We share practical recommendations on getting stuff done, project and program management, engineering processes and tools, managing horizontally and vertically, establishing and running effective software development lifecycle, effective meetings and time management, building and managing teams, people management, growing engineering and management careers, and more. Please reach out to us if you have feedback or suggestions at contact@effectiveem.com or visit us at https://www.effectiveem.com.

Effective Engineering Manager is a business podcast hosted by Slava Imeshev and Adam Axelrod, with 47 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Slava Imeshev and Adam Axelrod hosts Effective Engineering Manager, a business show with 47 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #46

  Micromanagement

  Sep 4, 202539 minS1

  <p>Micromanagement is one of the most damaging patterns in engineering leadership, yet it often goes unnoticed until morale, productivity, and innovation have already been compromised. In this episode, Slava and Adam examine how micromanagement undermines trust and autonomy in engineering teams, creating bottlenecks and stifling collaboration. Rather than empowering engineers to take ownership, micromanagers overload themselves with tasks that should be delegated, leaving little room for strategic direction or team development.</p> <p>The discussion explores the roots of micromanagement, including a lack of delegation skills, fear of failure in front of one’s own boss, and the absence of...

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  Episode #44

  Effective Cross-functional Collaboration

  Aug 26, 202540 minS1

  <p>Our guest, Ani Mishra – engineering manager at DoorDash – unpacks what it really means to drive cross-functional collaboration as an engineering manager. Ani’s core message: shipping products isn’t just about writing code, it’s about orchestrating diverse disciplines—product, design, data science, operations, and business strategy—so that together they deliver real customer and business value.</p> <p>Ani frames the engineering manager’s role as a conductor of an orchestra: engineers, PMs, designers, and analysts each play their part, but the EM coordinates, empowers, and ensures harmony. Beyond predictability and productivity, EMs must remove engineering bottlenecks, expand experimentation...

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  Episode #43

  Manju Abraham: How Engineering Managers Drive Lasting Change

  Aug 16, 202555 minS1

  <p>In this episode, Manju Abraham – veteran engineering leader at NetApp, Delphix, and HPE – shares hard-earned lessons on driving real change in engineering organizations. Manju reminds us that 70% of change efforts fail not because of poor plans, but because people never truly buy in. Manju’s core message: change doesn’t start with strategy, it starts with belief.</p> <p>Manju emphasizes creating trust and emotional safety so teams feel heard and included. Manju blends proven frameworks like Kotter’s 8 steps, ADKAR, SMART goals, and tactical empathy into a simple playbook: co-create the vision, activate the majority, empower champions, and track prog...

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  Episode #42

  Jeremy Franzen: Operations for Engineering Managers

  Jun 9, 20251h 19mS1

  <p>We are featuring a guest, Jeremy Franzen, an Operations expert with over 30 years of experience running Ops at public companies and startups. Jeremy shares his expertise in building strong collaboration between software engineering and operations teams through open communication, shared goals, feedback loops, joint automation and monitoring, shared security practices, knowledge sharing, and coordinated approaches to incident and change management, all tracked by common performance metrics. In the end, Jeremy provides a checklist that our listeners can start using today to build and run quality production environments together with their Operations teams.</p> <p>We hope you enjoyed this...

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  Episode #43

  Engineering Management and impact of AI on Jobs

  Apr 1, 202535 minS1

  <p>In this second episode of three, we continue with a practical introduction to AI for engineering managers. We share possible impact of AI and Large Language Models, or LLM on the jobs. In the end we provide a checklist for engineering managers to help to stay ahead of the AI curve.</p> <p>We believe better managers will build a better world. We provide consulting services that include customized training for new managers, training on effective engineering management to help companies accomplish more with less, and the fundamentals of building teams from the ground up. Please contact us at...

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