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Books

An Elegant Puzzle

Editorial pick

Systems of Engineering Management

By Will Larson · Stripe Press · 2019

The book most engineering managers will recommend to their successors.

Framework 200–350 pages(240p) Intermediate Published 2019
Amazon Publisher Goodreads Author site

Editorial take

Engineering management is famously under-served by books, mostly because the field eats its own — every five years the answer shifts, and book authors can't keep up. Larson's strategy is to write about systems and dynamics that persist: org structure, sizing teams, hiring rubrics, oncall, performance reviews, the operating-cadence rituals. The book is more reference than narrative; you'll dip into specific chapters when problems arise. The system that recurs throughout — that managers should think in terms of stocks, flows, and feedback loops — is what distinguishes this from competent-but-bland alternatives.

Last hand-checked 2026-05-18.

Read if you …

  • are a first-time or second-time engineering manager
  • lead a growing engineering org and need a reference for org-design conversations
  • are an IC interviewing for senior staff/principal and want to understand the manager-track view

Skip if you …

  • you wanted a memoir-style narrative — this is closer to a reference book
  • you manage outside engineering — most chapters use engineering-specific examples

If you only read one chapter

Sizing Engineering Teams

The 'team size' chapter is the one most often emailed around as a Google-Docs link. Worth knowing the original.

Key ideas

  • Manage with systems and dynamics, not with anecdotes.
  • Most management problems are flow problems in disguise.
  • Team size: 4–8 engineers; resist 'just one more' — splits over additions.
  • Hiring is the most leveraged management activity. Refuse to lower the bar.

About the book

Will Larson — formerly of Uber, Stripe, Calm, and now Carta — wrote this as a personal field guide that grew into the de facto reference for engineering management. The book is structured as essays around a unifying idea: that engineering organizations are systems with stocks, flows, and feedback loops, and most managerial problems are best solved by intervening on those rather than on individuals.

The writing is dense and reference-style; the book repays dipping more than reading cover-to-cover.

Pairs with

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