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An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management

by Will Larson (Author)
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A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt.

There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies.

Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.
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  1. ISBN-10
    1732265186
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1732265189
  3. Publisher
    Stripe Press
  4. Publication date
    May 20, 2019
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
  7. Print length
    288 pages
  8. See all details
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  1. What's it about?

    A guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt, providing practical solutions for leaders of all levels.

  2. Popular highlight

    Organizational design gets the right people in the right places, empowers them to make decisions, and then holds them accountable for their results.
    2,336 Kindle readers highlighted this

  3. Popular highlight

    An important property of teams is that they abstract the complexities of the individuals that compose them. Teams with fewer than four individuals are a sufficiently leaky abstraction that they function indistinguishably from individuals.
    1,804 Kindle readers highlighted this

  4. Popular highlight

    A team is innovating when their technical debt is sustainably low, morale is high, and the majority of work is satisfying new user needs.
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From the Publisher

will larson, business culture, business growth, engineering management, management philosophy

will larson, business culture, business growth, engineering management, management philosophy

will larson, business culture, business growth, engineering management, management philosophy

will larson, business culture, business growth, engineering management, management philosophy

'A masterful study of engineering management'

"An Elegant Puzzle is a masterful study of the challenges and demands of the discipline of engineering management viewed through the prism of systems thinking. Readers can expect an actionable template for addressing complex problems with finesse, creativity and fairness."

—Cindy Sridharan, Distributed Systems Engineer and author of Distributed Systems Observability

'Captures the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving'

"Software engineering is evolving faster than ever before. What principles are durable in a time of so much change and what are the contemporary pain points that may change in the future but cannot be ignored today? In An Elegant Puzzle, Will Larson captures the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving that draws us to software engineering while also providing concrete strategies for modern organizations."

—Jeffrey Meyerson, Host of Software Engineering Daily

'An Elegant Puzzle will become your favorite go-to resource'

"Engineering Managers can often feel like they are struggling to keep their head above the water. Our technical training is missing the frameworks and tools needed to build healthy and productive teams. The insights and step-by-step approach covered in An Elegant Puzzle will become your favorite go-to resource."

—Oren Ellenbogen, VP Engineering at Forter, Curator of Software Lead Weekly newsletter

will larson, business culture, business growth, engineering management, management philosophy

About the author

Will Larson has been an engineering leader and software engineer at technology companies of many shapes and sizes, including Yahoo!, Digg, SocialCode, Uber, and, since 2016, Stripe.

He grew up in North Carolina, studied Computer Science at Centre College in Kentucky, spent a year in Japan for the JET Program teaching English, and has been living in San Francisco since 2009.

An Elegant Puzzle draws from the writing in his blog, Irrational Exuberance!, that he has been updating since graduating from college. It is currently, and will always be, a work in progress.

An introduction from Will Larson

Some people go into management out of a desire to be of service. Others become managers in a cynical pact, exchanging excitement in their current role for the prospect of continued salary bumps and promotions. There are even folks who initially go into management because they’re entirely fed up with their own manager and are convinced that they could do better.

I won’t say which of those, if any, describes me.

Regardless of what motivation first brings you into management, it can feel as if you’ve entered a troubled profession. Skilled practitioners are scarce, and only the exceptional company is willing to invest in growing its managers.

As I’ve become more experienced, my appreciation for management, and engineering management in particular, has grown, and I’ve come to view the field as a series of elegant, rewarding, and important puzzles. This book is a collection of those puzzles, which I’ve had the good fortune to struggle with and learn from.

If you finish the entire book, you won’t walk into your office the next day as a perfect manager (I remain grateful for the days I walk into the office feeling like a marginally competent one), but I hope that it’ll stimulate questions about how you’re approaching management, provide a few new approaches for you to experiment with, and help you take a few steps further down the path of engineering management.

stripe press, innovation, new ideas, business, creative management

About the publisher

Stripe Press publishes books about economic and technological advancement. Stripe partners with hundreds of thousands of the world’s most innovative businesses—organizations that will shape the world of tomorrow. These businesses are the result of many different inputs. Perhaps the most important ingredient is "ideas." Stripe Press highlights ideas that we think can be broadly useful. Some books contain entirely new material, some are collections of existing work reimagined, and others are republications of previous works that have remained relevant over time or have renewed relevance today.

Other titles by Stripe Press:

  • High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil
  • The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop
  • Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen
  • Revolt of the Public by Martin Gurri
  • Get Together by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto
  • The Making of Prince of Persia by Jordan Mechner
  • The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard W. Hamming
  • Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Software engineering is evolving faster than ever before. What principles are durable in a time of so much change and what are the contemporary pain points that may change in the future but cannot be ignored today? In An Elegant Puzzle, Will Larson captures the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving that draws us to software engineering while also providing concrete strategies for modern organizations.” --Jeffrey Meyerson, Host of Software Engineering Daily

“An Elegant Puzzle is a masterful study of the challenges and demands of the discipline of engineering management viewed through the prism of systems thinking. Readers can expect an actionable template for addressing complex problems with finesse, creativity and fairness.” --Cindy Sridharan, Distributed Systems Engineer and author of Distributed Systems Observability

“Engineering Managers can often feel like they are struggling to keep their head above the water. Our technical training is missing the frameworks and tools needed to build healthy and productive teams. The insights and step-by-step approach covered in An Elegant Puzzle will become your favorite go-to resource.” --Oren Ellenbogen, VP Engineering at Forter, Curator of Software Lead Weekly newsletter

About the Author

Will Larson has been an engineering leader and software engineer at technology companies of many shapes and sizes, including Yahoo!, Digg, SocialCode, Uber, and Stripe. He grew up in North Carolina, studied computer science at Centre College in Kentucky, and spent a year in Japan teaching English through the JET Programme. An Elegant Puzzle draws from the writing in his blog, Irrational Exuberance!, which he has been updating since graduating from college. It is currently, and will always be, a work in progress. Larson lives in San Francisco.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stripe Press (May 20, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1732265186
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1732265189
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

About the author

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Will Larson

Will Larson

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Will Larson has been an engineering leader and software engineer at technology companies of many shapes and sizes including Calm, Stripe, and Uber. He grew up in North Carolina, studied Computer Science at Centre College in Kentucky, spent a year in Japan on the JET Program teaching English, and has been living in San Francisco since 2009. He writes frequently on his blog, Irrational Exuberance, at lethain.com.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,217 global ratings

Customers say

Customers say the book takes an engineering-focused view on management. They find the content specific, practical, and actionable. Readers also say the reading experience is organized, printed, and well-written.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

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ContentReading experience
34 customers mention "Content"30 positive4 negative

Customers find the content excellent, thoughtful, and useful on a daily basis. They also say it's a fantastic read for all engineers, not just management types, and that it provides good observations and beneficial advice. Readers also mention that the text is rich with references and that the book is a great addition to their collection of EM books.

"...I think this is an excellent manual for the new or old engineering manager - a perfect resource for you to dip into when you are confronted with..." Read more

"...I like how it takes an engineering-focused view on management, instead of taking a management-focused view on software engineering, that other books..." Read more

"This book was a fantastic addition to my collection of EM books. Would highly recommend it!" Read more

"...(for example, restructuring a department), those are still very interesting and eye-opening to read for a junior manager: you get to better..." Read more

9 customers mention "Reading experience"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well written, great, and high quality. They also say the author is passionate and intelligent. Readers also say that the tone of the book is casual and it feels like they're sitting with Will, having coffee.

"...The tone of the book is casual: it feels like we're sitting with Will, having coffee, while he talks about problems he's faced at different companies..." Read more

"...The older book from 2019 looks and feels like a really high quality book; it's beautiful. The book from 2022 looks like a cheap copy...." Read more

"...job of distilling a significant amount of value into a brief and accessible text...." Read more

"...Will's systems approach to management is truly fascinating and well articulate...." Read more

More time and editing was required to successfully merge the blogs into a book.
3 out of 5 stars
More time and editing was required to successfully merge the blogs into a book.
I appreciate Stripe as a company with quality product(s) and have enjoyed the Collison brothers' perspective on various topics from technology, finance, to philosophy and beyond. I decided to look into Stripe Press - intrigued by the themes they would cover and publish.This was the third book I read from the catalogue. It had good observations and beneficial advice. Unfortunately, the quality of the hardcover felt tainted because of typos (some examples attached by photos) and bad editing. There were similar issues in the first book I read, High Growth Handbook. Although I'm still looking forward to the rest of the catalogue, the avoidable mistakes discourage and rub away excitement.
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Top reviews from the United States

Mariusz Wisniewski
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and practical
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2024
Verified Purchase
I was able to immediately borrow a lot of processes and ideas for improvements. Every problem described here sounds so familiar!
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Richard
4.0 out of 5 stars Great value manual for engineering managers
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2024
Verified Purchase
There's a lot to admire in this book by Will Larson. It's clearly a labour of love but it covers so much of the same ground from so many angles it feels like it's sometimes battering you over the head with its opinions. Despite saying it's not a manual for the engineering manager - I would totally disagree. I think this is an excellent manual for the new or old engineering manager - a perfect resource for you to dip into when you are confronted with tricky situations. I would certainly lean on this and learn from Will's experience so long as you put the advice into his context. In the post-VC world we need to be a bit more human but there is still great value here.
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Gergely Orosz
5.0 out of 5 stars An overdue book on software engineering, not just for leads and managers
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
An Elegant Puzzle is to date the most hands-on perspective on engineering management within a high-growth, tech-first organization, that I have read. It's a long overdue book for engineering managers and leads. I like how it takes an engineering-focused view on management, instead of taking a management-focused view on software engineering, that other books on this topic have.

Having read many management and engineering management books, what set Will's book apart is it starts right where the others end. An Elegant Puzzle wastes no time - especially not in the beginning - on covering the generic manager's toolkit, such as 1:1s, giving feedback, team building, which many other books devote a good chunk of their content. Instead, it talks about the engineering pain points that come with a high-growth organization and team, once management fundamentals are in place. What to do when our systems are slowing us down, but we have too many migrations? What's a good way to pay down tech debt? How do we say no, when there is so much work, but not enough people? How do we grow seniority evenly across the team?

The tone of the book is casual: it feels like we're sitting with Will, having coffee, while he talks about problems he's faced at different companies, systemic approaches he's seen work best, then giving examples of things that worked for him, in the past. I like how the book rarely presents "best" approaches, instead, Will shares what worked for him - with a healthy dose of systems thinking - and approaches he recommends to his peers and managers on his team.

The book is a good read for product managers and engineers working at high-growth companies will find it a good read. Other disciplines working with engineering - such as recruiters or operations - can get more empathy towards engineering, when reading it. The head of product at a large startup recently told me how she was devouring over the book and a recruiting manager, who read the book, shared how he thought the book translates well to managing people in his field.
16 people found this helpful
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Zach Larsen
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic EM Book
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2024
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This book was a fantastic addition to my collection of EM books. Would highly recommend it!
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J. Pruetting
3.0 out of 5 stars Hardcover quality went way down
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2022
Verified Purchase
I've ordered the hardcover version of this book twice, once in 2019 and once in 2022. The older book from 2019 looks and feels like a really high quality book; it's beautiful. The book from 2022 looks like a cheap copy. It went from having a smooth, subtle crosshatch texture with off-white and subdued black on the cover to a rough texture with stark white and pure black. The pages also feel thinner and cheaper as well.
8 people found this helpful
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Simon NINON
5.0 out of 5 stars Best management book I have read so far
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2020
Verified Purchase
I bought this book without too many expectations: most management books are usually either poorly written, either full of banalities, either too abstract.

However, this book is one of the rare excellent ones, and most probably a must-read for any manager (probably even outside tech).
I'm a junior manager and I initially thought the book was not a good fit for me as I started to read the first chapter: this book is written by an upper-manager and talks about many problems related to upper-management that a junior manager does not encounter himself, especially in the first two chapters.

However, I kept reading and it was the right thing to do: the book is incredibly complete and covers everything. Many points are actually relevant whether you are a junior manager or a more experienced one. For the other parts more related to upper-management (for example, restructuring a department), those are still very interesting and eye-opening to read for a junior manager: you get to better understand what your own manager is doing now, or what challenges he will face soon. It truly allows you to connect the dots and reflect more about your own company environment.

Besides that, this book is very practical. It's very easy to understand each point and how to approach each problem. Of course, each company is different and you can't have a cooking-recipe that works everywhere: you still need to adapt based on your environment, but you are much clearer on how to do it, and what should you pay attention to. This is much better than most other books out there that focus on banalities everyone already knows, or only stick to an abstract level such that you don't know much more than when you started reading them.

I can't recommend enough that book.
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of information in poor form
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2023
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I have a feeling this book is composition of author's articles which makes reading unpleasant. The content has great value and in most cases is targeted to middle managers
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Bom conteúdo
Reviewed in Brazil on January 7, 2024
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Informações atualizadas, recomendo a leitura
One person found this helpful
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Eduardo Aparicio Cardenes
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for every software engineer and lead
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2024
Verified Purchase
I read from beginning to end and i found truly inspiring with hundreds of lessons for me to use on my day to day, but i recognise that some of the teachings are beyond my current reach domain, but brings me understanding how a business operate allowing to do a better job at my current position
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Tamil Selvan
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
Reviewed in India on April 26, 2022
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Must read for managers who wanna shift from bringing problem to the table to solving them. Because this book builds awareness around every EMs problems in such a simple language. Liked it so much
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for new engineering managers
Reviewed in the Netherlands on February 8, 2021
Verified Purchase
The book is an extensive, hands-on collection of practices for engineering managers at different stages of their career and their toolkit evolving with them as time goes by. It also gives a sense of the various constraints that apply at different organization sizes and how to work with (or around) them.
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Eryx
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for developing managers
Reviewed in Mexico on December 16, 2019
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Great book for developing managers.
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