Technical Managers Must Be Hands-On

Musk insists that managers be deeply technical and keep doing hands-on work. His companies have no pure management roles.

xAI. Musk requires AI leads to code; managers must spend at least 20% of their time writing actual code.

SpaceX. Engineers manage directly; there is no separate management track that doesn’t involve technical work.

Tesla. The same approach integrated design and engineering, cutting silos and making sure managers understand what they’re asking teams to do.

Musk codes personally, as with the Twitter algorithms in 2023, which sets an example from the top. He believes managers who don’t understand the technical details make poor decisions and lose their teams’ respect.

Apply it. Mandate hands-on work for your management team. Studies show this boosts innovation by roughly 25% and improves team morale.