What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Dev Manager

When I first stepped into a dev manager role, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what was coming. I’d been around long enough, led a few projects, mentored juniors, dealt with deadlines. Seemed like a natural next step.

Spoiler: I was wrong.

Becoming a dev manager isn’t a promotion—it’s a whole new job. And while I eventually found my footing, there’s a bunch of stuff I really wish someone had told me upfront.

Here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:

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1. You’re Not Just Managing Code Anymore

This sounds obvious, but I didn’t fully get it until I was deep in.

As a developer, success was about shipping features and solving hard problems. As a manager, success became helping others ship features and solve hard problems—without writing the code myself.

Letting go of “doing the work” was way harder than I expected. But if you’re still trying to be the best coder and manage people, you’ll fail at both.

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2. The Work Is Now Invisible

You fix a toxic process. You help two devs resolve a conflict. You convince leadership not to scope creep the sprint.

Nobody sees it.

There’s no commit history for emotional labor, no ticket for “protected the team from chaos.” But that work? It’s everything.

Managing is mostly invisible—but it’s what makes visible success possible.

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3. You Will Miss Coding (and That’s Okay)

At first, I felt like I’d lost something. That satisfying “flow state” of getting deep into a problem? Gone. Replaced by meetings, 1:1s, and planning sessions.

Full disclosure: I still code but not as much as I used to. And yeah, I missed it.

Eventually I realized: my flow state just looks different now. It’s when I help a dev level up. Or smooth out a cross-team dependency. Or watch a new process click.

It’s a different kind of win—and it still matters.

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4. People Are Not Pull Requests

Devs don’t come with diffs and tests. Their behavior can be inconsistent, unpredictable, emotional—even irrational.

But that’s the job now: figuring out what motivates, supports, and challenges each person in a way that keeps them growing.

No linter will help you with that.

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5. You’re in the Middle (and It Gets Messy)

You’re not just leading your team. You’re translating between leadership and the ground floor. You’re advocating for your people and representing the company.

It’s a balancing act. And yeah, sometimes it sucks. You won’t always agree with the direction. You’ll have to deliver bad news. You’ll feel stuck.

But how you carry yourself through that ambiguity? That’s what defines you as a manager.

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6. Your Team’s Success is the New Scoreboard

The first time one of my team members got promoted—and I had zero lines of code to do with it—I finally got it.

Management isn’t about you leveling up anymore. It’s about building a system where others can.

And when you get that right, it’s incredibly fulfilling.

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Final Thoughts

If you’re stepping into dev management, get ready to feel unqualified, out of your depth, and occasionally nostalgic for the simplicity of code.

But also—get ready to grow in ways you didn’t expect.

You’ll learn to communicate better. Handle uncertainty. Build trust. Navigate chaos. And, eventually, build a team that thrives with or without you.

That’s the real job.

And it’s worth it.