Manager's Toolbox (C) 2025 by Fabio Cicerchia is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This toolbox is a curated collection of 150+ tools and frameworks designed to support engineering managers and leaders in leading with clarity, empathy, and impact. It covers essential areas like agile coaching, team development, communication, time management, conflict resolution, and stakeholder influence. Special attention is given to supporting both team well-being and your own personal resilience. You’ll also find guidance on legal, HR, and compliance essentials to help navigate the broader responsibilities of leadership.

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Items tagged as MVT refer to Minimum Viable Toolkit: a concept borrowed from the idea of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). A MVT is the leanest combination of tools that enables you (or your team) to deliver real value, test ideas, or operate effectively, without unnecessary complexity or overhead.

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💼 Business

🧭 Strategy & Vision

Crafting direction and long-term goals for your team.

  1. Business Model Canvas – Visual framework for describing business strategy
  2. **SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix** – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats ****MVT
  3. Lean Canvas – Startups’ version of Business Model Canvas ****MVT
  4. Hoshin Kanri – Strategic planning method
  5. North Star Metric Framework – Product and growth alignment ****MVT
  6. PESTLE Analysis – External macro-environmental analysis
  7. Design Thinking – Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test ****MVT

🧑‍🔬 Technical Leadership

Driving technical excellence without micromanagement.

  1. **Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)** MVT
  2. Tech Radar – Technology portfolio overview ****MVT
  3. RFC Process – Request for Comments documentation ****MVT
  4. Code Review Guidelines – Best practices
  5. **Oncall Playbook** – Incident management
  6. Tech Debt Tracker – Jira, Linear templates ****MVT
    1. ClickOps
    2. Risk Register
    3. Tech Debt
  7. Innovation Time / Hack Weeks MVT
    1. Monthly Drills/Katas
      1. http://codekata.com/
      2. https://github.com/gamontal/awesome-katas
    2. Game days
    3. Hackathons
    4. L&D time budget
  8. Blameless Postmortems – Root cause analysis ****MVT
    1. https://safetyiq.com/insight/9-effective-root-cause-analysis-techniques-for-your-business/
    2. https://reliability.com/resources/articles/7-root-cause-analysis-technique/

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏾 People

🧑‍💼 People Management & Development

Leading, mentoring, and growing individuals.

  1. Career Ladder Framework – Clear roles and growth paths ****MVT
    1. https://www.engineeringladders.com/
    2. https://www.levels.fyi/
    3. https://progression.fyi/
  2. Radical Candor – Feedback model (Care Personally, Challenge Directly)
    1. https://www.tombartel.me/blog/a-primer-on-giving-critical-feedback/
  3. Performance Review Template – Fair, consistent evaluation
    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition
  4. Growth Plans / IDPs – Individual Development Plans ****MVT
    1. https://max.pfingsthorn.de/news/2016/09/evaluating-programming-competences/
    2. https://management30.com/practice/competency-matrix/
  5. 1:1 Meeting Templates – Performance, well-being, career ****MVT
    1. https://www.spinach.ai/blog/meetings/121-questions-for-one-on-one-meetings
    2. https://www.washburn.edu/faculty-staff/human-resources/files/franklincovey-100-questions
    3. https://newsletter.canopy.is/p/24-other-ways-to-ask-how-can-i-help
  6. Situational Leadership – Matching leadership style to maturity
    1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/would-i-follow-me-deb-bailey/
  7. Delegation Levels – Ranges from “do as I say” to “own and decide” ****MVT
    1. https://wingassistant.com/blog/7-levels-of-delegation/
    2. https://rhombus-panda-w8ty.squarespace.com/resources/tannenbaum-schmidt-continuum-managers
    3. https://miro.com/templates/delegation-poker/
  8. **StrengthsFinder / CliftonStrengths** – Understand team talents ****MVT
  9. **DISC / MBTI / Enneagram / Big5** – Personality profiling tools ****MVT
  10. Mentoring & Coaching Models – GROW, CLEAR
    1. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai
    2. https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/
  11. **Nine-Box Grid for Talent Review** – Performance vs. potential
  12. Skip-level One-on-Ones – Check pulse from different levels
  13. Burnout Risk Survey – Use quick anonymous check-ins (Likert scale: stress, rest, purpose)
  14. Stay Interviews – Understand and act before people disengage
  15. Behavioral Interview Templates – STAR method
  16. Compensation Benchmarking Tools – Radford, Carta, Levels.fyi
  17. Onboarding Checklists – 30/60/90-day goals
  18. **Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)** – Culture health pulse
  19. Diversity Recruiting Scorecards – Inclusive hiring metrics
  20. Employee Engagement Models – Gallup Q12, AON Hewitt

🧱 Culture & Team Building

Fostering a healthy, inclusive, and motivated team.

  1. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Programs – Intentional hiring and growth
  2. Team Agreements & Working Agreements MVT
  3. Virtual Team Building Activities
  4. Rituals & Celebrations – Wins, anniversaries, offsites ****MVT
  5. **Team Norms Canvas** MVT
  6. Code of Conduct – Behavior standards
  7. Recognition Tools – Bonusly, Kudos, HeyTaco
  8. Team Health Radar – Track team dynamics (tools: Atlassian, Spotify model) ****MVT

📢 Communication

⚙️ Process