> Engineering mindset” is a thing. You don’t actually have to be an engineer to manage an engineering team, but you have to understand what engineering is and engineering culture, as well as grasping the basic fundamental concepts of the field

I wish this was more common but every time I had a manager without an engineering background or one who was a weak engineer, the ride was not smooth to put it kindly.

At a minimum managers need to understand the basics of software: code debts, release cycles, team workflows, infra basics, security, etc.

They don't need to be software engineers but they should have an overview of the industry.