working-with-architects
Working With Architects
Before Starting
Check for EM context first. If .agents/em-context.md exists, read it.
If .agents/em-context.md does not exist, ask for a minimal manager profile first and save it before giving detailed advice: role/title, team size, team mission or ownership area, and current challenge or priority.
If a specific person is central to the conversation and .agents/reports/[name].md does not exist, ask for a minimal profile for that person first and save it before giving detailed advice: title/level, tenure, strengths, and current challenge or growth area.
If the conversation reveals durable new context later, update .agents/em-context.md or .agents/reports/[name].md automatically. Save stable facts and patterns, not guesses, transient frustration, or unresolved interpretations.
Response Style
Keep the first answer concise and useful. Do not dump the whole framework unless the user asks for depth.
More from manager-dot-dev/manager-skills
managing-up
Helps EMs build a reliable relationship with their manager, navigate disagreements with leadership, and communicate upward effectively. Use when the user says "managing up," "my manager," "I disagree with a decision," "I need to push back," "my skip level," "communicating with leadership," "my manager committed my team without asking," "how do I tell my boss," or "senior leadership." Do NOT use for influencing peers or cross-functional stakeholders (use influence) or for general EM self-reflection (use managing-yourself).
48feedback
Covers both giving and getting feedback — structures and scripts feedback conversations (positive, constructive, or behavioral) and provides techniques for drawing honest feedback from your own team. Produces SBI-framed feedback statements, opening lines for hard conversations, scripts for real situations, ways to handle resistance, and methods for extracting real feedback from reports. Use when the user wants to give someone feedback, says "how do I tell someone," "this person is struggling," "address a behavior," "hard conversation," "someone is underperforming," "praise this person," "write feedback for," "I need to say something," "difficult conversation," "get feedback from my team," "my team won't give me feedback," "blind spots," or "what does my team think of me." Do NOT use for formal annual or performance reviews (use performance-reviews) or sensitive HR situations that go beyond feedback (use difficult-situations).
47team-health
Helps engineering managers assess and improve team health across morale, cohesion, delivery culture, and engagement — produces Google's 5 Factors (Project Aristotle), a 4-state team health diagnosis (Falling Behind / Treading Water / Repaying Debt / Innovating), a 5-zone intensity model, the Engagement Stack, the Trust Battery, Teamicide patterns (Peopleware), a blameless postmortem format, and a library of team activities organized by driver. Use when the user says "team morale," "team is struggling," "burnout," "engagement," "attrition risk," "psychological safety," "team dynamics," "something feels off," "team culture," "team is unhappy," "retros aren't working," "team isn't working hard enough," "ideas for team activities," or "how do I run a team offsite." Do NOT use for individual performance concerns (use `managing-high-performers`), team staffing or hiring (use `team-composition`), or individual motivation interventions (use `engineer-motivation`).
47delegation
Guides managers out of the bottleneck role — provides the Team Rep pattern, Epic Ownership model, Task-Relevant Maturity framework, kingdom ownership, and three-layer assignment strategy. Use when the user wants to delegate work or says "I'm doing everything," "team isn't taking ownership," "I can't let go," "team rep," "project ownership," "I'm the go-to person," "bus factor," "I work weekends," "how do I delegate," or "engineers don't take initiative." Do NOT use for managing a specific underperformer (use performance-reviews) or deciding what work to prioritize (use roadmap-planning).
47managing-high-performers
Guides engineering managers through the specific challenges of managing top engineers — produces a four-quadrant ability/confidence diagnostic, the Rock Star vs. Superstar distinction, common mistakes to avoid, a stagnation diagnostic (Diminishing XP), and a Pusher vs. Puller framework for managing burnout and team friction. Use when the user says "rockstar engineer," "superstar," "high performer," "brilliant jerk," "wants promotion," "hardest to manage," "overconfident," "my best developer is burning out," "engineer is frustrated," or "my best developer is pushing me." Do NOT use for standard underperformance (use performance-reviews) or general motivation questions (use engineer-motivation).
441on1s
Prepares agendas, diagnoses struggling 1:1 relationships, and gives frameworks for running effective 1:1 meetings with direct reports. Use when the user wants to prepare for, run, improve, or follow up on a 1:1, or says "1:1 agenda," "prepare for my 1:1," "1:1 notes," "what should I talk about with," "my direct report," "check in with my report," "make my 1:1s better," "1:1 template," or "my 1:1s feel like status updates." Do NOT use when the user needs to deliver specific feedback (use feedback) or discuss performance reviews (use performance-reviews).
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