Maslow’s hierarchy of needs models human motivation as a pyramid. Physical needs like food and water form the base, with several layers stacked up all the way to self-actualisation. Re-applying this pyramid to team needs is one of the simplest and most enduring frameworks I use as an engineering manager.

In my first management role, I found it hard to judge whether I was spending time on the right things. Software engineering is full of fast feedback loops: passing tests, code reviews, observability metrics, and user feedback. Suddenly as a manager you’re accountable for decisions that will play out over months with sometimes fuzzy success criteria. This framework helped me to get more intentional with my time.

I think about 3 basic layers of work: foundational, tactical, and strategic. The idea is that you strive to focus your energy further up the pyramid, but this is hard to maintain without satisfying the needs of the layers below.

Foundational

Foundational work creates the conditions for a team that’s self-sustaining and delivering incremental value. For example:

Team health (motivation, cohesion, feedback culture, individual growth)
Structure (role fit, open positions)
Process (planning, retrospectives, visibility of progress)
Standards (on-call, SLAs)

These are the sort of topics you might cover in a team charter. Who are we? What are we trying to do? What’s our operating model? This layer of the pyramid is satisfied by a fully-staffed team of motivated people working towards common goals.

Tactical

Tactical work is the realm of prioritization and optimisation. Have we selected the most impactful projects? Are we moving at the right pace? Are we innovating?

I believe the work of building high-performing teams sits in this layer. A happy and productive team is a foundation, but teams usually don’t achieve their full potential without some targeted intervention. The specific actions will be different for every team. Perhaps it’s fostering a deeper connection with users, building a culture of ownership, or sponsoring a new initiative. Ultimately, the tactical layer is about driving change that will lead to better outcomes for the team.

Strategic

Strategy sits at the top of the pyramid. It can be difficult to make headspace for strategy when you’re busy managing a team. Luckily this type of work has a long time horizon and changes infrequently when you get it right.

The goal is to maintain continuous alignment between the mission of your team and the direction of the business. This often takes the form of OKRs or a quarterly planning cycle. I’d also put technical strategy in this bucket, especially if it might influence team structure (e.g. build vs. buy decisions or major technology choices).

Navigating the pyramid

Just like in the original hierarchy of needs, you can skip to higher layers at your own risk. I’d find it uncomfortable to invest in optimising project prioritisation if my team was struggling with a more basic need like morale. However, there might be cases where you need the bones of a strategy to build the right foundations.

Interrupts

Managers deal with unexpected events all the time. Entropy happens. A sudden resignation will pull you into foundational work. A must-do regulatory project will pull you into tactical work. This is totally normal. In these scenarios, the pyramid is a useful prompt to consider what you’re actively deprioritising.

Growing as a manager