Tech Managers Should Spend 80% Coding, 20% Managing

There has long been a debate about whether technical managers should write code.

Some people claim that a technical manager’s duties consist of meetings, resource coordination, project advancement, and team mentoring, leaving little room for coding.

The author disagrees, maintaining that a technical manager must write code and that roughly 80% of their time should be spent on coding while 20% is allocated to management.

If a manager stops coding, several problems arise: they become detached from the team, lose a clear sense of feature complexity, grow uncertain about technical decisions, and risk losing the team’s technical respect.

When a technical manager loses technical judgment, can they still lead the team?

Activities such as writing code, debugging, code review, and analyzing production issues will inevitably degrade if they are not practiced.

When a manager only listens to reports—e.g., developers saying “Solution A is better” or architects claiming large changes—they end up relying on second‑hand information rather than the product and code itself.

Excellent technical managers should be able to step in personally when the team encounters difficult problems, rather than merely delegating.

Some argue the issue is not a lack of desire but a lack of time.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Management is necessary, but its purpose is to help the team develop better software, not to let the manager completely detach from development. A technical manager is first a technologist, then a manager.

The suggested 80% coding does not mean writing everyday business features; it means focusing on high‑value technical work such as core module development, architecture design, code review, technical breakthroughs, and online incident troubleshooting.

Long‑term avoidance of coding weakens a manager’s future job competitiveness.

Many companies still assess technical managers on architecture design, system design, performance optimization, and even on‑site coding during hiring.

After several years without coding, technical abilities are likely to degrade. At that point, pure management cannot compete with professional managers, and technical skills fall behind frontline engineers, putting the manager in an awkward position.

Continuously writing code is not an extra task for a technical manager; it is the most important way to maintain technical judgment, earn team trust, and preserve career competitiveness.