The engineering manager's attention budget

Engineering managers have 100 'attention points' to distribute across five key areas: Delivery, People, Customers & Support, Technical Direction, and Team Future. Most EMs default to only 2-3 areas out of habit rather than intentional allocation. The '10-60 rule' suggests keeping at least 10 points in every area to prevent degradation, while avoiding going over 60 in any single area to prevent neglect elsewhere. Each area is described with minimum viable behaviors, examples of deeper engagement, and the failure modes of under- or over-investing. The framework encourages EMs to periodically audit their attention distribution and adapt to what their team actually needs at a given moment.