Transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a manager means you will likely have a hard time finding time to engage in technical tasks. If you manage more than 6 or 7 people, it becomes quite difficult to contribute much at all; however, with 4 or fewer team members, you might still be able to contribute to the team’s technical output.
In any case, I believe it is important to stay grounded and continue doing work similar to that of your team. The main issue is that you can no longer contribute in the same way you used to, primarily because you may soon become a bottleneck.
I have discovered a method for staying sharp while maintaining my team’s positive reputation in terms of speed and delivery. I primarily work on Proof of Concept (PoC) projects. This allows me to follow the usual process of any project and “eat my own dog food,” stay connected with business people interested in innovative prototypes, and keep up-to-date with recent advances in technology.