This document is intended to focus on how I work and what to expect from me.
TL;DR: I am here to make sure each person on the team feels supported, successful and able to contribute, and that as a team we are working on the things that are most important to ourselves, the company, and users.
- I am here to make sure you are both successful and happy: I want you to improve your technical skills, grow your career, enjoy your work, and believe in both our team's and our company's mission.
- I am here to make sure our team is successful and prioritizing work in a manner that is transparent and focused.
- I am here to make sure our team is getting what we need from other teams, and that other teams are getting what they need from us; I'm also here to help make sure we are working on the right things, which is not necessarily everything we're asked to do.
- I write some code too!
(The above are in approximate order of priority.)
- that everyone has something to contribute and that everyone has things to both teach and learn, and that it's important (at both a team and company level) to understand this.
- that human connection, empathy, and mentorship are as important to engineering as the technical aspect of our work.
- that everyone deserves clear expectations.
- that everyone will agree 100% of the time. Whether it is about work priorities or about technology decisions, none of us will get exactly what we want. I do expect we can all work with what we've got, compromise on some things some of the time, and be a strong team unit.
If you have feedback for me, please give it. It could be something you liked and would like to see more of, something you thought I could do better, something you thought I totally screwed up, or something that doesn't fit in any of these categories. Even if you think it might not be the case, I do want to hear it. And if you think I don't want to hear it, I'd love to hear why you feel that way.
If you can give me this feedback face-to-face (Zoom or in person), that's my preference. If you're only comfortable kicking off a discussion with an email or a Slack message, I would rather you do that than not bring it up at all.
If you're not comfortable giving me some feedback yourself, I'd love for you to give it to someone above me in the management chain so they can anonymously relay it to me.
If you have feedback for a team member or colleague, I encourage you to give it to them directly; if you're not comfortable doing so, let's chat and I can either get the feedback to them or we can work together to figure out a way to deliver it that feels possible, and hopefully even comfortable, to you.
I will put thirty minutes each week or 1 hour every 2 weeks on your calendar for a one-on-one. We can decide together which one of those options makes more sense for us. We will have a running agenda in Notion that I may add items to each week. I very much encourage you to add items also as things come up for you during the week as it can sometimes be hard to think of or bring up things in the moment.
One-on-ones are your time. I will probably have some things to discuss with you, but this is first and foremost your opportunity to let me know how you're doing, what you need, what you wish could be different, how you feel about our team and your teammates, what your career goals are... etc. If you'd like to give me a brief status update on things you're working on or that you're stuck on, that is fine with me, but those are generally better-suited a shorter interaction like stopping my by desk or sending a Slack.
If you don't know what to talk about, say so. We can use that as a topic.
- Send me a message. Even if you prefer to meet on Zoom, just message me to let me know you want to talk and I'll make time. If you would rather talk over Slack, that's fine too. Feel free to message at any time; if it's before or after my working hours for the day I will very likely see the message however may not respond until I'm "at work".
- Add time on my calendar during any available time between 8AM and 6PM. (Any meetings or non-work appointments will be on my calendar, so I am available if the time is open on the calendar).
When working from home, I generally consider my work hours to be 10am to 6pm, though this varies somewhat depending on meetings and if folks are in other time zones/working patterns. If I am not available during these hours for some reason, I will mark it on my calendar. I also keep my Slack status updated (aka available, in a meeting, out for the day), so you can get an idea from glancing at Slack if I am available at the moment.