Manager Readme

I’ve seen a few of these floating around and wanted to take a stab at some introspection on my own part so that I can try to observe myself, the tools I like to use, and the different ways that people may not know that I prefer to work. I wanted to do this since I just came back from a manager offsite and we talked a little bit about this kind of thing there as well.

I feel that outlining how I work will help those that I work with more quickly understand these pieces of me in hopes to make our working relationship that much better.

—

Hello! Welcome to our team, we are very excited to have you here with us 😀.

I wanted to take some time to outline how I work to accelerate our working relationship together. Also, I’m very much looking forward to getting to know you better through our one on ones, chats, and all other variety of communication that I’m sure we’ll have.

This document is:

• a way for me to introduce myself.
• something that can answer some likely questions.
• a reasonable set of expectations you can have of me as your coworker.
• alive. As I change & learn, this document will do the same.

This document is not:

• A set of expectations I have of you

Our Cadence

We will have a one on one every week, for at least 30 minutes. This meeting is our time to get to know each other better on a human level. Ideally, it should not be related to project status updates as I can locate those things through JIRA, or in other ways. I would like you to drive this meeting by default, but I will also drive if you ask me to.

You can message me through Slack whenever you want to. Typically I respond very quickly, however I might ask you to e-mail me since I put many reminders / follow ups in e-mail.

I have zero expectation of you working on the weekends. Sometimes I do a little bit, and might Slack / email you during that time, but you should feel free to ignore that information until the work week begins.

My calendar is mostly public, and up to date. If something is private it will be marked as private so folks cannot see it. If I am traveling, I try to keep my regular meeting schedule (albeit adjusted for time zone if needed). If you are curious about a meeting on my calendar, please ask me about it.

Guiding Principles

People > process every time. People are the building blocks of any organization, product, or process. I believe that when people can contribute their ideas, express themselves, and be happy with their work that a higher quality product always emerges. Diversity in background and thinking is key to building a great team.

Autonomy & empowerment unlock potential. I believe in the Directly Responsible Individual model of working. Giving people the ability to make decisions and act on them is key to growth and understanding. This does not mean I expect you to make every single decision on your own. I am here to provide mentorship & guidance on any decision (or assist in finding someone who can help).

Helping others is the right thing. Whether it’s doing a code review for someone else, reading a document that was asked of you, or just cleaning up after yourself I believe that helping others causes an outsized impact, and is just generally the right thing to do.

Honest feedback is a basic need. In order to grow and learn, I believe that myself and others need to receive and give honest feedback. This does not mean that feedback should be blunt and designed to hurt. It does mean that feedback should be delivered in a timely fashion and always seek conversation with those it is being delivered to.

Assume positive intent from everyone. Trying to think that everyone is out to get you is incredibly exhausting, and almost always not true. Going into things with a positive mindset allows for easier personal operation in most situations.

A decision is better than indecision. Moving forward, or not, in a decisive fashion allows you to more quickly evaluate almost all situations. Endlessly waiting in indecision will rot your brain.

Idiosyncrasies

I am not an extrovert. This may seem untrue if you encounter me in the work place. I am good at working in groups and with many other people, however I do not receive energy from those situations and my energy through the day will likely gradually be on the decline.

I will answer technical questions through the eyes of an iOS engineer. This is what my work experience as an engineer is mostly in. It is not meant to come off as any specific bias towards one platform or another, it’s just what I know.

Sometimes I curse. Sorry. It just comes out sometimes when I’m excited, and incredibly rarely when I’m upset. If this bothers you, I’d ask you that you let me know so that I can check my language.