Note: This document is for people who I manage to help them get the most out of our working relationship
Motivation for this document
People say I am hard to read and I tell them of course I am, I am not made of words. Hopefully this read-me, that is made of words, will help you read me.
This is for you to read or refer to, but I will also sit down with you and walk you through it at least once to answer any additional questions. Please remind me if that hasn’t happened yet.
Also, let me know if you have any feedback on how to make this more useful to you and the next person.
My role
I don’t believe it is a manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.
Provide air cover. We move pretty fast here and I hope you won’t feel like your priorities are shifting too often. I will try to shield you from it if possible but I also believe in transparency so I will also tell you more than you need to know because that is how I work. If it ever becomes overwhelming, let me know and I will share only the things relevant to what you are working on.
Provide an outside perspective. I won’t be working on your project day to day but will be close enough to have informed thoughts. I will have suggestions and feedback but you should feel empowered to push back against them and feel free to convince me of your solution. If we can’t agree on a solution let’s find a way to test our solutions through user testing.
Cheer. I will celebrate your successes. If you’re not a person who self-promotes, please let me do it for you. Let me know how you would like to be celebrated. Some people like to be in the spotlight, some prefer personal acknowledgement. Tell me when things go well, share the things which make you proud, and I’ll cheer/share appropriately.
Firefight. If my favorite opening line is “I could use a hand with…”, my second favorite is “I screwed up: …”. A mistake, if shared, becomes a challenge; if hidden, becomes a failure.
Teach. I will teach you anything I know that you want to learn and help you find resources in the areas where I don’t possess an expertise.
“The desire for everything to run smoothly is a false goal—it leads to measuring people by the mistakes they make rather than by their ability to solve problems.” – Ed Catmull
What do I value most?
Hard work. Trying new things. Failing. Learning. Focusing on users. Being passionate about something.
Family comes before work. Let me know if you ever need to do something in your home life and we will find a way to cover for you at work. I prefer you succeed in life first and succeed in the workplace second.
My Expectations
Focus on the user. You should always be looking for ways to test your solutions. In 20 years I have never done user testing where I didn’t learn something and most of the time I realized I was completely wrong in my assumptions.
No one hands you personal growth; but it’s here for the taking. It’s being able to try new things; that you might not succeed at every time. It’s seeing the practices of the talented people around you; practices that you’re free to use.
I’ll do my best to provide growth and learning opportunities, it’ll be up to you to seize them. You set your goals. You set your priorities. Let me know how I can help you achieve them.
1:1s
A 1:1 every other week (unless you specifically prefer a different cadence) where we’ll work on challenges, goals, and priorities to support you to learn and grow. As part of this, I’ll do my best to hold a safe space for you and to know you as a person, and connect together as humans to whatever degree feels best for you. I will also share wider context and my own areas of focus or challenge.
These meetings are designed to give you a dedicated time and place to ask anything and everything.
- Hopefully we talk about things you wouldn’t otherwise bring up in a group setting. I want our 1:1 to be a safe place; if this isn’t the case please tell me.
- We will go through your agenda first and if time permits I will always have some questions. First and foremost these meetings are for you.
- Urgent matters should not wait for a 1:1.
Design Review and Creative Weekly
We will have a weekly design review where our entire team gets together to showcase what we are working on, get feedback, and collaborate. This is not meant as a way to micro manage but a way to find places where there is overlap, help you work through blockers and celebrate success. This is a participatory meeting and I expect everyone to help out the other designers on the team. We also have a creative weekly each week and it has similar purpose but it is more about advancing our skills as designers and bring our team together. See this post for more information about that meeting.
Personality quirks
- I can be hard to read: This is not intentional. I mean what I say. A non-response means I do not have a response (and also no judgement). If you are unsure what I’m thinking, just ask (again, transparency) If it’s not clear, and you have a nagging feeling, let me know so I can fix it! It’s not intentional. I’ll also reply promptly to you, or let you know when you can expect a reply, if you reach out.
- I have a tendency to be sarcastic and joke when I feel uncomfortable. I apologize in advance for the confusion this will inevitably cause.
- I should never be a blocker to priority work being released or on any technical decisions. I would prefer us ship than someone wait for my approval. I trust you. That’s why I hired you.
- I love lunch. It’s the main reason I like to go to work. If you schedule a meeting over lunch make sure it cannot happen at any other time. This is kind of a joke but also kind of serious.
Some things I like
I love backpacking and spending time in the mountains. I was a river guide with my wife and my family and I go on river trips a few times a year. I don’t travel as much as I like, but I did go to 14 different countries last year. I love music and am a closet audiophile (which means my love for music outpaces my budget to spend on vinyl and high end audio gear). I really like making ice cream and once owned a food truck where I peddled my frozen desserts. I could talk for hours about vanilla, the different varieties and uses and I have no less than 11 types of vanilla on hand at my house. I have a collection of iPods and video game consoles. If there is a game that was released in the last 40 years there is a good chance I have it in my office.
Where to focus on your first 90 days?
I think it takes a minimum of 3 months to get your feet under you and really understand the problem space and what we are all about as a design team. You will definitely be assigned design tasks and in six months you will look back ans wonder what the heck you were thinking but that is ok. Just try your best as you are starting out. Whatever you design will be better than what we have and the most important thing will be that you learn and grow into your role.
Focus on getting to know your engineering team and product manager and learning how they work. Familiarize yourself with our delivery processes and our design library and systems. Learn everything you can about the solar industry what makes people buy or not buy and what our customers expect from our software.