# José Arruti's Manager Readme

**Engineering Manager at Etsy**

## Motivation for This Document

This document serves as a high-level guide to how I operate as a manager — my principles, style, and expectations. Its purpose is to introduce how we’ll work together or to bring more clarity to our current collaboration.

Please treat it as both a reference and a commitment to how I will conduct myself as a manager, as well as what I expect from you.

I also ask you to help me stay accountable to these promises and to point out anything that might be missing. Your input and feedback will help me continue to grow as a manager.

## My Role

The main goal of my role is to help you enjoy your work by removing obstacles that prevent you from achieving your personal and professional goals within the company.

To do this, I’ll aim to give you visibility into the big picture of our business and highlight the most urgent and important technical needs — so you can find the areas where your skills and interests have the greatest impact.

Ultimately, my responsibility is to ensure that our team delivers high-quality software aligned with the company’s goals — while maintaining a motivated, fulfilled, and valued team.

## What Do I Value Most?

I value honesty above all. I want to know how you feel about things and what you think about situations you’re involved in. Strong opinions about our processes, technology, or priorities are welcome — your feedback helps us improve.

I ask for your openness not to judge but to find solutions where possible — or at least provide clarity, context, or explanation when needed, so you feel informed and supported.

At times, it can be hard for me to share direct feedback if I don’t yet feel a strong foundation of trust. That’s why I prioritize building confidence through 1:1s and day-to-day interactions. My goal is that you see me as someone who looks out for you and genuinely wants to help you achieve your career goals. (And yes — I’m happy to chat about non-work things too, like woodworking!)

## My Expectations

If you need to reach me, please do it right away. The most effective way to contact me during working hours is via Slack. I also check Slack outside working hours, but if it’s urgent, you can call or send me a WhatsApp message (my number is on my Slack profile).

If you need more than a quick message, feel free to schedule time directly on my calendar — no need to ask first. If you don’t find an open slot, just ping me and I’ll try to make space.

Regarding your work, I expect you to:

- Show ownership — _“done”_ means nothing is left undone.
- Overcommunicate — share what you’re working on and any changes from the original plan.
- Avoid silos — reach out freely to members of other teams or departments.
- Balance technical enthusiasm with business impact — check your biases.
- Push yourself to grow — seek opportunities and support to reach your goals.
- Be opinionated when needed, but also be open to _disagree and commit_.
- Ask for and give feedback regularly — to me and to your peers.
- Embrace a  **team-first**  approach — sprint goals belong to everyone; don’t isolate yourself.

## 1:1s

1:1s are for  **you**. When we start working together, I’ll set them weekly; later we can move to every two weeks, and after six months, possibly every three weeks. However, you can schedule one anytime — my calendar is open, so feel free to drop one in when needed.

Ideally, our 1:1s will focus on you: your career path, expectations, interests, and questions about the company, team, or higher-level business topics. Sometimes, they might become more tactical — especially early on, during crunch time, or when facing new technical challenges. That’s fine, but I’ll make sure we don’t stay in that mode permanently by finding other ways to handle short-term topics.

## Personality Quirks

I consider myself both pragmatic and somewhat measured. I tend to prefer practical solutions over “traditional” ones, but I also value abstraction and structure. I support processes not for their own sake, but because as teams grow, shared frameworks and steps become the most efficient way to operate.

Because of this, my decision-making may sometimes seem unusual or counterintuitive. If that ever happens, please tell me — I’ll be happy to share more context or even adjust my perspective based on your input.

## Focus for Your First 90 Days

During your first 90 days, I want you to focus on  **finding your place within the team**. That includes:

- Getting to know your teammates — for example, by setting up 1:1s with each of them.
- Shadowing sessions and adding teammates as reviewers for your PRs.
- Learning our codebase and getting familiar with our development cycle.
- Understanding how we apply Agile and how code moves to production.

I’d also appreciate it if you improve any onboarding documentation you use and find inaccurate or unclear. Your fresh perspective is invaluable for spotting opportunities to improve our processes and culture — please share that feedback with me as soon as possible.