# Courtney Kelly's Manager Readme

**VP, Solutions Delivery at Dimagi**

# Motivation for this document

I'm always looking for ways to improve communication. I'm fascinated by the way it seems whatever the effort (helping drug resistant TB patients in India stay on a protocol or trying to reduce malaria incidence in Sub-Saharan Africa), more than technical, the challenges are interpersonal communication. Perhaps similarly, I'm interested in the ways our fallible brains are always tricking us with implicit bias and with deciding which information to emphasize and share. I'm constantly reminding myself that we all have different sets of incomplete information so, of course, we all draw different conclusions. Couple that with the process that our brain is always guessing and then telling us it is "certain", means to me that 'over-communicating' is just the first step towards getting everyone on the same page.

My management philosophy is about service delivery, and enabling everyone on the team to  excel and create maximum impact, so I hope that this document can be a part of communicating my perspective towards that end.

It's important to state that this document is imperfect and incomplete, just like me. :) Some of the ideas I have below might evolve over time. Others might not be best and you can help me see another perspective. I'm certainly open to discussing (and editing) what I've written here, and also believe that lots of 'best practices' have better exceptions. So hopefully if you're reading this you view it as the beginning of a conversation. I'm curious what you have to teach me.

# My role

As the VP of the Delivery team in the Solutions Division at Dimagi, I oversee our Program Delivery.  I am ultimately accountable for the impactful delivery of the projects and programs in the Solutions Delivery portfolio. At any given time our team of 55+ Digital Health practitioners is performing 50-60 projects in service to our partners and to deliver impact for underserved populations. These projects are executed in a highly leveraged, independent 'team on an outpost' manner. For those projects to be successful we need to meet our contractual obligations in a sustainable way. 

For the team to manage the responsibility of these varied challenges, all the needs of the team must be met. Some of these include: safety, professional skills, managerial support, alignment with organizational mission, time off to recharge batteries, technology & equipment, and tools to aid their work. I aim to unblock any gaps in these needs to ensure each team is excelling. If there is an issue on a project, I aim to understand the nature of the challenge and provide support. Feeling curious about this ever-evolving set of puzzles keeps me energized. I endeavor to apply our small and busy team's limited resources to these projects in an efficient and sustainable way.

As a team, we're primarily measured on the success of our projects, delivering the planned outputs for our partners and managing to our budgets. I aim to support, clarify and improve the processes that enable the team to execute their work. Most days I am asking the questions "Does everyone on the team have everything they need?" and "What would make their job easier?"

# What do I value most?

**Innovation:**  In my own process, I first ensure that known team needs are met, that all projects are on track (or have known resolutions/next steps), and that no teams are blocked waiting on anything from our team. Sometimes that work takes all my available time. When I'm done with those checks, it's my chance to work toward innovation and create processes or tools to make things better for our team. So, for example, if all our project \*PODs are up to date and I don't have follow up questions, we all get more time applied to longer term innovation steps. (\*Project Overview Documents capture risks, R&R and budget details for earn/burn.)

**Efficiency:**  My suggestion is that when one is triaging one's own tasks, make sure to prioritize any thing that unblocks _someone else_ to move forward. This means prioritizing admin tasks out of our department (e.g., completing your Clockify and Expensify on time). 

**Planning:** Look ahead to review your day tomorrow before the end of today. Spend some time looking at your plans for next week every Friday. Anticipate what is ahead and come prepared.

**Feedback:**  The ideal is for feedback communication to be frequent and open. As a team we're all trying to get better all the time. Our strongest tool for that is sharing timely feedback with each other. When you receive feedback, endeavor to be open to it and reflect on what it means for your contributions to the team. When you have some feedback, give it! Verbal or written, direct feedback (never sugar-coated) in a timely manner is our key to continuous improvement. **The ability to accept constructive feedback, learn from it and adapt is the single most important success factor on our team.**

**Growth:** Demonstrating you are ready for more responsibility is the surest way to earn more. This means anticipating next steps and proactively, thoroughly communicating status and completing all your responsibilities with high quality. This means also not spending backstop or manager time following up on standing requests, so all of the time and energy is looking forward.

**Reliability: ** The last thing I want to spend time on is following up on something. If you're responsible for something, please handle it w/o follow up. E.g., your timecard is a basic requirement for work each week. (It's how we track our project budgets and how I keep a sense of how the team is spending their time.) If you don't complete this simplest of tasks, how can I have any confidence you're doing the much more complex tasks your role requires? If you're going to miss a deadline, please communicate that _before_ you miss the deadline, and include a new target date and your plan to recover.

# My Expectations

- Please come prepared to meetings & syncs (project documents up to date, agenda populated).
- You can Slack me any time you want for quick answers to questions.
  - Try to source the answers yourself (before you slack).

- I might Slack you during off hours or weekends (working through my to-do list of open items). I'm not expecting a response until normal business hours.
- It's always fine to grab time on my calendar, any open window.
- Please keep your calendar up to date about PTO and your location accurate so folks can anticipate when you're available.
- Prioritize the requests of our support teams. Ops is taking care of 250+ people and about a zillion things, so do not make them follow up with you if they request something.
- Everyone makes mistakes. When you do, communicate that as soon as possible, and focus on next steps and recovery options (not making excuses or pointing fingers). When I do, call me out on it and ask what I'll do to avoid that next time.
- The best questions are about decisions: Not, "What should I do next?" but "I've thought about options A, B and C. Do you have any input on those possible next steps?" This demonstrates that you've put some thought into solving the question beforehand.
- For poorly defined work products, share a 20% sketch/outline/draft to confirm you're on the right path before you pour effort into polishing. 
- Perhaps related, if you're diving into something that doesn't feel clear, I'm happy to answer quick questions on Slack. I'm usually fairly responsive during business hours (unless in a meeting). I'm very happy to receive confirmations. "e.g. I'm going to send an email to the whole team about that thing you said in the hallway. okay?"
- Sharing feedback or suggestions - Please start with communicating the smallest relevant group. In general this is almost never 'reply all'. So if you have suggestions or feedback you might email the person most singularly the owner of the process. If you have lengthy or complex feedback/suggestions/questions consider making a google doc so that you and the recipient can work through the answers asynchronously in a clear format.
- Responsiveness: Plan to respond to any Partner or External email within 1 business day. You might not have the resolution by then, which is okay, but you can specify that the message is received, and when they can expect to hear more.  For internal emails requesting a response, plan to respond within 3 business days, unless the timeline is clear in the initial email. (E.g., 'please reply by the end of the month'.)
- Presence: Plan to be present in meetings, not multitasking. If you're on your laptop taking minutes, great. If you get sucked into Slack or email, ask yourself are you really contributing to the meeting? Please plan to focus on the content of the meeting, practicing active listening  and to not multitask with few and stated exceptions, "E.g. I'm only here to discuss the 3rd OKR so I'll be app building silently over here until we get there on the agenda." If you have an urgent project issue and 'just need to send 1 email', decide if you can do that after the meeting, or do that now and arrive late (but not during the meeting). 

# 1:1s

For my directs, one-on-one syncs are typically once a week for 45-60 minutes. Directs should arrive with a pre-populated agenda we can both add to. Directs are responsible for scheduling syncs and coming to them prepared (Agenda populated, supporting docs up to date). We should aim to split our time (about 75/25) between core project work, proposals and fire fighting and stuff bigger outside that (goals, scheduling/resourcing, strategy, equipment, PTO, your directs). 

- **Sync Best Practices:**  
  - Anything open last from last sync will be resolved or advanced (and update noted in the agenda).
  - It's your sync. Directs will provide suggestions about how to use the time, the topics covered, the order and amount of time spent.
  - Prior to every sync directs should list their top 3 accomplishments since last sync and top 3 plans until next sync.
  - Directs should feel empowered to give feedback on any feature of the sync (time, location, structure) and to recommend any changes that would make the sync more effective.

# Personality quirks

**Loves:** Cute mammals. snax. any kind of guessing game, taking about sports, things that rhyme.

**Strong Dislikes:** Flute guy! Kitchen messes! People who put water in the soap dispenser. Rescheduling a meeting the day of the meeting.

**Responds to:** Slack --\> then email --\> then WhatsApp --\> then texts (in that order)

**Oddities:** May be lurking at the office at odd hours; Headphones on? I'm listening to white noise app on full blast (rain on the lake is my favorite!)

**Dialogue Preferences:** I was on my high school (and briefly college) debate team. In my experience people learn the most when everyone is talking loudly, quickly and passionately. I believe Kim Scott 1000% when she said in _Radical Candor_, "Debate should occur constantly on a well-functioning team".  This is how I show I'm engaged and enthused and I intend a strongly worded challenge to invite a response. However, we all have different personality styles and if that's not the best way for you to have a dialogue, I'm happy to try another approach.

# Where to focus on your first 90 days?

Drinking out of the firehose that is 'knowledge management' at Dimagi takes some getting used to. Have you finished reading the wiki? (jk) 

In the first 30 days you should know where to go to find the answers you need about our **product** , our **projects** and our **processes**. You'll get to know our projects as you work on them and our processes as your manager or POps remind you to follow them (Please submit your timecard on time each week!). At first, your learning focus should be on our product, CommCare HQ. Have you finished all the Dimagi Academy app building courses and capstones? Do you have an app project sandbox set up to practice configuring new features? At the end of the day, for now at least, we are a CommCare company and you need to know your platform. Once you're fluent with your primary tool, you should be diving into project work or business development, with the help of peer mentors or your project manager to learn project execution and Dimagi project management methodology or business development processes along the way. Ideally, in the first 90 days you'll be adding impact with one of our partners. 

Seek feedback. The #1 factor for success on our team is **being responsive to feedback,** so ask for it (from your manager, peers, PM and others) and reflect on the feedback to see how you can incorporate it to adapt quickly.