# dubilla's Manager Readme

**Engineering Manager at VTS**

# Motivation for this document

Over the next few months, we'll get to know each other more. We'll learn a little more naturally how we like to work, what motivates us, and what frustrates us. In the meanwhile, this document is meant to bootstrap that learning and hopefully accelerate the growth of our relationship. The goal of this document is to share with you more about myself, what I value, and my expectations.

# My role

My role is to help shape the engineering team to meet the organization's goals. There are two ways I think about doing that. One, is to help you and your peers grow and find the opportunities that benefit both you and the org. The other, is to shape the team itself through hiring or, occasionally, through letting someone go.

And so one of my goals to help you grow. We'll have 1:1s at a regular cadence where we can talk about where we see space for you to grow and how it's going. We'll have reviews every 3-6 months to both aggregate feedback on the past and to look ahead to the future. And every 6-12 months, we'll set aside time to discuss your career aspirations and goals.

# What do I value most?

I value collaboration, teamwork, and transparency. I'm big on resting and re-energizing. I will do my best to limit off-hours communication in an effort to give you that rest time and in an effort to practice it myself. In the case that you do happen to receive anything off-hours, I will make a note if it requires a more urgent response. If you are on an on-call duty, this is excepted, but we'll make all efforts to ensure the on-call off-hours responsibilities are sustainable.

# My Expectations

One of my most important responsibilities is making sure you have everything you need to accomplish your work. As such, I make an effort to have flexible time in my calendar. If there is an opening in my calendar, please feel free to book it. I believe in the [Maker's and Manager's Schedule](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html), so I prefer you to pick any time that allows you to enter and stay in that maker's deep thinking.

One of my favorite questions to ask is "how will we know that we're done?" When you're starting any piece of work, I ask that you keep the "definition of done" in mind, as that finish line allows us to reflect and move on to the next most important piece of work.

# One on Ones

I am a strong believer in 1:1s. It's a place for us to talk about all the things that don't fit into our typical days.

I like to think of 1:1s as your time. This place moves fast, and I want to ensure that you have a voice in and an ear to where it's going. As such, I'll look to you for the 1:1 agenda. Sometimes I'll have a a quick agenda item, sometimes I'll have a longer-tail topic I want to make sure we get to, but for the most part, I'd love to be able to hear from you and discuss what you'd like to discuss.

There are a few things I like to make sure we cover in our 1:1s over time. We'll discuss your career and your career aspirations every 6-12 months. We'll set goals together every 6 months. And we'll check in on those goals every 2-3 weeks. And we'll work to find a good balance between discussing the now, the next, and the far future.

# Where to focus on your first 90 days?

In your first 90 days on the team, I want to focus on leaning into your capacity for learning as well as keeping your energy up through that ramp up. I can tell things are going well in the first 30 days if our 1:1s start to find a rhythm by week three or week four. Another signal for me that things are going well is that the quality and cadence of your questions is going up and to the right. The first 30 days are all about learning what to ask and how to ask it, and the first 90 days are all about using that newfound knowledge to accelerate your learning.