# Manjunath Iyer Basaralu Srinivasa's Manager Readme

**Engineering Manager at Atlassian**

# Motivation for this document

First off, welcome! You are likely reading this from the link on an onboarding document or browsing through profiles here. However you got here, I think this will be a valuable first step in working well together.

This README is an earnest, incomplete (we never stop growing) and concise guide. It sets both my expectations for you and a baseline for your expectations of me. Please treat it as a reference and promise on how I will conduct myself as a manager and what I expect from you.

I urge you to hold me accountable for my promises and to call out anything that might be missing from this document. Without your guidance, I will not be able to improve as a manager.

# My role

Atlassian is an organization that values people the most. Autonomy of your work is critical for Atlassian and me. I want to empower you to do your best work and support you with anything that you need to achieve your goals. It is my job to align what we, as a team, need to achieve together and set up an environment where you can succeed and learn and develop yourself to a better self. 

I currently manage the Pricing and Packaging squad on Atlassian's Marketplace engineering team. We deal with both partners who publish and sell apps on the platform and customers who buy these apps. 

# What do I value most?

I value customers, the team, and you in the same order. 

- Customers are at the core of everything I do. Put yourself in the customer's shoes to decide what you should be doing. I want you to think about what's best for our customers in everything you do. 
- Being empathetic towards your team and putting the team's needs ahead of everything else.
- Your growth and development

# My Expectations

- When I drop you a DM, I'll start with a "Hi" and get straight to the point. There is no suspense, no small talk while you wonder what I want, and I expect the same from you. This helps us get the context and respond later with something useful.
- You'll get feedback from me when it's fresh. There will be no feedback in your performance review that you're hearing for the first time.
- I trust you to manage your own time. You don't need to clear your time AFK with me in advance.
- Your work gets done your way. My focus is on outcomes, not output. Once we're clear on where we need to go, how to get there is up to you. If I ever find it necessary to suggest a specific approach, I will supply an example.
- A team is strongest when it's working together, looking after one another, and taking care of each other. Please look to your left and your right for opportunities to help your colleagues. Please ask for help when you need it. Nobody works alone, and this is significant in the remote-first world.
- I trust you to skip a level and talk to my manager or other senior management about anything you feel is relevant. You don't need to clear it with me, and I'm not going to get weird about it when you do. I prefer you to talk to my manager at a regular cadence.
- I'll put the contributions of the team and you ahead of myself and never exaggerate my role or downplay yours. I'll be especially sure to nail down attribution when senior management hears of our accomplishments.
- You can reach me at any time for anything you need. I am interested in you as a person and would like to help you in any form I can without intruding into the part of your life that you don't want to talk about. 
- I expect you to review each meeting invite, determine if you'll add value, and respond to it. But, definitely respond. If you lack information to determine if you are necessary for a meeting, ask for it. Likewise, add context to the discussion in the invites you send out. 
- Set work hours on your calendar so that your team mates know when you are around and when you are not. This helps in ensuring we don't set up meetings outside your work hours. 
- We have an open culture and we take that seriously. Share your thoughts on what you like or dislike respectfully. Whether it is about the team, the products, the processes or even the company,  you can express yourself to me or anyone else who needs to hear this. You can publish a blog on what you think is right/not right and how it can be better. 
- Share feedback for your peers with them regularly. Do not wait for the end of the year/quarter surveys to do this. You should care about the people you work with and help them improve. They'll reciprocate this too. 

If this sounds good to you, please reciprocate by giving me what I need most: The truth in return. Give me your feedback, say when I'm wrong, and tell me your ideas for how we can do better.

If we trust each other, we can learn and grow together. That's how I want to work with you.

# 1:1s

- We'll have 1:1s at a cadence that you like. If you have no preference, we will do them weekly. I'll only cancel this meeting if I'm out of the office, but you can cancel it without notice. It's your time. My calendar is editable. You can move this meeting to any other convenient time if it doesn't lead to a conflict for me. 
- Any planned agenda for our 1:1 agenda will be on the Confluence page, where I track the notes so we remember essential topics. But you're always free to use the time for whatever's on your mind.
- I do a formal check-in each quarter to review how things went in the preceding 3-months and realign any goals set up with your input.

# Personality quirks

While I generally prefer English, I can speak a few languages and would not mind using this in our 1:1s. But, I would definitely want us to keep any communication with the broader team in English to be more inclusive of folks from different states and countries that we work with. 

# Where to focus on your first 90 days?

Get the basics right. 

- Build relations with the immediate team 
- Talk to members of the other squads in the team and members from the groups that we often work with. 
- Understand the product, customer, and architecture.
- Build expertise in the domain that we deal with. 
- Ship your first project
- Give feedback on what went well and what could be improved.

# Providing feedback

If you have feedback for me, please give it. It could be something you liked and would like to see more of, something you thought I could do better, something you thought I screwed up, or something that doesn't fit in any of these categories. Even if you think it might not be the case, I want to hear it. And if you think I don't want to listen to it, I'd love feedback on why you feel that way!

I'd prefer that if you could give me this feedback in person (or over Zoom). If you're only comfortable kicking off a discussion with a Slack message, I prefer you do that instead of not bringing it up.

If you're not comfortable giving me this feedback yourself, I'd love for you to give it to someone above me in the management chain so they can anonymously relay it to me, and I can work on it. 

# Career Development

I will always try to call out potential career advancement opportunities, but it's entirely up to you when you want to pursue them. I will coach and give feedback, and I will fight for you for raises and promotions. I will not pressure you before you are ready, and your growth will be on your timetable. I will also make sure I tell you the truth, and if it means I feel you are not ready for something yet, I will tell you that. 

I'm here to support the goals that you set for yourself.