# Hamsa Afify's Manager Readme

**Engineering Team Lead at Thinkific Labs, Inc**

# Hamsa as your lead

Being a team leader is not about tech leading, but more about people leading, defining the objectives of the team and assuring the delivery. A leader is there for their team to support,  guide and help them to deliver. We work together towards the team's success.

This document is an introduction about me as a team leader, to talk a little about my role, what you should expect from me and what I will be expecting from you and to guide us during our day to day interactions.

# Important to know

This document is an extended introduction to what I value and believe in as a team leader. It is also a quick introduction about myself and how I work.

- This document doesn’t replace getting to know each other through 1:1s and day-to-day chats, this is just an introduction, plus you already kinda know me ;)
- This document applies only to me, and in no way should be considered to apply to any other team lead or manager at Thinkific – even though we think in similar ways sometimes.
- If you feel like I am not acting as I describe here, please let me know.
- If you are curious why this document exists in the first place, [Leo](https://leonardofaria.net/2018/06/24/people-lead-readme/) started the trend and [Carol](https://caroldarski.github.io/lead-engineer-resources/)followed, I liked the idea and felt it is useful, especially with people switching team leads and how confused we all might get because we build expectations based on what we are used to, so I hope this small introductory would make the transition easier.
- Want to know more about how this started in general, there is a newsletter called  [SoftwareLeadWeekly](http://softwareleadweekly.com/) (recommended) and managers [share their own readme’s](http://softwareleadweekly.com/issues/271) there, you can check and see where we go the idea :)

# My role

With the new process and the new definition of hierarchy  **(August/2019)**, the birth of the team (people) leader came to life, here I share some of my responsibilities to know what to expect from me and to know how can I be helpful to you :)

- Hold 1:1s with team members and coach team members.
- Prepare notes for team members for annual/quarterly reviews and Provide feedback to team members.
- Help developers get their work done and support the team with blockers.
- Continually looking for ways to improve team efficiency.
- Review implementation plan with the team.
- Represent team to Product Managers and be on call for support.
- Work with team to establish timelines for the completion of projects.
- Help the team doing technical estimation and supporting their efforts.
- Ensure that BATs are addressed, triage incoming BATs and ensure triaged BATs get into sprints

- Work with team to review backlog and add items to sprint.
- Recognising and raising the need to hire with senior leadership and participate in hiring and marketing events.

Along with the above, I will be working as an individual contributor in the team, working on my field of expertise as an automation engineer and working and trying to tackle some tickets on my path to becoming a developer.

Don't hesitate to reach out whenever you need, this is why I am here for :)

# My Expectations

**Communication: ** We work in a very flexible environment, flexible working hours, WFH, Open vacation policy, we depend 100% on communication to know where your whereabouts, so please always communicate in the team channel.

- When you are coming late, WFH, going out for errands ... etc.
- Communicate your vacations with the team (I approve your vacation but the team won't know unless you tell them), add the OOO to your calendar and please use Oliv app on your calendars. 
- Even communication about how longer than expected a task should take and addressing that as early as possible.

**The Jira Active Sprint Board: ** I like the board to be always up to date so we can keep track, identify blockers and identify risks of late delivery.

**Dev spent time on a ticket (Ever Hour): **

Dev spent time on a ticket ** ** is very important and we need to always have them on the ticket to calculate velocity.

**Definition Of Done: ** A task is done ONLY when it passes QA on Staging and is deployed to production.

**Meetings: ** Always be in meetings (Remote or In-office), or let the team know when you can't join. 

**Stand-ups:** I prefer if we all joined the stand-up, but if you can't, please communicate about that before the stand-up and leave your notes in the channel. ( we can agree on having days with Channel standups instead of actual standups).

# 1:1s

Remember, you are the main focus during that time, it is all about you, if you found me talking a lot please stop me :D 

This is a dedicated time for you to ask about anything, complaint, appreciate, even curse, be happy, be angry. A time for you to vent, to talk about new ideas, career goals, achievements (personal wise or career-wise) this is a good time for me to guide you and coach you if needed, I might not have all the answers but I promise I will help you find them.

**7geese: ** I find 7geese very useful in my 1:1s I like filling it so I am sure that I don't miss anything that I want to talk about, however, I won't hold you accountable of doing that, find the best way that makes you comfortable during our 1:1s as long as you come with the things you want to talk about :)

**Location: ** If you are a meeting room person let's book a room and have our 1:1s, if you wanna go for coffee or a walk to talk let's do that :) whatever you prefer and makes you comfortable talking.

**Frequency: ** We can do weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, whatever you feel you need, I am on board.

If you are not sure what are the 1:1s are about and you can't find things to talk about, I recommend you to take a look at this amazing article  [How to Prepare for a One-on-One Meeting as an Employee](https://knowyourcompany.com/learn/guides/5-how-to-give-feedback/5-how-to-prepare-for-a-one-on-one-meeting-as-an-employee/).

# Personality quirks

-  I am usually in the office between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.
- I WFH usually on Tuesday and Thursday (Can come to the office when needed on those days).
- I try to free my time from meetings on the days I WFH to focus on finishing work, and because I prefer being in meetings in person than online, however, you can schedule a meeting with me anytime - even Thursdays - if urgent :)
- I have 4 hours scheduled as heads down twice a week, on the days I WFH, feel free to book time though if needed during these hours.
- You can slack me, tab me on the shoulder, come find me in the kitchen even while I am having lunch, I would be glad to assist at any time, and I will drop what I am doing instantly to help.
- When you can't find me on my desk because I am in a meeting, slack me, I check my slack regularly and have it on my phone ... will get back to you as soon as I see the message and can reply.
- If you are going on a long vacation - longer than two days - please come and let's talk about it first before you request it on bamboo HR, it is really important to coordinate with the team.
- I tend to be very structural and organized, so please when you approach me with a problem, question or a topic, be prepared with details and be ready to answer my questions about the problem, in other words (do your research first so we can talk).
- Feedback: I love feedback, so if there is something you don't like about what I am doing, how I am dealing with things, the process or the team, please let me know, this will be useful for me to grow and for you to change what is bothering you.

# Trivia about me!

- I am from Egypt originally, however, has been living outside of Egypt since 2010.
- I lived and worked in Dubai, Qatar and Poland  before moving here.
- I have been in Canada since March 2017.
- I have been married for 12 years.
- I have 4 cats all rescued \<3
- While I was living in Dubai I worked as a math teacher for grades 4 and 5&nbsp;(Never again :D).
- I love supernatural and horror movies/series.
- I am a certified advanced scuba diver, a book worm, love classical music and love travelling :)