# Luke Willis's Manager Readme

**Dev Lead at Prescryptive**

# Motivation for this document

My hope for this document is to introduce you to my management style, philosophy, and expectations. It's primarily for anyone who reports to me, though anyone is free to read it. Expect its content to change over time as we learn and grow together.

Treat this as a promise of how I will conduct myself as a manager and what I will expect from you.

Please hold me accountable to my promises and call out anything you think I left out. Without your guidance, I will not be able to improve as a manager.

# My role

My primary purpose is to remove anything preventing you from getting your job done. This takes many forms, including but not limited to:

- Clarifying priorities (so you know what the job is)
- Setting clear expectations (so you know what's required of you up front)
- Acquiring resources (so you can do the job efficiently)
- Removing distractions (so you have blocks of time for deep work)
- Listening (to you and your grievances)

# What do I value most?

Your honesty. I need to know what is and isn't working--no one sees that clearer than you do. I need you to share your observations and ideas. If a topic is uncomfortable, I want to know about it. I will often try to justify, explain, and reframe your concerns. If this helps you, great, but don't let me walk all over you. If you believe in something, fight for it.

Related: there are no stupid questions. If you don't know/understand something, I need you to ask so we can all learn alongside you.

# My Expectations

## Experimentation

Please experiment. I expect you to make mistakes and learn from them. I expect you to communicate mistakes as early as possible. I promise not to cast blame, but I will ask "why" so we can recover and prevent future mistakes of the same kind. 

## "That's not my job"

Make it your job. I expect you to take ownership of your work. That means it's not "done" when the PR is merged. Your work is going to be a living piece of a complex system. It may cause issues for the company or its customers and clients. I expect you to think about the customer and how your work is going to be supported. I expect you to make your work easy to support (documentation, automation, graceful degradation, etc.).

## Working Asynchronously

Don't schedule a meeting if an email would suffice. I expect you to work when it makes sense for you and your productivity. I will try to respect your schedule and plan team meetings & 1:1s around you as much as possible. Just let me know what your plans are so I know what to work around.

## Hours & Time Off

I don't expect (or even want) you to work a set number of hours every week. I expect you to manage your own energy and workload. Make the most of the time you choose to work, then disconnect. Also, please take some time off--the policy is "unlimited" so do whatever makes the most sense for you.

## Don't build what you can buy

Know of a tool that can save time for you/me/the team/the company? Please don't keep it to yourself. 

# 1:1s

I keep standing 1:1s with each member of the team every two weeks. If you need/want my time outside that, just grab time ad-hoc on my calendar. I will bring questions to facilitate discussion, but this is your time to use how you please. We can discuss your ideas, complaints, hopes & dreams, or just whatever is on your mind. You don't have to share anything with me, but I hope to earn your trust enough that this time can be valuable for both of us.

# My quirks

Sometimes, I'm lousy at follow through. I do my best to stay on top of everything, but if you're waiting for me to do something, just follow up and tell me to do my job. I won't be offended.

Sometimes, I think my ideas are the best. Don't let me push you around. I know how smart you are. Tell me when I need to shut up and listen. I won't be offended.

Sometimes, I focus too much on the big picture. If I'm waxing philosophical and you just need to know what the acceptance criteria are for a user story, tell me to save it and give you the details. I won't be offended.

# Where to focus on your first 90 days?

This is a new team in a new division in a new company. We're all figuring this out as we go. Learn as much as you can handle. Try things but don't reinvent the wheel. Over communicate.

I'm excited to be working with you! Please reach out if anything here is unclear.