# Marc Milarepa's Manager Readme

**Technical Project Manager at letgo**

# Motivation for this document

Software has readme files, github repositories have readme files but people haven't. I believe if we had a little file that explained which are our values, expectations, how to treat us and how we are, life would be a lot easier. This is why I have taken the time to write this little piece of narrative.

This document is aimed to everyone that has/wants to deal with me directly or indirectly and wants to understand a bit more why and how I operate. 

_BTW, I would have loved that my son would have come with a readme file when he came to this world 🌎. _

# My role

My role at letgo is _Technical Project Manager_, this means that there are three parts here: 

- _Technical:_ My role involves knowing and understanding the overall technical environment not only of my team, but also the technical environment and dependencies within the rest of teams and squads throughout the company.
- _Project:_ My role also involves having a vision of the projects in the TO DO column, in the IN PROGRESS, in the DONE ✅and also in the future backlog. This involves both Technical and Business projects. Coordinating these projects and understanding what is needed to succeed is also part of my job. 
- _Manager:_ I manage a team of people, these people have different backgrounds, both technical and personal, different values, different expectations. The individuals that compose a team are different and my role is to be able to support, mix and understand for a common goal.

The 🔑 keywords that make up my job are: _SCRUM_, _Agile_, _individual strengths_, _growth motivation_, _achievement of team goals_, _ownership of deadlines_, _expectations_, _productivity_, _improvements_, _technical solutions_, _removing impediments_, _communication _and _feedback_. I will be evaluated in this cloud ☁️of words/ideas 💡.

My aim is to be the servant leader of the team, be available when needed and be the person that sets up the pitch to play, cuts the grass, removes the pebbles, and brings the ball 🏈 in order for the team to play (sometimes I might be the referee but the ones playing the game are my team, I will only be involved when the game played is not the one that we agreed on.

# What do I value most?

The best way to help me is to have ownership of your work. I believe that the work produced by an individual is part of a greater ecosystem that belongs to the team/company. Therefore each of these parts should reflect the individual contribution based on a common set of standards. Reliability within the colleagues and humility should be part of the day to day work in order to help me do my job correctly. 

In order to maintain a "wanting to come to work" environment we should handle conflicts within the group first, I like tackling conflicts directly, listening 👂to all the parts involved and resolving them in the manner that gives the group the biggest value.

Listening has to be one of my key 🔐skills and I'm working on it. I know some of my limitations, technical and managerial and I'm also aware that I am still growing as a Manager, therefore all feedback (please **be direct** ) is welcome, I will listen 👂to it, process it and apply (if applicable) this feedback. I need to be able to make you think outside the box 📦and also think 🤔long term, it's not only about the now, but also how we will live better and adapt to the future.

I like a little bit of organized chaos, I think 🤔good stuff can come up from a little dose of chaos. So I sometimes will allow it as I allow it to myself you might see me a bit of a disorganized 😕 person. On the other hand 🤚, I believe that clarity on what to do defines expectations and therefore brings coherence and purpose to your daily work.

# My Expectations

I'm a firm believer that work time is work time and personal time is personal time therefore I don't expect anyone to do overtime, unless you getting paid for it. Different people have different paces and we are in a learning path so I am very flexible to adapt to your best working hours (I will tell you if I notice that you are under or over working). 

You can contact me at any time at work, if I'm not in my place send a Slack (I hate having unread messages, my little hint of OCD), email if it's not that important, WhatsApp if it's critical outside of work times.

_"A person that has never made a mistake never tried anything new"_ I'm not sure if Einstein said it but it sounds cool 😎. Mistakes are part of the process and reacting to them is a way of learning a lesson. I want you to be transparent, quick to let me know and preventive so it doesn't happen again.

DONE ✅doesn't finish when putting it into production, it requires documentation (boring, I know), contingency plan, monitoring and thinking 💭of possible future iterations.  

# 1:1s

**Frequency:**

- 1to1s with the TPM are held every 3 weeks  

- They last half an hour (we can extend depending on the needs)

**Location:**

- Depending on availability and person, they should not change over time

**Structure & Objective:**

- 4 areas: How are you? How are you in the team? How are you in letgo? What can I do to help?

- The meeting should have a link to the safe zone in confluence  

- Each member has a personal safe zone, a confluence page that will be used to:  

  - Write notes 📝of the current 1to1  
  - Write possible areas or topics to talk about in future 1to1s  
  - You can modify your safe zone whenever you want

- Possible structure of the page can be done with checkpoint tasks (this will enable both of us to keep track of the evolution of different areas)

- We should keep track of when they happen  

**Tips to make it work:**

- There will not be any judgement  
- Anything that is told in here it's between us  
- Needs to be comfortable, the above is flexible, I will adapt to what you need to get the most out of these meetings 

# Personality quirks

There are 4 things that I love ❤️in this world 🌍(probably in order of importance):

- My son and family: They are the ones that make going back home 🏡 worth it. I'm the proudest dad in the world.  
- Traveling and exploring: I love seeing different cultures, embracing them and learning while living them. I love adventures (any type).  
- Tattoos: I'm quite addicted to them, love talking about them, studying them and doing them, love the tattoo culture, so if you want to have one ☝️let me know.  
- My beard: I don't really do much with it, but people talk about it.  

I'm always interested in learning new stuff that other people do and I take recommendations quite literally and most of the times do what other people recommend.

Excuses are something that really make me uncomfortable 😣, because you can do anything you want, but only if you actually want to do it. 

And last but not least, humility and gratefulness are two core values that I value in people, that's why I tattooed them on my knees to always remember.