# Ian Marlier's Manager Readme

**Director of Engineering at CollegeVine**

v1.0, published 4/20/2019

# Motivation for this document

No two managers are alike, and figuring out how to work with a manager can be one of the most stressful and challenging parts of any job.  This is particularly true in a field like software engineering that tends to value domain expertise; or in the context of a startup or a rapidly growing company, where the specifics of what someone is doing on a day to day basis can change rapidly.

My hope for this document is that it will help you to understand what's important to me, what I expect of you, and some of the quirks of my personality and style.  It's intended to be a cheat sheet that helps to inform our relationship.  

Think of this as a rough draft of a contract between us, outlining the things that I am committing to and what I ask in return.

With that said, none of what's below is written in stone.  As we work together we'll develop our own ways of communicating, of coordinating, and of delivering on our commitments.  Holding to the mechanisms that we arrive at together is more important than keeping to this document.

# My role

It's probably easiest to explain my role in terms of the things that I'm evaluated on -- the objectives toward which my day-to-day work is oriented, and some of the questions that I ask myself to understand whether the work that I'm doing is effective:

- **Deliver products that solve the problems that our customers are experiencing.**
  - Are we delivering products that work, and that solve the right problem?
  - Are we delivering with a sense of urgency?
  - Are we delivering products that are truly done?

- **Develop our staff, streamline our processes, and scale our organization so that we can take advantage of our success.**
  - Do our employees know what's expected of them, and how to meet those expectations?
  - Do our employees have goals for themselves, whether personal or professional, and do they feel that they know how to move towards them?
  - Is there anything about the way that we work that prevents us from delivering products that solve our customers' needs?
  - Are there tools that would make it easier for people to do their jobs?
  - Do we have the people that we need to solve the problems that we have right now?  If not, what gaps do we have?

These two objectives are inextricably linked, and that we will not be able to succeed as a company without addressing both.  They're also in tension, because we have limited time and limited resources.  In almost all cases, I will spend my time on the second, with the goal of allowing everyone else in the organization to spend their time on the first.  

(A caveat to this: I spent a bunch of years focusing almost exclusively on the first, and it's a comfort zone for me.  In times of high stress I can revert back to a focus on delivery, instead of a focus on enabling delivery.  You should never be afraid to interrupt me from that focus, to ask me to solve for enablement.)

# What do I value most?

Values, morals, and behavior

A little story: About 6 or 7 years in to my career in technology, I became interested in trying out management.  I brought it up with my boss at the time, and we had some conversations about what that might look like.  He had some reservations about the idea, though, but I didn't really understand why.

Finally, during a 1:1, I told him that I needed clarity, and this was his response:  "The problem is that you're an asshole a lot of the time, so even though you're good at your job people don't like working with you." . 

This was not the answer that I was expecting, but it was probably the most valuable thing that I could have heard at that point in my life.  Much of what I value is a result of the soul-searching that resulted from that conversation.

I put an exceptionally high value on  **empathy**.  Empathy with customers: what problem do they have that has led them to us, and what can we do to help them solve it; empathy with coworkers: what are the negatives in their work lives, and what can I do to help with those things; empathy with the people around us on a day to day basis.  I assume that every negative interaction results from some underlying fact or motive that I don't know, and I'd like to think that everyone else makes the same assumption when they have negative interactions with me.

I try, always, to  **assume good faith**.  I have never seen an example of someone intentionally trying to do their job badly, and I don't expect that I ever will.

I try to **[avoid religious wars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoOG6ZeyUI).** I put lots of time and energy into caring about people; I have neither the time nor the inclination to invest emotionally in questions of faith or belief or preference.  (This has a downside, in that it can seem like I don't care about something that's important to you -- I can come across as dismissive or uninterested, when what's actually going on is that I don't really have an opinion.  I've tried to get better about making this explicit, but I still fall back into the old, bad habit.  You should feel very comfortable calling me out on this.)

Communication

I cannot keep track of what everyone around me is doing, and I've never seen the value in trying to do so.  This means that  **I expect you to tell me what you have done, what you're doing now, what you're going to be doing**.  For the most part, I'm going to operate on the assumption that you chose those things for good reasons.  

I assume that you are an adult who is fully capable of autonomy.   **I expect you to tell me if you need my help**. My general practice is to give people context and freedom, and to let them control their own destiny; put different, I'm not going to tell you what to do, how to do it, or when it should be done.  I expect you to figure that out.  _But_, I'm fully aware that this is incredibly difficult and has all sorts of complicating factors_.  _I'm happy to help you work through figuring this out, but you need to tell me what help I can provide that will be valuable.

There will be times that I have feedback for you.   **I try to give feedback in the most direct manner possible, and I appreciate the same from everyone else**.  If there's something that I'm doing that doesn't work for you, just tell me.  Feedback, done well, is essentially emotionless -- it's about facts and not about feelings.  (For more on effective feedback, I suggest reading [_The One Minute Manager_.](https://smile.amazon.com/New-One-Minute-Manager-ebook/dp/B00MMG19OG/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=the+one+minute+manager&qid=1555782420&s=books&sr=1-3))

Delivery

Every one of us should be making every effort to deliver something of value every day.   **If you can't deliver something of value, you need to tell me that**.  When in doubt, ship it; velocity can solves all kinds of issues that are resistant to other treatments.

Velocity and quality are aided by  **rapid cycle times and small batch sizes**.  Small changes are easy to reason about, which means that they're easy to review and test, which means that they're safe.  When in doubt, ship in the smallest reasonable increments.  (And read _[The Phoenix Project](https://smile.amazon.com/Phoenix-Project-DevOps-Helping-Business/dp/0988262592) _for much more on this.)

# Expectations

- **You are my top priority**.  If you need my time, it's yours -- put something on my calendar, ask for time on Slack, or send me an SMS, or whatever else works for you.  If you need something done, I'll do it if I'm at all capable. 
- **You are smarter than I am**.  You know how to do your job.  When I say things that don't make sense given the context that you have, you need to tell me that and help me to understand what I don't know.     
- **You're not going to do your job right all the time.** That's fine.  If something goes wrong, tell me as soon as possible, and let's figure out how to make it right.
- **You should not compromise on completeness**.  There is a minimum requirement for any project to be done.  I state it this way: "the thing that has been delivered solves the customer's problem in a way that works for the business."  What that means is going to vary.  If you don't know what will indicate that your project is done, you need to surface that.  

# 1:1s

My default is to have a 30-minute 1:1 with each person in my management tree, every week.  I keep the agenda relatively informal, roughly along the lines of what [Manager Tools suggests](https://www.manager-tools.com/2005/07/the-single-most-effective-management-tool-part-1), but a little more conversational.

If you prefer longer 1:1's, shorter 1:1's, a different cadence, a different format, just let me know.  I'm very flexible, and ultimately 1:1's are for your benefit, not mine.

The exception to the above is a quarterly check-in on personal and professional goals.  This is something that I've found valuable, and that I try to maintain with my teammates.

# Personality quirks

- I typically have a to-do list of between 25 and 50 items, and I have a terrible, persistent habit of trying to do too many of them at once.  For someone who will talk passionately about the value of limited WIP, I constantly try to multitask.  It's a terrible, terrible habit, that I've never been able to make meaningful progress against.  If there is something that you need me to do that has a hard deadline or a particularly high level of importance, please make that clear.  It's also a good idea if we set explicit checkpoints if it's something that is going to take a while.
- I'm pretty introverted by nature, particularly in large groups of people.  Don't be surprised if I'm being a wallflower at a company event or something like that.  

# A couple of closing words

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude towards the people that I have gotten to work with in the past, and I'm excited for the opportunity to work with you.  Hopefully this README is a helpful guide that'll get us off on the right foot.

If there's only one thing that you take away from this document, I'd suggest that it be this: **I'm here to serve you, and to ensure that you can do your job to the absolute best of your ability.  To do that, I need you to tell me what's keeping you from doing so.**   

And, I guess: when in doubt, ship it.

Feedback on this README is very welcome!