# Pedro Vilela's Manager Readme

**Senior Engineering Manager at Bulb**

# Motivation for this document

I strive for excellent communication and transparency. As such, I believe this document can be a good starting point for you to get to know me at a professional level. It contains information at a high level, but it gives clarity on some of the things you can expect from me in the workplace.

Whether you report to me or not, feedback on this document is appreciated.

# About me

I am an Engineering Leader with over 14 years of experience, currently working as a Senior Engineering Manager at Bulb.

I believe  there should be no conflict between business outcomes and team happiness. I consider myself successful in my role if I can create happy, highly motivated teams that solve customer’s problems. 

The things you will probably hear me talking about when working with me are (non exhaustive list): customer, product, agile, experiment, test, objectives, mission, vision, focus, autonomy

# Things I value the most

Chances are that I will adapt my style to the company and people around me. However, there are a few things that I value dearly irrespective of my work environment:

- Feedback: clear, timely and constructive feedback pushes us to be better; to do better. I will provide you feedback in good faith and I want you to do the same for me.
- Transparency: I will share important information as widely as possible, as quickly as possible. I believe that transparent communication fosters trust and allows for better decision making. Transparency is particularly important when mistakes happen. I will be transparent about my mistakes and I hope you will feel confident enough to do the same.
- Honesty: I will be honest with you, whatever the message. I will not shy away from having difficult conversations with you and I expect you to bring difficult topics to my attention, too.
- Trust.

# Expectations

I expect that you take ownership of your career and to have a good idea of what you want to accomplish next. If you are unsure, let’s work together to figure that out. I am a big believer that focus and commitment is halfway to success.

There is always more work to do than capacity to take it on. I encourage you to reassess priorities often and focus on what is really important. Say No to distractions so you can say Yes to what matters.

While I value hard work and recognise there are cases where long hours are inevitable, I want you to work at a sustainable pace as a default. Not only is this the right thing from the individual perspective, but also yields better outcomes in the long run.

It is my job to raise the bar and to push - within reason - for ICs and Managers to be better today than they were yesterday. It is also my job to be supportive and create the conditions for the individuals and the business to thrive. Let’s adjust expectations when they are disparate.

A Constructive attitude is a must have, particularly when expressing disagreement. Outright negativity, constantly blaming and pointing fingers and other toxic behaviours have no place in a high performing and happy team.

# Guiding Principles

Values and Leadership Principles help create and/or cement a company’s culture. Over the years, a few of the ones I have been exposed to really resonated with my inner self.

- Ownership
- Fail fast and learn
- Keep it simple
- Disagree and commit
- Earn trust

Deep diving on the reasons for choosing the above should be part of a conversation to be had over coffee (or beer).

# Books & Podcasts

(Over the last 12 months)

Books:

- (reading now) Crossing the Chasm
- Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth
- An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
- Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
- Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow

Podcasts:

- Product Thinking
- LeadDev
- Engineering Culture Podcast - InfoQ