# Stephanie Wilkinson's Manager Readme

**Director of Systems Architecture at National Association of Independent Schools**

# Motivation for this document

This document is a quick introduction to me--how&nbsp;and why I work. My goal is to make onboarding as smooth as possible for new team members.

# About Me

**Role.** My priority is to create an environment that enables our team to deliver remarkable software to our customers.&nbsp;

**Background**. I wrote my first line of code in 2009 and started writing code for work in 2013. For more about me, check out my&nbsp;[GitHub](https://github.com/stephaniewilkinson/bookmooch)&nbsp;or&nbsp;[website](http://stephanieawilkinson.com/).&nbsp;

**Community.** I founded&nbsp;[Ruby in Hollywood](https://www.meetup.com/rubyinhollywood/events/past/), a&nbsp;code group in LA. I enjoy attending&nbsp;meetups and connecting with other devs at conferences, and talks. I&nbsp;completely support and advocate for members of my team who want to improve their skills outside of work.&nbsp;

## Beliefs

**"Fortune favors the brave".** There are two pieces to this. First, vulnerability is bravery. My goal is to get the team to the place where we are unafraid to admit what we need. It takes courage to be authentic and to admit when you need help. Secondly, let's exercise bravery with our software and sometimes go off the beaten track.&nbsp;

**"Everything is an experiment"**.&nbsp; The beauty of software is that it's impossible to write code that can't be undone.&nbsp;

**"Bias toward action".** Sometimes decisions are between option A and option B. But sometimes, they are between doing something and doing nothing. For those latter types of decisions, I bias toward action. The path that moves us away from stasis gets the tie-breaking vote.

# My team

**Agency.&nbsp;** You were hired&nbsp;because you are smart and capable. My philosophy is to hire skilled people and get out of their way. I don't micromanage. That said, if you are someone who needs more guiderails and context to do your job effectively, let me know. Let's come up with a framework so that you can get what you need from me.&nbsp;

**Teamwork**. I expect each member of the team to treat each other with respect and consideration. Comments on PRs should be positive and helpful. A rule of thumb here&nbsp;is "assume good intent". Assume that your teammate tried their best and proceed accordingly. My goal for our team is to be proud of each other's work and to cheer each other's successes.&nbsp;

## Logistics

**Schedule.&nbsp;** My work hours are 9-5 M-F Pacific. Expect to hear from me outside of these hours, but don't feel any obligation to respond until you start work (unless I&nbsp;say it's urgent).&nbsp;If you do respond, I&nbsp;won't expect you to respond outside of working hours subsequently.

**Calendar.** &nbsp;I keep my calendar updated. My team can book time with me by sending an invite--no lead-up necessary.&nbsp;

**Meetings.&nbsp;** I'm a big believer in the adage "meetings are for decision-making". My goal is to keep updates and other share-outs to asynchronous communication. I&nbsp;also vastly prefer videochat in meetings to audio-only.&nbsp;

**Working remotely.** &nbsp;I&nbsp;love to use Slack as a tool to keep remote teammates connected. Please connect early and often with your teammates on slack. I think a little silliness on Slack can be a great way to connect with the team, as long as it's in the right channel (preferably not #general or #ops).&nbsp;

**Time zones.** &nbsp;For members of the team who aren't in the majority time zone, we will try to keep meeting times reasonable. However, sometimes for an all-hands or another one-off meeting, you may need to meet outside of your normal working hours. We will try to keep that to a minimum but sometimes it can't be helped.&nbsp;

**Responsiveness****.&nbsp;**Within working hours, please respond to slack or email messages within a couple hours. If you need more time&nbsp;(say you need to research the answer), respond as such. For example, "I need to look into this, I should&nbsp;know more tomorrow." Or even a simple, "Let me check."&nbsp;

## 1:1s

**Scheduling.&nbsp;** I like to shoot for biweekly 1:1s, but I'm flexible. My priority is to give us a regular recurring time to touch base and keep the channels of communication open.&nbsp;

**Topics.&nbsp;** One on ones are&nbsp;your time to&nbsp;to share what's on your mind. I may have updates to share with you but it's your time. You can share what's frustrating you, any blockers you have, ideas, plans, etc. I'm not expecting a status update from you, unless that's what you want to share. My job is to remove blockers for you, so let me know how I&nbsp;can help.

# Where to focus on your first 90 days?

**First day**.&nbsp;Clone the repo(s) and make sure you can build, run, and test it. Join all of our platforms--Slack, GitHub, etc.

**First week.** &nbsp;Bring yourself up to speed on the outstanding GitHub issues and take a look at the project board. Get to know your team.

**First month**.&nbsp;Focus on gaining domain knowledge--understanding how and why things work.