# Swaroop Chitlur's Manager Readme

**Engineering Manager at Helpshift**

# Introduction

In my current role at [Helpshift](https://www.helpshift.com/), I’m the engineering manager of the Machine Learning Engineering team (“MLE”).

I’ve written this document to provide clarity to my team members on how we can work together.

# What does MLE do?

Collectively, data science team (“DS”) & MLE work with the product managers (“PM”) to design, research, prototype, build, train, evaluate, deploy, operate and monitor [data science-based products](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/what-is-data-science).

DS does primarily research and MLE does primarily production but the lines in-between are blurred – we work closely with each other and usually pair up on projects starting from the research phase all the way till the end.

My team’s responsibilities are:

- Providing tools and engineering support to DS
- Collaborate on research with DS
- Collaborate on product definition and evolution with PM
- Delivery of our data science projects into production (“SensAI”)
- Collaborate with the broader Helpshift engineering teams – core team, ops team, architects team, and data platform team to ensure successful operation of SensAI products and successful integration of SensAI products with the broader platform.
- Working with customer success and sales to ensure our customers are successful with our SensAI products
- Improving the engineering foundations to make DS & MLE more productive

To understand more broadly on what machine-learning engineers do, see:

- [https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/what-are-machine-learning-engineers](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/what-are-machine-learning-engineers)
- [https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/what-machine-learning-engineers-need-to-know](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/what-machine-learning-engineers-need-to-know)
- [https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/data-engineers-vs-data-scientists](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/data-engineers-vs-data-scientists)

[![where a machine learning engineer fits with a data scientist and data engineer](https://i0.wp.com/d3ansictanv2wj.cloudfront.net/Figure3-7c5de9f92f3406e23d76e6bff3f89818.png?zoom=2&w=720&ssl=1)](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/data-engineers-vs-data-scientists)

> A machine learning engineer is someone who sits at the crossroads of data science and data engineering, and has proficiency in both data engineering and data science.

# Why write this document?

I have been an individual contributor (“IC”) software engineer for 12+ years. With every boss, there are unwritten rules and unwritten expectations. The best bosses are clear in their guidance and their expectations. I’m sure you will recognize this when you think about managers that you admire – many of whom I admire are at Helpshift!

Whenever I have stepped into an engineering management (“EM”) role (I have moved between EM and IC roles in the last few years), I have strived to share this kind of clarity.

When I came across a [Manager README](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sx5ssYb_xMrmwPpyjD5xP7RvQ7cHweDYlRGn2SXztKw/edit?usp=sharing) document written by Oren Ellenbogen (editor of [Software Leadership Weekly](http://softwareleadweekly.com/) mailing list), I fell in love with the idea. Of course, it plays right into my “write things down” obsessive nature. But more than that, it is a perfect vehicle to give thought to and crystallize my working style.

Here’s why I like the idea of a Manager README:

- You know what to expect from me
- I clearly state what I expect from you
- [“Explicit is better than implicit”](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/) – Lack of clarity leads to disillusionment.
- Off track – You should question me whenever I am off-track and not adhering to my process and values that I’m stating here.
- On track – You should have clarity about my expectations, your career growth, feedback areas, and so on.
- Everybody needs a coach – [I hope this convinces you there is value in having a manager.](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16486794)
- I can continuously update this document, to reflect lessons learned and feedback received from my teammates.

### Why is this outside the company wiki?

- Because this is my personal style of management. This is not company-mandated.
- Because it forces me to have conviction in what I’m stating here.
- Because folks who are interested in joining the team can know how I work even before joining. Hopefully, this gives them confidence in me. 

# What is my job?

- You – My role is to ensure  **you are successful**.
  - Your role is to design and deliver successful products. Together, we make the company’s customers successful and hence the company successful.

- Culture – [Building a company culture where people want to stay.](https://twitter.com/twistappteam/status/986306876689276931)
  - What is culture?
    - What is important (values)
    - How we do things (process)

- Information – [gathering, abstraction, filtering, and delivery](https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/cultivate-conference-2016/9781491959688/video245546.html)
  - My teammates are heads-down working. I am heads-up coordinating within our team _and_ across the company.

  - I work with other teams (product, data science, customer success, sales, operations, HR, etc.) to make sure we are aligned with the rest of the company and they with us.
  - Communication is the hardest thing in our careers. Being _proactive_ is the solution.
  - Alignment is the most important thing in a company.
  - Business Understanding – Talking to business stakeholders, leadership team, bosses

- People management
  - My teammates debug software. I debug people & process, so that my team consistently deliver high-quality work.
  - Career development
    - Having strategic conversations that lead to tactical conversations.
    - I expect my teammates to be mindful and direct about their _purpose_. I cannot decide that for you. (“What does success look like, for you?”)
    - I consistently work to ensure _autonomy_ and _mastery_ for my teammates. (“Are you set up for success?”)
    - You should expect me to try my best to ensure alignment and balance of your goals with the company’s goals. When it is not possible, I will be direct in saying so.

  - Leadership is a _character trait_. Management is a _role_.
    - I expect all my teammates to [behave as leaders](https://www.amazon.jobs/principles).
    - [Leadership is creating an environment where everyone can contribute to solving the problem at hand.](https://marcusblankenship.com/tech-leader-fortune-cookie-6/)

- Project management
  - Deliver projects on-time.
  - Making best practices part of the process, so that they become habits.

- Technical Skills
  - [My role is a mix of engineering manager and engineering lead](https://medium.com/making-meetup/em-el-pm-venn-diagram-764e79b42baf), but I will rely on you to also guide the “how”.

# Values

These are attributes of working style that I admire greatly and value in a colleague and in a team.

I do _not_ expect you to have all of these values on day one.

I _do_ expect you and I to look back every quarter to see that we both have made progress on these.

_I expect you and I to be:_

- Mindful
  - Be conscious, aware and deliberate in our behavior and in our work.
  - Be constantly looking for ways to improve as a team and improve our process (how we do things).

- Self-motivated
  - Be self-motivated. We should only need to give guidance to each other, not push each other to perform.
  - Design your own goals based on the agreed-upon team goals and proactively sign up for chunks of the team goals.
  - Design long-term ambitions about your work and team

-  Diligent
  - Show care about our work, be detail-oriented and always be on top of tying up loose ends.
  - Be proactive regarding our tasks.
  - Be proactive regarding cross-team coordination.
  - Have conversations, with timelines attached.
    - Don’t just “Let’s discuss”.
    - Do mention effort estimates, dependencies and their ETAs, roadblocks, integration testing estimates, ETAs, internal dates, customer-facing dates, etc.

  - [Avoid bikeshedding](http://bikeshed.com/).
  - [Balance features vs. schedule vs. quality](https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/conversation-no-37-657c61f801fe)

- Direct
  - Tackle issues directly, in terms of problems, people and feedback to each other.
  - Don’t hesitate.

- Collaborative
  - Be conscious that we are all in this together, working towards a common goal.
  - Understand that we can be more productive as a team than as individuals, and that we can rely on each other.
  - [Have productive conversations even when you disagree.](https://twitter.com/b0rk/status/980938694118002688)
  - It is impossible to over-communicate!

- Setting [High Standards](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518121161/d456916dex991.htm)
- Engaging in [Life-long Learning](https://www.fs.blog/2016/06/ego-is-the-enemy-genghis-khan/)
  - Don’t be afraid of or averse to learning new things.
  - I encourage you to attend and propose talks for relevant conferences.

-  Having Fun!
  - We spend most of our waking hours at work. Let’s not get too serious. That would be boring.

# TODO Goal-Setting

I’m still working on this section. See [V2MOM](https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/04/how-to-create-alignment-within-your-company.html).

# Meetings

- Background
  - Interruptions – I want us to be mindful about [maker time vs. manager time](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html). Creative people (such as [engineers](https://twitter.com/_ericelliott/status/985307992299106304) and data scientists) need [large chunks of uninterrupted time to do their best work](https://99u.adobe.com/book/manage-your-day-to-day-2).
  - Remote – We are a remote and distributed team. Even if we weren’t, somebody (maybe you!) may be working from home. So, just assume this to be true.

- Hence, I believe our _default mode should be asynchronous sharing, not synchronous_.
  - Because this gives _time_ for the other person to give a thoughtful response.
  - Because this gives _time_ for the other person to do their core work.
  - Our default mode of communication should be to use indirect ways of updating each other as much as possible
    - Use JIRA for progress or roadblocks on concrete tasks.
    - Use email for work discussions. Not Slack.
      - I expect us to check email (and respond) once every 24 hours, on weekdays. Not more often than that.

    - Use Slack _only_ for time-sensitive work communication.
      - Why? Because we need to find [a calmer way to work](https://twist.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003654569)
      - You are welcome to use Slack or Zoom for casual direct chat though!

- Why meetings are important – because we are a team
  - The shortest way I can say this is that the most important thing in growing a company or team is to of course focus on getting things done, but the only way to get the _right_things done is by having meetings, by talking. There is no doubt that a group of people not meeting will get a lot of stuff done. It can be said with equal confidence, however, that by not meeting the stuff that will get done will lack cohesiveness, quality, and a shared set of values — the wrong stuff. The most expensive thing a growing company can do is get the wrong stuff done. This risk is magnified the larger the team, but clearly starts with just a couple of people. _The question is how to get the right stuff done. The answer is by talking, listening, and discussing._ Those together are the ingredients for a shared understanding and with a shared understanding the micro-decisions that everyone makes every day whether writing code, creating positioning, deploying a build, designing an experience, and so on. Where meetings are generally misunderstood is that the effort to make them efficient, goal-oriented, and conclusive is exactly what shuts down discussion, causes people to think about what to say next rather than listen, and generally prevents collaboration.  — [Steven Sinofsky](https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/reaching-peak-meeting-efficiency-f8e47c93317a)
  - We tend to think of meetings themselves as the main event, when in reality meetings should be the practice sessions. Instead of thinking about meetings as the regular season, think of meetings as practice drills or warm-ups. The real main event comes when you’re actually committing work to the screen. If you have done enough drills with your teammates then there’s a really good chance you know how they will react, how they can help, and how the work you’re committing will impact the overall “game”. — [Steven Sinofsky](https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/reaching-peak-meeting-efficiency-f8e47c93317a)

- Regular Meetings
  - We will have a weekly team meeting (early in the week), where I try to focus on _strategic_ conversations, and focus on _alignment_.
  - We will have regular 1:1 conversations.

# 1:1 Conversations

- We will have regular one-to-one conversations once a week.
- I expect these conversations to be bi-directional.
- See “Career development” above, esp. _strategic_ conversations that lead to _tactical _conversations.
- I expect you to bring 2 _strategic_ points of discussion for every session. It’s not about putting pressure on you, it’s about having real hard discussions, that is helpful to _you_ for your career ambitions. At the end of the discussion, both you and I should have more clarity on what you want to achieve and what are the roadblocks.
- TODO Feedback Areas – I want to provide more actionable feedback by considering different feedback areas. I’m still working on this. My current references are:
  - Medium growth ladder
    - [https://snowflake.medium.com/](https://snowflake.medium.com/)
    - [Medium Engineering Growth Rubric – Google Sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EO-Dbsayn8Nz9Ii3MKcwRbt-EIJ2MjQdpoyhh0tBdZk)
    - [https://medium.com/s/engineering-growth-framework/engineering-growth-tracks-b1fad620787e](https://medium.com/s/engineering-growth-framework/engineering-growth-tracks-b1fad620787e)

  - Patreon growth ladder
    - [https://levels.patreon.com](https://levels.patreon.com/)
    - [https://patreonhq.com/how-patreon-levels-engineers-a28a3491ae6a](https://patreonhq.com/how-patreon-levels-engineers-a28a3491ae6a)

  - [Songkick growth ladder](https://blog.songkick.com/building-a-growth-framework-2464435e9e46)
  - [Meetup engineering roles](https://github.com/meetup/engineering-roles/)

# What do I expect of colleagues outside of my team?

I would request our colleagues to:

- Understand that we are setting _high standards_ here.
- Be _direct_ in their feedback whenever our behavior is not matching up to these high standards.
- _Collaborate_ with us in delivering high-quality products.
- Have _fun_ together!

# TODO Engineering

I’m still working on this section.

- TODO Open Question: [Should we build our own technology radar?](https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/build-your-own-technology-radar)
- Focus on Instrumentation & Monitoring
  - As an industry engineering culture, traditional emphasis is given to _compile-time_situation via code review, coding standards, linters, and so on. We should also give equal attention on _run-time_ situation via monitoring tools.
  - [https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/strong-feedback-loops-make-strong-software-teams](https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/strong-feedback-loops-make-strong-software-teams)

# My Quirks

Please bear with me:

- I’m still figuring out what is the value that I bring to this role (this document is a prime example). Am I a good manager or a case of the [Peter Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)? Please tell me!
- I’m paranoid about wasting your time and unintentional micromanagement – so I may err on the side of less meetings or less checking-in. Please tell me if you feel I should be more involved, I can definitely do that.
- I’m paranoid about “losing touch” with you. So please be diligent about us having our regular once-in-2-weeks 1:1 sessions, and please regularly share your updates asynchronously (JIRA or Slack).
- I hate surprises. Please keep me informed about your observations within and outside the team.
- I believe in [career craftsmanship](http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/08/11/the-career-craftsman-manifesto/).

# Always remember: How can you, our team and our company be successful?

From [Morgan Housel – Ideas That Changed My Life](http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/ideas-that-changed-my-life/) :

> The only truly sustainable sources of competitive advantage I know of are:
> 
> 1. Learn faster than your competition.
> 2. Empathize with customers more than your competition.
> 3. Communicate more effectively than your competition.
> 4. Be willing to fail more than your competition.
> 5. Wait longer than your competition.
> 
> Everything else – intelligence, design, insight – gets smashed to pieces by competitors who are almost certainly as smart as you.

# Bibliography

- Management overview
  - [Things you shouldn’t do because it’s the “normal” next step](https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/904405252652363776)
  - [Why should you want to lead people? — Amit Goldshmidt](https://medium.com/sears-israel/why-should-you-want-to-lead-people-edf8c10fd92f)
  - [The First 90 Days](http://a.co/0ndDfMW)

- Manager README
  - [Why and How to share your Manager README (plus here’s mine) — Katie Womersley](https://medium.com/@kawomersley/why-and-how-to-share-your-manager-readme-plus-heres-mine-8a4fe188ee1b)
  - [The Indispensable Document for the Modern Manager — Jay Desai](http://firstround.com/review/the-indispensable-document-for-the-modern-manager/)
  - [An engineer’s bill of rights (and responsibilities) — Charity Majors](https://charity.wtf/2018/03/30/an-engineers-bill-of-rights-and-responsibilities/)

- Management how-to
  - [There’s nothing basic about the basics of leadership — Michael Lopp](https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/cultivate-conference-2016/9781491959688/video245546.html)
  - [Running Meetings (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)](https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/running-meetings-hbr/9781625272300/)
  - [1:1 basics for the introvert Engineering Manager — Oren Ellenbogen](https://speakerdeck.com/orenellenbogen/1-1-basics-for-the-introvert-engineering-manager)
  - [Plucky’s 1:1 Starter Pack](https://medium.com/@jenniferdary/announcing-pluckys-1-1-starter-pack-ed9081a7e48)
  - [Running Remote podcast](https://runningremote.libsyn.com/)

- Management ideas
  - [Sprint : how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days](https://www.thesprintbook.com/)
  - [The Amazon Way — John Rossman](http://a.co/34CvMM5)