# Zachery Moneypenny's Manager Readme

**Director, Inventory Engineering at Cars.com**

## **Happy Friday!**

I'm Zachery and my excitement is palpable. I'm eager to share what I know about myself and how I approach managing engineering teams. In team settings I'll be the one clapping, dancing and fist-pumping and there's nothing that brings me more joy than to see an empowered team that feels like they've been turned loose on an important problem to solve.

## **My Role**

I'm the Director of Inventory Engineering for CARS.  My teams own the inventory systems for both Cars.com and Dealer Inspire customers, and we're working to build the future of inventory for CARS Inc.

Both for the folks that report to me as well as for the project teams I advise, I strive to be a facilitator: to lubricate the organization so that everyone gets the information they need, when they need it.

## **My Values**

I have infinite faith in the power and effectiveness of cross-functional software teams. An environment where product, design and engineering folks are operating at peak collaboration is one that I strive to enable and guide. That said, engineers come in all shapes, personality-wise, and extroverted collaboration isn't for everyone! Cross-functional software teams are as much about respect and admiration for all the roles folks play as it is the style of collaborating.

I consider myself a product-focused engineer, and I encourage all engineers to familiarize themselves with the discipline and goals of [Product Management](https://svpg.com/inspired-how-to-create-products-customers-love/). We should always be asking What is the value to the customer? and What is the value to the business? in order to acquire laser focus on what we're building and why.  Just as importantly, we should feel like we can push back when we're not focused important work.

I try to always operate from a place of empathy, and when conflict arises I endeavor to understand why everyone involved feels the way they do and in doing so try to facilitate others empathizing as well. You can help me by empathizing as well, so that—from the very beginning—we approach problems and conflict by first stepping outside of our own perspective.

## **My Communication Style**

As a remote manager, I tend to always be within reach of a communication device. I'm typically around my home office 8am to 6pm Central Time and most of my variance comes from various childcare-related activities. On the rare occasion I'm working from a local co-working location or friendly office I'll let the team know in advance.

I prefer direct communication (likely via Zoom) when we need to come to a decision or talk about sensitive subjects or other topics where it's hard to communicate nuance.

My communication preferences are (in order from most to least preferred):

1. Slack: I use mobile alerts and will generally respond to an @-mention asap unless I am in the middle of something.
2. Zoom: I'm always happy to hop on a zoom call to discuss things.
3. Email
4. SMS/Signal
5. Talk on the phone

If I ever end up sending out communication on a weekend or outside of office hours, I do not expect a response unless I clearly communicate the urgency of the message (likely along the lines of "NEED RESPONSE ASAP" in the subject). I sometimes catch up on async communication outside of business hours, but I do _not_ expect others to keep those hours as well.

If you need to contact me with an urgent matter, an SMS or phone call to my cell are the best ways to consistently reach me.

## **1:1s**

We'll be having 1-on-1 meetings every week, in addition to ad hoc chats when you'd like to talk.  If you want feedback on project challenges I'm happy to consult, but I want to make sure we focus on professional development and places where I can help provide context at the company level.

Between me being remote and you being in the office or remote, our primary 1-on-1 venue will be Zoom or other video conferencing. If and when we're in the office at the same time, though, let's do it over lunch or coffee!

## **Personality Quirks**

1. [I'm an "i" on the DiSC spectrum](https://discinsights.com/personality-style-i)
2. I believe in using the right tool for the job. When considering tools and technologies I'm happy to contribute based on my experiences, but ultimately the team decides what works for them and the task at hand.
3. I tend to be a high-energy maniac in meetings. I will dance. I will sing jingles. I am compelled. This is only _slightly_ lessened by a Zoom-centric world 🤣.
4. As a young software engineer, [The Pragmatic Programmer](https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition) forever changed my outlook on the career I'd chosen, and it still informs my philosophy of software development-as-craft.
5. In the delivery of software to our users, I do not put The Engineer on a pedestal.  My experience has led me to highly value adjacent functions like Product, Design and QA. I therefore react adversely to suggestions that folks in those roles and their opinions and expertise are subservient to those of developers.