My Manager ReadMe

Hi! If you’re reading this, it means that I’m going to be coaching you! I’m excited! (big grin)

What is this page, Robyn?

It’s recently become popular among Engineering managers to have a Manager “ReadMe”. I’ve found writing this to be helpful to me as a way to share my own management philosophy. A lot of what I cover below are things that you’d probably pick up on over the next few months anyway; think of this document as a way of jumpstarting getting to know me and my style.

About Me

I joined Indeed in January 2016 as part of the BI team, supporting our Sales Strategy team. I was one of the founding members of the Product Science team in June 2017, working to develop our lead generation algorithms and forecasting, and began supporting the Job Search team in October 2017, and led our Job Search UI Lab for several years before moving to grow our Job Seeker Matching group (Taxonomy / metadata; our search engine and recommendation systems; and our backend and ML platforms). I am now the Data Science Science Lead for the Job Seeker Outcomes group, which has Scientists across our Indeed Apply, Profile, Trust and Safety, and Company Insights products.

I live in Denver, Colorado; prior, I lived in Austin for about eleven years. My hobbies include performing improv comedy, trying to keep houseplants alive, hiking/camping with my partner Prakash, learning how to speak Tamil, reading science fiction / fantasy books, playing video games, cooking, and drawing. I also live with my cats Louie and Bajji, who sometimes update my wiki pages777777777;;;;llf.

My Responsibilities as a Leader

When you really boil it down, here are my duties:

Helping you feel supported at work and in your career goals
Giving you feedback around what’s going well and what you could do differently
Advocating for you and your work
Offering advice on what to prioritize, approaches to take, who to talk to, etc.
Let you know what’s going on around Indeed so you know what to prioritize and why
Making sure we’re delivering impactful, innovative results

The last bullet item stems from me doing everything else above it well.

My Management Values

Hopefully these will be apparent over time, but here are a few things you might notice about how I manage.

I default to more of a “coaching” style of management. What that means is that I’m going to ask guiding questions to empower you to come up with the answers yourself. So, you might hear me ask:

What’s challenging here for you?
What question are we trying to answer? What problem are we trying to solve? Why are we doing this?
What’s the simplest thing you could do that would start answering the question or addressing the problem?
What are the benefits of that approach? The risks? Alternatives?
What do you want to see happen here?

Sometimes you might want me to just be more “directive” and tell you what to do. If so, just ask.

To that end, I expect myself and the managers under me to put people first. I expect managers reporting into me to personally care about the people reporting to them, prioritize weekly one-on-ones, have regular career conversations, give regular positive and constructive feedback on their teammates’ performance, and practice servant leadership (see also “my responsibilities as a coach” above).

I value getting something simple but rigorous done. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good when you’re first starting out on a project. If you’ve got a deliverable that feels like it’d get a B- in school, share it and get feedback on it. I would rather you share something you think is sort of crappy so you can get feedback and iterate on it, than “rabbit holing”, i.e. waiting until something is perfect 6 weeks later. Having said that, when we share the final product, it should be rigorous and reviewed. I believe firmly that the quality of our work product has a lasting effect on the impact we have as as team. When it comes to production systems, sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.

I appreciate humor and love to laugh. We spend many of our waking hours at work – it should be enjoyable!

It’s important to me that everyone on my team has a good work to non-work ratio. If you’re struggling with this, let’s talk about it. To that end, I usually won’t send email/Slack/Hangouts messages beyond work hours, and if I do, I don’t expect you to get back to me right away. If you need something urgently, you’ll have my personal cell number.

Career Growth

I’m a big believer in having a growth mindset; i.e. that people can develop new skills through work and that their capabilities are not static throughout their lives.

I have a management practice I call “the motivation matrix” – I developed it earlier in my coaching practice as a way of better understanding what you find motivating, what you find draining, your strengths, and where you see your career going. Sometime in our first few months working together, I’ll block out an hour for us to dive deep here.

Feedback

I like to give regular, direct feedback (positive or negative) about your behaviors. In one of our first one-on-ones, I’ll ask you about your preferences for getting feedback and I will do my best to follow those preferences. My goal is to make sure you are never be surprised by your performance evaluation, and if you are, please tell me.

I also like to get feedback from you, too. Did I do something you really like? Tell me, I’ll do more of it! Did I do something you thought was super unhelpful? Tell me, I’m human and sometimes I screw up! If for some reason you feel like you’re having a hard time giving me feedback, let’s talk about it; alternatively, let my manager know.

One-on-Ones

I see the purpose of one-on-ones as building our relationship and helping you get through any work-related problems you’re facing. We’ll have one-on-ones weekly.

We can talk about anything you want during one-on-ones. We’ll have a private doc where we can each add notes and follow up. I expect you to come to our one-on-one with items on the agenda (bonus points if it’s prioritized). If we have time, I’ll ask you questions during our one-on-ones during the last 10-15 minutes.

Also, it’s worth noting that you’re not confined to our one-on-ones to catch up. Want to hop on a quick zoom, go for a walking phone call, or grab a zoom coffee? Anytime. I love coffee. ☕️

My Calendar

I usually work between 8:30am and 4:30pm Mountain Time, more or less. I try to avoid having meetings on Friday afternoons.

My calendar is, by default, public. If you need to chat, feel free to put something in my calendar. Is my calendar full? Send me a message and I can move something around so we can meet. Supporting my team is my first priority.

Sometimes I’ll block off time to do my own focus time; however, I am available for you during that time. If you need to chat, just shoot me a message.

Help Me Help You

Please be honest. Over-communicate with me about how you’re feeling and what you’re doing. Are you struggling with something? I would rather you bring your concerns or headaches to me so we can brainstorm together instead of you hiding them away. Did you mess up? Tell me so we can fix it together more quickly.
Please keep your calendar up-to-date, public by default, and meetings modifiable by default. When others and I can see your calendar, it makes rescheduling meetings a lot more efficient and prevents misunderstandings.
Please add items to our one-on-one doc. I’ve found that when you jot down things to talk about during the course of the week to have as an agenda our conversations tend to be more productive. Bonus points: come to the one-on-one with the agenda items prioritized.
While status updates in one-on-ones are helpful to me, they may not be useful to you. The purpose of one-on-ones if for you to have dedicated time for your priorities, and I find that status updates can get in the way of that. Instead, I encourage folks to share status updates with me asynchronously. This could be a quick slack or just some notes you type up in our one-on-one doc separately.

Some things I’m working on

I’m not perfect, and there are a few things I’m trying to improve. I’ll transparently share more context about my own goals, challenges, and priorities, if you ask.

I’m trying to strike the right balance of being fully present in meetings (i.e. not being on devices) and being responsive to my teammates. I tend to err on the side of not checking Slack while I’m in other meetings. Sometimes this means that I might not get back to you as urgently as you might like.
I can be a talker! If you find that I’m going on for too long, don’t be afraid to interrupt me (I will not be offended).
Also, I swear sometimes. Sorry!