🔭   I’m currently working as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Kong

Hello and welcome to my user manual! This is my attempt at documenting how I view the best way to work with me. I want to stress the fact that this is my view and a believer in the concept of Sonder so I do not view it as THE view of the best way to work with me. It is a living document and I encourage you to comment and let me know if something is inaccurate or needs further clarification. You can view my Strengths Finder insights here.

I commit to reviewing this doc every 6 months to make sure it’s still accurate.

I try to keep my phone handy but if I don’t pick up a call, text me instead of a VM. I don’t like listening to VM and the badge on my phone app gives me anxiety. I’m also the type of person that can get caught up in a conversation so text me again if you haven’t heard back in 5 min.

It is impossible to over-communicate. Do not assume I know what you’re up to. If you’re ever debating including me on a communication, do it.

Tell me about your personal space boundaries. I will respect them. (after hours expectations, comfort level)

I’m a big believer in having concrete values. It’s one of the reasons I joined Quizlet in the first place. If a company/team/person doesn’t have concrete values, it is difficult to make tough decisions. Everyone here was rated on the company values when they were hired so commit them to memory, you will use them a lot.

1. Leave things better than you found them
2. If you are avoiding doing something that needs to be done, it needs to be done right away (Eat the frog!)
3. Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid to quit after you fail
4. Pay attention to the voice in your head telling you that you can’t do something. It’s telling you that you SHOULD be doing it. (“The resistance”)

I expect you to come up with your own list of values. You already have them in your head but make sure they are written down and others are aware of them.

For 1:1s, I like to use a running Google Doc that also serves as an archive of all our prior conversations.¹ Because it’s easy to forget — both what you’ve talked about what’s been done. I want to avoid recency bias — whatever we did right before our 1:1 is not always the priority. I ask that we drop in notes over the course of the week. The topic inventory is also immensely helpful during performance reviews. We should also use the G/Y/R ratings to help with a possible Engagement Chart to look back to see at what times you were the most engaged, challenged, and happy.

Show me what you’re learning and what you still have to learn. Share your a-ha moments and outstanding questions.

If we need to have meetings, let’s get the most use out of them. I believe that meetings should start on time and it’s disrespectful to everyone else if you are late. If you have to be late (it’s okay), let someone in the meeting know so that everyone else can get started.

• I’ve relaxed on this one during COVID as people need some time to connect and have small talk. I’m still trying to keep people on track but not starting with business only.

Every meeting should have a purpose. One person should be designated to run coordinate the meeting and one person should be assigned to take notes (they could be the same person but not ideally). There should be at least one Action Item coming out of every meeting. Even if all questions were answered and there are no follow-ups required, send a congratulatory message to the group stating “We rocked that meeting!”.

I am uncomfortable with silence when in group settings. It’s something I’m working on but need help and your patience. I have received feedback that I come across as someone who needs to be a loud voice in meetings and not allowing others to have their chance to speak. That is not my intention but recognize that my actions are not reflective of my intentions so something needs to be brought up. I would appreciate feedback to help me identify when I do that and suggestions on what I could’ve done differently.

Commit to providing me direct feedback when I’m blocking you or the company’s success. I commit to doing the same and expect you to hold me accountable if you don’t feel sufficiently supported.

I strive to respond well to feedback. I don’t like yes-people and after we establish a healthy trusting relationship, you will be rewarded if you give me feedback on how I can better support you and the company. Our relationship will get better if you do this well. I believe in the concept of Radical Candor and am working on building this practice into my personal and professional life.

I encourage you to be clear with me on how I can best work for you in order for you to be successful. Consider writing a user guide like this for yourself as I will honor it (or tell you if/when I can’t). Through our relationship, I will work to understand your style and how you’re best supported. If I’m the reason for your unhappiness and you don’t sense that I’m unhappy with you, give me a chance to improve.

To be clear is to give context. Compare these two statements:

• ‘Hey, I'm really enjoying my work and I'm excited about having more opportunities in the future.’
• ‘Hey, I feel like I've done a great job in my role as an L2 engineer. What would it take for me to get to an L3? That’s my goal and I feel like I’m acting as an L3 right now. I've had an interest in working more closely with the rest of the business. What would it really take for me to extend my scope to that? My personal career goal is to be a CTO.’

The first has intent. The second has clarity. To be a resource to you, your personal context in our shared company language goes a long way.

I have a tendency to take on too much and not prioritize when I should be working on each task. I’m using Notion to track weekly and daily goals to keep me focused.

Networking is hard for me and especially while we are all locked down. I’d like to build a personal brand that reflects my values and ideas to help with this process. I’m frequently tasked with recruiting and hiring great people and rather than reaching out to my network only when I need something, I’d like to provide value to my network when I don’t need something.

When decisions need to be made, I like to have an opinion and it may seem that I’ve made up my mind. However, I am open to changing my mind given a valid argument to the contrary. I feel that this style of debate gets to a solid decision more quickly.

One thing I’ve learned about myself is that when I am faced with a stressful situation like a production issue that needs to be triaged and fixed, I feel a sense of calm and a desire to organize a team to fix the problem.

I am aware that I have a tendency to dominate a conversation and not give others a chance to chime in or ask questions. My guess is that this behavior comes from wanting to make meetings as efficient as possible so everyone can go back to the work they want to be doing. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to be efficient and foster an inclusive environment. Please help me with some feedback.

I love it when a project and a team are organized and I will push for processes and tactics to get those done. Unfortunately, I struggle with ways to keep my daily schedule prioritized and organized. I’ve tried many tools (Trello boards, to-do lists apps, email reminders, writing lists in notebooks, …) and can’t seem to find one that sticks. They work for a few days/weeks but I inevitably lose interest and end up with a gigantic list of tasks that give me anxiety and I stop looking at the list. If you have any suggestions on how I can get better, please let me know about techniques on how to stick with one not the method itself as I don’t feel adding another to my list will be productive.

I might be getting old enough to the point where I forget things and my stories (that tend to find more interesting that those around me) get told to the same people more than once. Feel free to interrupt and help save the rest of the group.

• Strengths Finder 2.0 - Tom Rath
• The Manager’s Path - Camille Fournier
• Making of a Manager - Julie Zhuo
• The E Myth Revisited - Michael Gerber

• The First 90 Days - Michael D. Watkins
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (Highly recommended if you haven’t)

• Principles by Ray Dalio
• Eleven Rings - Phil Jackson

• The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
• Anything by Seth Godin

Seriously, I can’t stand it and may have to leave the room if someone near me has it in their cup. I don’t use the word hate often but it applies here.

I find myself searching for a word when speaking and just make up one that sounds close. Sometimes I notice and try to correct myself but if you notice me doing it, please help! I also confuse “extendable” with “extensible”. If you can explain the difference to me I would appreciate it.

• https://firstround.com/review/the-indispensable-document-for-the-modern-manager/
• https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-be-a-better-leader-manager-user-manual
• https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2012/06/ray-dalios-baseball-card-collection.html
• https://qz.com/1046131/writing-a-user-manual-at-work-makes-teams-less-anxious-and-more-productive/

• Initial version - 2/8/2020
• Updates to books, strengths, goals, weirdness - 5/6/2020
• Updates to books, weaknesses (technique request for organization), meeting rigidity during COVID, updated profile image to pro headshot - 12/16/2020
• Updates based on feedback I’ve received - 3/2/2021
• Migrated from GDoc to markdown - 8/22/22
• Updated work info - 10/25/22

¹ I’ve recently been introduced to Notion and am trying it out to see if I should transfer my notes.

• 12/16/2020 - Going well so far. Have personal and work plans setup to stay organized for sharing. Stopped using reminder feature but use weekly plans to stay on task.