My Manager README

A manager README is a document often used in tech, that outlines a leader’s management style, communication preferences, expectations, and personality to help direct reports work effectively with them.

What I’m here for

As a leader, I’m here to nurture a team of designers who craft and execute on a user-centered design strategy that aligns with our company's vision.

As a manager, I’m here to ensure the business is successful through activating the unique skills and perspectives of the team. High performing, high impact teams come about when everyone is at their personal best, finds their work meaningful, and works well together.

My Principles

My product and design principles:

  • Balance vision with pragmatism
  • Transparency fosters trust
  • Good ideas start with real problems

My personal principles, related to work:

  • I work to live, not live to work
  • Learning is my purpose
  • Defensiveness stems from insecurity and leads to stagnation. Receptiveness stems from humility and leads to growth.

What I’m motivated by:

  • Learning from the people around me
  • Coaching my teammates along their own learning journeys
  • Collaborating with creative, kind people to build useful products

My commitments to you

  • I will believe in your potential
  • I will trust your expertise
  • I will give you timely, direct feedback
  • I will internalize your feedback to me
  • I will be an advocate for your good ideas
  • I will protect your creative time
  • I will look for growth opportunities with you
  • I will give you insights from leadership
  • I will bring my best self to work

My asks and expectations of you

  • Act proactively more than reactively
  • Share your perspectives on design strategy with peers
  • Give me timely, direct feedback so that I can improve in my own journey
  • Consider my feedback with an open mind because it might surprise you
  • Balance your schedule so that you don’t take on too much or too little
  • Own your own career growth
  • Champion your peers’ success because when one of us succeeds, we all succeed
  • Take interest in the company’s future vision
  • Bring your best self to work

My 1:1 Philosophy

Our weekly 1:1 meetings are your time. You should feel empowered to own your agenda. Come with questions about your projects, the company, or your career. I am here to support you, so use your time with me to the best of your ability.

What I hope to get out of our weekly 1:1s

  • Ensure you have the right amount of work
  • Ensure you’re working on the right things (both for the business’ goals and your own goals)
  • Help you keep projects on time and in quality
  • Get feedback from you for me, other leaders, or the company
  • Happiness/fulfillment check

Questions I’ll probably ask

  • Let’s check in personally - how is your work/life balance this week?
  • What were your successes this week?
  • What’s been the most challenging part of your work this week?
  • What are your goals for this next week? (Not tasks, but desired outcomes)
  • How is your partnership with Engineering/PM going on these projects?
  • What can I unblock for you?

Need more inspiration for 1:1 topics to proactively bring up with me? Here’s Julia Evans’ guide.

Pro tip: status updates aren’t a great use our time together, but if you create a list of what you are working on, I can comb through it async, and then we can quickly decide what pieces we want to dig in deeper on.

Quarterly 1:1s

Every quarter, let’s step back a bit from the day-to-day. We can:

  • Check in about your progress toward career goals over the last quarter
  • Tweak, pivot, or reset your career goals with you as needed
  • Identify opportunities for you to work towards those over the next quarter with projects that might also align with the business’ needs

I’ll ask questions like:

  • Let’s retro the quarter. What went well? What didn’t go well?
  • What are your long term goals? Have they changed from last time we spoke? What skills do you need to get there and be successful?
  • Let’s check in about where you sit in the career matrix. What areas do you feel confident in? What areas are confusing or challenging?

How and when to reach me

My working hours are consistently 8:30am-5pm MT. I consider 7-8:30am MT and 5:30-7:30pm MT as my prized time with my kids, so I will be unlikely to respond to messages or accept meetings during those times. However, if I do send communications at odd hours, please know that I have no expectations that you reply outside business hours.

I strongly prefer Slack or email for work over text messages, except during in-person events. For social networks, feel free to add me on X or LinkedIn if you’d like to, but I won’t be offended if you don’t.