Accidentally in Code

Tag: managers

  • New-ish Eng-Manager Slack, >1 Year On

    New-ish Eng-Manager Slack, >1 Year On

    em-logoMid-2016, we started a slack for newer engineering managers. After a couple of months, we started growing it more actively and I’m excited that it continues to grow. I believe in community, and the value of peer-mentoring, and it’s been great to create a space for that and have others value it too.

    For me a big part of that is creating an inclusive space, which is why we have a clear code of conduct, and moderators in multiple timezones to enforce it. I’m thrilled that we have a vibrant women channel, and enough latinx eng-managers that there is also a private channel for them.

    As we grow, we need to keep working on onboarding new members so they can reach a point where discussion is at the right volume for them and remains high value.

    For now, though, I’m really grateful for this community, and if this is something you’d also value, I’d invite you to review the Code of Conduct, and join us.

  • 6 Things I Look For When Considering Projects and Teams

    6 Things I Look For When Considering Projects and Teams

    Just searching for something
    Credit: Flickr / emisss

    Women in senior roles (I am ignoring the presence of new grad women as a metric – it’s a meaningless measure of diversity).

    A manager with some kind of work life balance. Does he (sadly it’s always a he) talk about his kids? Make an effort to moderate his travel for the sake of his wife? I’m not very interested in children but it’s normally a good sign if he’s involved in their lives. Managers are important for many, many other reasons though, and I try to get a sense of these too. Although I will start with, can we have a conversation?

    Shipping. What have they shipped lately? Dy they ship regularly? What do they plan to ship next?

    A focus on UX. Less applicable for things that don’t involve front end work, but I’m obsessed with creating great experiences, and whether it’s worth it is not an argument I want to have anymore, I’m bored of it. As far as the user is concerned, the UX is your application. It needs to be good.

    A hole. I look for places where I can come and add value, some kind of expertise or focus that is missing. I’ve reached a point in my career where I know what I’m good at and what I want to focus on. I want something that aligns with that. This doesn’t need to be purely technical, I’m exploring the idea it shouldn’t be – the team I’m on now, I got a piece of advice from a friend that made me consider it entirely differently. I was stressing about how I didn’t think I knew enough about javascript, and he said: “This team has leadership, a user focus, and a conscience if they have you”. This framed my thinking completely differently.

    Honesty. There is nowhere where everywhere is completely hunky dory. There have to be things people are working on improving, or feel they need to address. Anyone pretending otherwise, I just wouldn’t believe. I want to know what they think their biggest problems are, how they are addressing them, progress they have made, and next steps.

    Here’s a web-dev centric, but still widely applicable article on this.

  • So, You Finally Have a Woman on Your Team?

    So, You Finally Have a Woman on Your Team?

    odd one out

    Some unsolicited thoughts (OK, advice) for managers who finally have a woman reporting to them.

    1. Meaningful Projects

    None of us got into the tech industry for the casual misogyny and the rampant sexual harassment, and we don’t go into work excited for the possibility of someone mistaking us for the help. Same as the dudes, we want to build cool stuff.

    Advice I give all the time, and tell myself repeatedly when I’m making a decision that means I can’t do something for the “collective good” – the best thing that any technical woman can do for the plight of technical women is be happy in, and awesome at her job.

    As a manager, the best thing you can do for women on your team is give them something that they will find meaningful, where they can show their awesomeness. This goes double if she’s just had a traumatic experience – remind her why she got into this industry in the first place.

    This is called sponsorship. I’ve noticed white men often struggle with this concept, but they often don’t have a word for it because it’s just something that happens for them. Make it happen for the women on your team, too.

    2. Accept the Possibility of Bias

    All the data shows that women (for the most part) are not treated equally. Take the time to admit that statistically, it’s unlikely that you are without bias. And given those statistics, the probability that everyone around you is without bias is a vanishing impossibility.

    Depressing? Yep. But this is the world we live in.

    I would never advocate giving women on your team more reason to worry, but as an internal consideration this can be helpful to have. If they’ve internalized enough statistics to worry, never deny that worry – the statistics show that it is entirely rational, and in this industry we pride ourselves on rationality, right?

    Things to look for: Ideas being repeated without credit. Judging women on past performance and men on “potential”. Code reviews can be a place for men to exert, or resent (perceived) dominance.

    Overall

    Here’s the thing – women don’t want to be treated differently. These suggestions are not about “special treatment”, they are about the internal work that we can do to ensure that women are, actually, treated equally. Or at least more equally – because truly equally is a long way off.