This page describes my working and communication styles [1].
We are all different and each have our preferences. The below points are not
demands, but ways to reduce friction with me. Use or ignore at your
discretion :)
Be concise. Most ideas can fit in a tweet. Most specs can fit on a
page. I dump my unfiltered thoughts into my keyboard then spend most of my
"writing" time deleting. For example, this bullet's first draft was three
paragraphs. More,
even more
Prefer sharing vision over coordinating. Coordination is slow. If
we sync on where we're going rather than on how to get there, we will each
be empowered to make decisions while in motion, instead of being blocked.
And if we are good about sharing what we've learned in nonblocking ways
like demos and email blasts, we can spread knowledge all the same [2].
Prefer non-interruptive communication. A five-second Slack
conversation can set my brain back 30 minutes. Similarly, the best time to
schedule a meeting with me is immediately before or after another meeting.
More
Prefer talking in the ticket. As a forgetful person I love
single-origin paper trails.
Think in customer problems. Even if <product> "feels right"
be prepared for me to ask what customer problem it solves. The one
exception is tech debt, since we all know how it impacts customers.
Know when it's time to schedule a meeting. Antithetical to many of
the above, async communication sometimes doesn't fit [3]. If things are
getting heated, misunderstood, or blocked, throw a meeting on my calendar
or pop in.
Give me feedback! I love feedback. We all feel it's a little bit
awkward to give feedback and I think that is dumb and you should help me
break that norm.
Warnings
I think slowly. Asking me to answer a complex question on the spot
will be an "I don't know", but over the following minutes my brain will
sometimes produce the answer. I can accelerate this by asking a flurry of
questions. This means I'm excited to understand you. If this is stressing
you out tell me, I don't blame you.
I go rogue. If I get a burst of motivation I'll sometimes do work
without tracking it or checking with anyone. This is because I know the
anxiety of shepharding it through the pipeline will outlast my burst of
motivation. Some
of the most loved features I've built have come out of this.
I work weird hours. Inspiration strikes me randomly, sometimes
during a workday but also sometimes on a Sunday or at 4 AM or for 16 hours
straight. To counterbalance, I shorten my standard workdays and the math
ends up working out. So when you see some emails or commits from me with
unhealthy-feeling timestamps, just keep in mind my default workday is only
at 60-70% capacity.
