working with me
What it’s like to work with me
The easiest way to understand someone you work with, or might work with in the future, is to understand a little about them and how they work.
I expect the best from those I work with. I expect people to deliver a task to the best of their ability. Sometime I set high standards for what I think you can achieve, which might lead to a difficult code review when you don’t reach that standard. I’ve found it always better to expect the best from people. If you think I’ve been unfair, feel free to call me out on it. I can quickly check myself.
I am approachable and willing to help. Sometime I find it easier to concentrate when wearing headphones, maybe just for a little quiet. You can always ask me questions, even if I have headphones on. I might need 2 mins to finish something, but I will always answer you. I will most likely stop and help immediately, I can handle context switches.
I don’t always know what I am doing. I can handle unknowns, particularly technical unknowns. If I’ve not done a task before or used a tech before I am self sufficient enough to work it out. Or to identify the best place to go for help: google, colleagues, etc. I find technical ambiguity easier than product requirement ambiguity.
I know what a rabbit hole looks like. I’ve been down a few too many rabbit holes before, and I know when I’m getting near one. Expect to get asked for sanity checks on work / designs before I get too far into something. And feel free to ask for the same in return.
I don’t like retrospective requirements. I will often work closely with you, and ask you many many “what about…” questions to try and work out the best thing we can build. I find it so sad when things change at the end of the process and not the beginning. I’d much rather build the right thing first time. That said, there are often too many communication pathways for me to check with everyone. I expect you to involve yourself in planning / jira / code reivew / requirements if you are a stakeholder.
I respect clear deadlines and expectations. It’s far easier for both if us if we set clear expectations for tasks. Knowing what and when something is required can help me set expectations for what’s achievable and ensure that we meet that expectation. It will be better for both of us if you share expectations with me.
This is a work in progess. We are building this as a team, and this is for the teams that I am priviledged enough to work in. This list is a work in progress. It can and will be updated accordingly.