Hi, this document is to improve our working relationship. In Q3 of 2018 I was an Indeed University lead. I have been at Indeed 3+ years. I am very excited to join the Platform team and execute on the vision.
Product Manager
- Ensure the team is focused on the most impactful work
- Set meaningful goals that improve employer experience to get people hired
- Create alignment with other product teams to achieve our goals
- Identify and simplify implementation requirements
- Improve the working relationship of the team
- Mentor other PM’s and Engineers on the build-measure-learn process
Email: I prefer emails over meetings. My email agreement: I will...
- Read your email
- Respond with clear action items for me and you
Chat: I prefer slack groups to one-on-one chats since its spreads general knowledge.
Comments on Jira Issues: Must use my username (@magan) in the comment or it's unlikely I will see the notification.
In Person: I understand some conversations are sensitive. Those conversations should happen in meetings.
Meetings: I keep 99% of my calendar events public and default to allow-modify by guests; that means you can move the meeting without asking me. Please provide a clear agenda.
Outside of Work: I make every effort to shutdown after 5pm from work. I have my phone number on my personal wiki page for emergencies. I can't guarantee I check anything else.
At my desk: I am a strong believer in being focused. However, my goal is to be helpful to you so feel free to interupt me but I may need a moment to finish of what I was focusing on.
I plan to schedule 1:1 time with everyone that I have a meaningful working relationship. This may not be every week.
Stand ups should be something you want to attend! I’ve participated in many stand ups that are mindless status updates. Let’s try and keep it interesting for everyone in attendance, otherwise let’s cancel.
My goal is to have the minimum amount of planning meetings necessary. I strongly encourage people to meet in small groups to make decisions instead of large groups. People’s time is extremely valuable and I want to respect that.
I plan to use email as way of communicating with the team instead of meetings. I find most meetings are to save one person time at the cost of everyone else. I strongly encourage emails, documents, or agendas, instead of unstructured, “let’s discuss” meetings.
I usually arrive to work around 8:30am and stay until up to 5pm every day. I take lunch at 12pm-12:30pm every day, than take a break.
You should feel strongly about the work you are doing. If it’s unclear to you why something is important let me know. I failed in providing you the proper context. If the purpose of anything about the work you are doing, the goals, the mission or a meeting is unclear to you let me know.
I believe strongly in the power of simplicity. You can accomplish more and better in less time if you actively simplify the requirements. At Indeed I have seen over and over again how a simple solution out performs a more complex one.
At Indeed we often say “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” I can help you identify, what to measure, how to measure it, and provide help measuring the value generated by your work.
Do my best to listen and understand your perspective. I am working on people not having to repeat themselves to get me to hear their idea/concern/perspective.
I can't read minds, at least not yet. If something is wrong in your world I can't make it better if I am not told.
Feel free to follow up with me over email or in person with questions about anything. If I have them I will provide them.
I’d rather you not start working on something if you don’t want to own it to completion. We all take on work we feel obligated to do. I don’t want you to do that on my team. If you think the work is pointless or don’t care let me know.
Leaders are people who others want to follow. No matter your title or role there is always opportunity for leadership. If you want to be a leader, then find ways to earn that responsibility from your co-workers, in all directions.
If you aren't failing as person, team or product than you are pushing the limits of what you can do. It's only through pushing your current limits that you can grow.
The Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule, suggest that there is a limited amount of work that will get you the majority of the benefit. It's my experience that teams with too many "priorities" often under deliver on the few things that have the highest impact.
In my experience, it's better to start on something half-baked than it is to wait. The counterbalance to this philosophy is to be aware of the down-side risk. If you don’t act negligently, people, users included, are extremely forgiving.
It's great to have strong opinions, but we also need to be self-aware of our assumptions and biases. Also, don't be that person who always needs people to do it their way. Its impossible to be 100% right all the time.