Manager - User Guide

These are my notes on working with a manager completely based on Julia Evans’ Help! I have a manager! Zine which also recommends Laura Hogan’s When your manager isn’t supporting you, build a Voltron article

Table of contents:

• 💬 121 Topics
• 🥅 Set Clear Goals
• 🎸 Rocking Performance Reviews
• 🪜 Climbing the Career Ladder
• 💪 Know What Your Manager is Great At
• 🦾 Build your Support Network
• 🆕👨‍💼 Getting a New Manager

💬 121 Topics

• Wins / fails
• Team goals - what must we do this quarter?
• Ask for Opportunities
• Career Path
• Get Feedback - Any doubts about the project?
• Give Feedback - Goals were vague
• Brainstorm
• Ask for Tools - This training would help me

🥅 Set Clear Goals

1. Make a plan for what to do first
2. Tell my manager my plan

3. Trust them when they say yes

   Example of setting clear goals from Julia Evans’ Help! I have a manager! Zine

🎸 Rocking Performance Reviews

• write a BIG DOCUMENT for your manager
  • Every project from last year
    • Project goal and results
    • Cool graphs and data that show project was a win
    • What I did for the project
  • People I helped
  • Project plans + docs I wrote

🪜 Climbing the Career Ladder

• Can we look at what I need to do for the next level?
• What should I focus on?
• If I did X, would that be enough for Y?
• Keep asking for updates
• Ask for clear feedback

💪 Know What Your Manager is Great At

• Seeing business issues
• Fixing people problems
• Knowing who’s who
• Making products
• Solving big tech issues
• Setting team tasks
• Building remote teams
• … Not every manager is good at everything, use their strengths

🦾 Build your Support Network

• There will always be things your manager can’t help with
• Find a group of people with different skills who you can count on
  • Know what you need help with before asking, use your group’s and manager time well!
  • Focus on fixing issues, not complaining!

Mixing your group’s strengths can open new doors!

🆕👨‍💼 Getting a New Manager

• Change is tough, that’s okay
  • Write a doc on past work
  • Ask about concerns directly
  • Watch their strengths closely
  • Tell them when they do great

You can start thinking about your Support Network by filling out the Bingo card:

Manager Voltron Bingo page from Julia Evans’ Help! I have a manager! Zine