Working With... Example

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A summary of what it's like to work with me and what you can expect from me.

Working with David

Welcome my Personal User Manual! This is essentially a document outlining how I like to work and what you can expect from me, so that we can be as effective a team as possible.

About Me

I grew up on the East Rand of Johannesburg and moved to Cape Town in 1997. I was always interested in technology, and used to take toys apart to get the motors out so I could make my own things. A ZX Spectrum and some experience making my own circuit boards solidified that interest early on. I studied Broadcast Television at Wits University and have since worked in multiple related fields, including camera/edit/production assistant and stock footage research and licensing. After moving into animation, I've worked at various levels including teaching and directing 2d shows (including for Disney) as well as setting up a studio in Indonesia. Back in development, my focus is on effectively managing people and projects, while finding a good quality of life balance.

In my spare time I enjoy exercise, cycling and going for long motorbike rides on weekends, as well as plenty of couch time watching F1 or with a controller in hand. I live with my partner of 10+ years, and our two adorable Siamese cats, Pixel and Widget. My music tastes vary wildly from 70's classics like Pavlov's Dog, to hard rock like Live, with healthy smatterings of Iron Maiden and Taylor Swift in between.

How to Communicate With Me

Slack is always easiest to get my attention and to ask quick questions or have a discussion about an approach.

Email is great for conversations that require an official response and for including multiple people in the discussion point.

If a topic requires some explanation, I'm happy to have a video call about it.

For any personal discussions, I'm happy with Slack or Meet, depending on your particular needs at that time.

If you want to have a meeting about something, it's very useful for me to know what it is about so that I can switch context appropriately. If it's work related and you send me a calendar invite, please don't call the event 'Chat', but rather include some context in the title. Bonus points for a mini agenda! For meetings around a personal matter, an event title like 'Jeff & David Catchup' is fine.

If I'm on a call, I am not always able to respond to a Slack message straight away if it's not extremely urgent. My Slack status should indicate that I'm in a meeting, so a response will likely be delayed.

I am unlikely to join a random/social/'fun' Telegram/Signal group, except for a general office one for people to indicate they may be late or are unable to access their computer to communicate through Slack.

Written communication from me via email will always include full sentences and punctuation. Over Slack it'll almost always be like that too. I don't expect you to do the same as me on Slack, but emails should be more formal.

I like direct and honest communication, but with a healthy dose of empathy. In other words, tell me the truth, concisely, but don't be an arse when doing so.

Regardless of the communication method, I actively want to be communicated with! I can't help solve issues or unblock avenues if I don't know that they're there.

If you ever need to talk, please let me know. I'm happy to have a general chat about work and how you're doing, but also to chat about what's going on in your life if you just need an extra ear for a bit.

I'm happy to provide you with feedback on how you're doing and what areas you can work on in order to improve.

Preferred Working Style

My job is to be around and available for questions, discussions, meetings and planning sessions. Even in I'm on a call, feel free to message me any time during work hours.

I would prefer to get all large group calls/catchups/standups done by 1030 every day, leaving the rest of the day available for one-on-one calls and smaller syncs.

I generally try not to be available outside of normal work hours of 0900-1700.

I pretty much always maximise my lunch hour from 1200-1300 every day. My Slack status will indicate when I'm on lunch.

My mobile phone notifications are always off and I seldom check work email on my phone.

If I send you an email or Slack message outside of work hours, I do not expect a response until you are back at work. If I do need a reply, I will indicate that. I do try and use the Scheduled Send option on Slack though to minimise noise outside of work time.

I'm generally quite direct and to the point as I'm monumentally terrible at making small talk, so please don't take that personally!

What Motivates Me

My biggest motivation is delivery. As long as we're delivering on time and at the expected quality level, I'm happy.

Delivery takes many forms:

• a final product
• builds for testing/client approval
• value to our client and our partners
• trust in being able to handle the projects we're on
• empathy to each other

Strong, clear communication is vital. Even if communicating bad news, at least communicate it well and early.

Attentiveness and attention to detail.

Teamwork and solving problems together - no matter how small or trivial. I am not an engineer or artist, but I love being a sounding board for helping to unpack issues through conversation.

People getting excited about the projects they're on and the challenges they get to solve.

What Demotivates Me

Meetings just for the sake of having a meeting are my prime de-motivator. Likewise for meetings with no clear goal or agenda where everyone is talking in circles, or one person is holding court without allowing additional voices to be heard. Rather send an email if that's the intention ;)

Lack of momentum on a project where no decisions are being made in a timeous manner.

My Values (and what I value in others)

Honesty.

Empathy.

An ethical approach to all matters.

My Blind Spots

I'm usually jumping across multiple projects within any given day, so I might not always have the latest info immediately at hand on all of them.

When I'm on a single, large project I'm usually able to retain a large amount of detail on that project. However, when I'm spread across multiple projects, I generally only have a high-level view of them, so I may end up asking what seem to be very obvious questions in order to quickly catch up with where I need to be for a particular conversation.

I can sometimes take a couple of days to answer an email if it's not apparent to me that it requires a quicker response. If you need to remind me, please do!

Please don't assume I know that you're not enjoying a project or are unhappy with something unless you tell me. I try and be aware, but if it seems like I'm not, do let me know.

The use of Points in Agile. I don't really like the idea and it will take a lot of convincing to make me see it as offering any sort of value.

My Pet Peeves

Not accepting/declining meeting invites.

Being late for calls.

Not paying attention on calls and being unable to answer a direct question because you weren't paying attention.

Lack of respect for deliverables and deadlines.

Low energy individuals who are a constant downer on a project. I fully accept that we all have a bad day once in a while, but relentless negativity on a project (towards the project itself, our clients/partners or to the rest of the team) are a no-go for me.

Lack of clear communication - especially when it's not good news. Informing me of a delay or an issue when it's too late to consider alternate solutions will always make me a bit more grizzly.

Lack of impetus to Get Things Done. Some projects may take a long time to complete overall, but that's no reason to keep kicking the simple things further down the road.

What You Can Expect From Me

Questions, feedback and decisions.

I like to know things, so I will ask questions. However, the more you pro-actively communicate with me, the fewer questions I will likely have.

I will give feedback based on the information I have, which may include adding considerations for your intended approach to a project or problem. This is my way of ensuring we've covered as many potential errors as possible, and are heading for success from early on.

I might not always be able to engage on something immediately, but when I do I generally make decisions very quickly. It's important to me that we keep moving forwards, so if I am unable to decide on certain things, that will only block the team from making progress.

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