Tag Archives: onboarding

The first 30 days

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I’ve now been at GoFundMe for 30 days! Hooray! In an act of reestablishing how I like to learn and share, I asked if I could write blog posts about my experiences in learning to manage, and got a thumbs-up. Here’s what I’ve gotten up to!

Setting up support

There are a bunch of lovely folk in my life who I respect who also manage. I have put them into a Signal thread where I can ask questions. Yes, they’re all pretty spicy and I’m worried about the fights that might happen. Yes, also I have slept with all of them. Yes, it’s already proven pretty invaluable.

I also asked explicitly for a mentor at GFM who’s established there and could counter balance what I have blind spots in. I’ve been set up with someone and we’re off to a good start.

Read a fucking book

There’s a lot to read out there (and I’m making my way through a fair amount of it, mostly recommended by an infosec Slack I’m in), but I also wanted a focused book for this time. My brother recommended The First 90 Days and it’s been REALLY good so far. The parts that are useful are really useful, the parts that are less useful are easy to skip over.

So far, I’ve learned to separate out focus areas into political, cultural, and technical things, and to check in with those around me about which lane I should be focused in most. I’ve also learned to think about if folks are better at sustaining or being a hero, and at what stage of a business. This is all helping as I get to know new folks, I can plug them into my little database of people.

Get to know the people

I’m not just paying attention to the folks that report to me, or the people further up in the chain. I’m also getting to know peers near and far. As we talk, I ask each person if there’s anyone else I should be talking to. Sometimes they have someone not already on my list, but often not. I take notes and structure the data so we can start our next conversation in a more advanced place. Plus, it’s way better to say hello to someone BEFORE something is on fire.

Hack my own tendencies

The first while at a new job should be about learning the terrain and people. Learning what not to step in. Learning root causes to what might seem like disparate problems.

Problem is, if I don’t have a thing to do, I will FIND something to do, and that’s not great for this period of onboarding. So I have found a low-stakes project that touches a lot of what I’m getting up to, plus some interactions with nearby teams, in order to give me a thing to focus on while I move more slowly elsewhere. You probably guessed this, but I’m organizing our documentation and starting to come up with a stronger onboarding story.

Start to make a plan

I’ve started laying out where I think we are, and where I think we can get to next. I’m waiting to bring this to my reports until I have it pretty well dialed in and have broad categories in place. I want a strong story to tell. But I am testing bits and pieces for readiness and accuracy in most conversations I’m having, regardless of with who.

I’m excited! This seems to be really promising.

Scaling organizations from 50 to 150

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There’s this thing that some organizational theory nerds (hi) talk about called the “rule of threes.” What it means, basically, is that every time your organization grows by x3, the way the organization operates has to change. While that blog post breaks down the numbers differently, I see one of the main inflection points as being between 50 and 150. One of my dear friends is on the board of a maker space, and they’ve recently started experiencing growing pains at the 120 mark where trust is breaking down and folks aren’t as aligned as they once were. This is a blog post about what I recommended to him based on the stage they’re at.

Institute and N+1 expectation

As the group grows, things start to slip through the cracks, and the accumulation of those things bothers some folks. Institute an N+1 rule. It goes like this:

  • Every time you pick up a piece of trash or wash a dish, do it for one extra.
  • Every time you restock a soda or filament, stock one more than seems necessary.
  • Every time you order for the space, order one more than you think you need.
  • When you’re sitting in a circle, always have one chair open for someone to join the group.

Etc. This helps deal with the slop of having a bunch of people sharing a space.

Build culture

Build a culture of

  • respecting each other, who you serve, and the space you use.
  • gently enforcing boundaries.
  • giving feedback on small things so feedback on big things is easier.
  • “deescalate with everyone but the enemy.” We are in a time of fascism, and infighting is kind of what the Left is known for.

Have a framework for course correction that visible people use, and gently encourage others to do the same.

Reiterate expectations

Set these and other specific expectations in onboarding documentation, with your People/HR team, in your Code of Conduct, and in everyday exchanges. This helps folks remember and course correct for themselves and others without it being personal.