> Be clear about how it should be prioritized: “I expect this to take about 2 weeks and not cause major deprioritization of other efforts. If that timeline doesn’t seem accurate after diving in, or if you end up having to prioritize against other things, reach out to me ASAP.”
This is kind of yes and no. Every person is working on a single piece of work at any given point of time. Given no interruptions (long build times, deploy pipelines, unexpected wait on other teams) this "this" will not be completed in 2 (or 22) weeks without reprioritization.
This is one of the major sources of IC <-> management frustration: management somehow thinks that they can squeeze just a little bit of work, without paying the expense of replanning work. No, it doesn't work that way.
I definitely agree that thinking you can get something for nothing is a major point of frustration. "Major" was an operative word in this example - leaders need to be able to ask people to do small/medium things without having a SAFE style board of everything in motion and doing a big reprioritization.
However, this example above was imagined with the idea that a leader was asking a non-IC engineer...in general, only managers should be asking IC engineers to do work and it should be inside team meetings/visibility. So if this was an IC being asked to do something, the manager should see the ask show up on a board and clearly see what it deprioritized.
An excellent observation and spot on tips. I would generalize it. One of the most effective practices for managers is to define Rules of Engagement with their direct reports, that cover, in addition to how much time to spend on a task, what is the format of the expected result, how to track progress, when and how to escalate, and what decisions can you independently make.
> Be clear about how it should be prioritized: “I expect this to take about 2 weeks and not cause major deprioritization of other efforts. If that timeline doesn’t seem accurate after diving in, or if you end up having to prioritize against other things, reach out to me ASAP.”
This is kind of yes and no. Every person is working on a single piece of work at any given point of time. Given no interruptions (long build times, deploy pipelines, unexpected wait on other teams) this "this" will not be completed in 2 (or 22) weeks without reprioritization.
This is one of the major sources of IC <-> management frustration: management somehow thinks that they can squeeze just a little bit of work, without paying the expense of replanning work. No, it doesn't work that way.
I definitely agree that thinking you can get something for nothing is a major point of frustration. "Major" was an operative word in this example - leaders need to be able to ask people to do small/medium things without having a SAFE style board of everything in motion and doing a big reprioritization.
However, this example above was imagined with the idea that a leader was asking a non-IC engineer...in general, only managers should be asking IC engineers to do work and it should be inside team meetings/visibility. So if this was an IC being asked to do something, the manager should see the ask show up on a board and clearly see what it deprioritized.
Truly spot on. I've been on both sides of this messiness. Great article, concise and accurate.
An excellent observation and spot on tips. I would generalize it. One of the most effective practices for managers is to define Rules of Engagement with their direct reports, that cover, in addition to how much time to spend on a task, what is the format of the expected result, how to track progress, when and how to escalate, and what decisions can you independently make.
Great advise for newcomers