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👋 Hi! I'm David (he/him), and this README is intended to give you a brief introduction to what goes on inside my head -- and how we can work together. As you'll learn, one of the things I value a lot is continuous learning & improvement, so this will always be a work in progress. I used to write code, and while I don't anymore, I'm still very interested in technology and architecture, and I try to keep at least a bit of my knowledge intact, so I don't become irrelevant (I've seen it happen to others at my level, and view that as a cautionary tale).
I lead the Engineering team at Invitation Homes, which consists of software engineers, Salesforce professionals, quality testers, and engineering managers. We work closely with our friends in Product and Delivery to build awesome stuff.
I see my primary role as:
- Reducing: complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity; and
- Increasing: autonomy, mastery, and purpose
Secondarily:
- Provide Context: I'll provide the larger context for the work we're doing, and how it fits with our overall strategy and approach
- Help You Grow: We succeed together, and I want everyone to reach their career and personal objectives
- Delivering Value: It's my job to help you and your team deliver value as quickly as feasible. The faster we can iterate and deliver, the more value we're delivering
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Family First. Our work comes second to our families and our priorities should reflect that. Work/Life balance isn't just a phrase, it's something that we strive to achieve, and if we aren't, let's fix it!
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Continuous Learning & Improvement. Most days, I spend 30-60 minutes reading (I use Pocket to build a reading list of articles I run across). I also am usually reading at least a couple of books at a time (or listening on Audible). I look at a lot of Pull Requests, mostly so I can learn from them. Building a culture that values Continuous Improvement isn't just something I say because "Agile" -- it's something I practice and want us all to be part of.
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Information. There's a lot going on across our teams, and I can't be everywhere I'd like to be, or participate in the conversations that I'd like to. I value sharing information so that I'm informed when people ask me questions. This is especially true when things go wrong. If there's a doubt, tell me about it! I'll return the favor -- after all, one of the important things I do in my role is provide context. And do the same for your teams; after all, the "so that" part of a user story is important because it provides context, so take that philosophy and apply it everywhere!
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Pragmatism. We shouldn't be over-engineering, but neither should we be under-engineering. A great sense of the trade-offs and making the right one for the business is important, but always with a bias to action. One of the most important questions that can help: "What problem are we trying to solve here?"
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Ownership: What can you do, personally, in a given situation, rather than waiting to be told. Follow through on commitments. Be explicit with your team when you are asking them to own something.
- Honesty. I don't beat around the bush, but I also care about you as a person, so I won't be a jerk about it.
- Weekly 1:1s. This is your time -- help with what's troubling you, work through issues, talk about growth opportunities. If we have extra time, I may use some of it to brainstorm things that are on my mind, or share not-fully-formed thoughts and discuss.
- I will help you grow and improve. I'll do my best to look for stretch assignments, and give you feedback and/or coaching, but at the end of the day, your career is yours, and you need to let me know how I can best help.
- I will let you do your job. You were hired because you're good at it, and it's up to you to execute. I may have feedback or suggestions, but almost 100% of the time, your choices are your own.
- Firefighting. I will jump in and help when you need it, in whatever way you need. Mostly, I'm good at running interference and communicating upward, but I'll do whatever I can when it's necessary.
- Provide perspective. I may not know all of the details of every situation, but I can often provide perspective to consider that may help in our quest to deliver value.
- Have weekly 1:1s with direct reports.
- If you're a manager-of-managers, have regular skip-level 1:1s.
- Build a peer network, especially peers that compliment your strengths. Build your Manager Voltron.
- Have a good work-life balance, and model that for your team (if you're a manager).
- Be able to change when presented with new information & learning.
- Laugh. Humor is important!
- Strong Opinions, Loosely Held - Disagree and commit where needed. This doesn't mean the loudest voice wins, and it's also your job to make sure that everyone has a voice. If loud voices are drowning out the conversation, do something about it (especially if it's me -- see the personality quirks below)!
- Take your PTO.
- When you need some of my time, please ask, but also let me know why -- there is nothing more ominous than "Hey, do you have a minute to chat?"
- Don't be a jerk!
- Approach everything from a perspective of openness and kindness.
- Write things down. We are building a culture that is optimized for team performance over individual performance, and writing things down is a practice we need to be in to help our teammates (and future selves!).
I'm generally working between 8-5CST. My expectation is that you're working regular hours most days, but I also trust that you'll do what you need to do to get your work done. If you're going to be out of the office, put in on your calendar so people will know. I'd also appreciate a non-blocking calendar invite for times you're going to be out.
I'll try not to email or teams you outside of these hours. If I need to get a hold of you after hours, I'll call or text (this is very unusual).
Read my Meeting Manifesto for my thoughts on meetings.
I will always make time for you, or anyone on the team. My calendar is sometimes crazy, but if anyone asks, I will find a way to make time, usually within a day (if not the same day).
Sometimes, I say things as statements that I mean as questions. Sometimes, people think I mean for them to do those things that I say. I'm working on getting better at this, and getting better at asking questions in general.
I really don't like it when people are inattentive in meetings. If you have something more important to do, by all means, please do that thing, and don't waste everyone's time. It has gotten much easier to be inattentive with everyone on Zoom calls, so this takes extra effort. If we're in person, don't be on your laptop, unless you're taking notes.
I'm ADHD, but it usually doesn't interfere with my work. I've mellowed in my old age.
I have been known in the past to be something of a "know it all". I have worked really hard to lose this persona, but sometimes, I slip up. Related, I get frustrated sometimes when we don't pick the "obvious" best choice, and that can come across as arrogant or dismissive. I know that everyone thinks differently, and things aren't black-and-white, and that I'm often wrong. I'd appreciate a nudge in the ribs (or kick in the butt!) when I'm displaying these tendencies.
I have a tendency to repeat myself, and it's something I'm really working on fixing. Please let me know if you see me doing it to you a lot!
I'm living in Dallas, TX with my wife. We bought a house in Lakewood after a bit of a sojourn across the country (Dallas ➡️ Denver ➡️ Phoenix ➡️ Dallas, all in 3 years).
I love spending time with my lovely wife, watching TV, drinking wine, and generally just hanging out.
I play a lot of video games and board games. I have a large collection of nerdy games, and try to play them as often as I can.
I try to hike as much as I can; Dallas isn't so great for that, but when we travel, we try to fit a hike into the schedule, and we're willing to drive a few hours outside of Dallas for highly reviewed hiking trails.
I made a video game (We Slay Monsters). Probably not something I'll do again, but it was a wild ride.
I read Twitter, a lot. I follow a mix of tech folks, politics, LGBT activism, and feminists. Oh, and board games and miniature painting. To say it's eclectic is a mild understatement. If you're so inclined, check me out there @iamagiantnerd.
Lastly, I aspire to be a writer, and have written some (very) short fiction, mostly as just practice exercises. They vary in quality quite a bit, but I'm fond of some of them. These can be read on my personal website: http://iamagiantnerd.com
I was inspired by so many good READMEs that I can't possibly list them all. Nothing better than leveraging prior art 😁. It's not so much that I stole the idea, it's just that the idea was stated so well, I couldn't improve it, and it meshed so cleanly with my thoughts.