Slides from my Devopsdays Vancouver 2018 talk on the move back and forth from management. Mistakes made, lessons learned.

1. Developer to
Manager
(and back, and back again)

2. Who?
• Founded in 2011. Global team: Mountain View, CA USA (Headquarters), Tokyo Japan, Seoul Korea
• $54 million raised from Silicon Valley VC firms & Strategic Investors
Sierra Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Jerry Yang, SBI (formerly Softbank Investment), IT Farm, Bill Tai
• ~1M rows/second
• 700,000 Presto queries/day
@j14159
(Twitter, GitHub)

3. What/Where?
• Dev → Senior Dev → Lead Dev
• Senior/Lead → Manager (hybrid manager-developer)
• Lead → Manager (hybrid again)

4. Mistakes!
And lessons from both sides
CC-BY-2.0waterboardhttps://flic.kr/p/fbxeK9

5. People
(No project management today)
CC-BY-SA-4.0AnotherBelieverhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vancouver_Pride_2016_-_42.jpg

6. Spoilers
Empathy
(or lack thereof)
Ego
(too much of it)

7. One:One

8. Why 1:1s?
Healthy organizations

9. How to 1:1
It’s not about the manager

10. Tools For Talking

11. – Tyler Weir (@tylerweir)
“Sometimes you’re a bit direct.”

12. Turn Into The Wave
Embrace dissent

13. 1:1 With Empathy

14. Feedback Loop

15. 1:1s
Pure Information
CCBY2.0MarcinChady-https://flic.kr/p/bKeGz8

16. Cultivate the Flow
Of information
PublicDomain,PaulHames,CaliforniaDepartmentofWaterResources

17. Full Duplex NVC
It’s not just for managers.
CCBY2.0MarcinChady-https://flic.kr/p/bKeGz8

18. Make Room
CC-BY-SA-4.0Myrabella/WikimediaCommons

19. Make Room
CC-BY-SA-4.0Myrabella/WikimediaCommons

20. (Misuse of) Authority
PublicDomain-https://flic.kr/p/ePSr4W

21. – Sarah Mei (@sarahmei)
“The line between service and authority can be thin,
and authority can seem ‘easier’. If you don’t have
to gain consensus you can go faster.”

22. – Sarah Mei (@sarahmei)
“Ultimately, the difference is that
authority drives out creativity
and the cycle of ideas that is so vital in software.
It does so by design.

23. Ego + Authority = Bad Time

24. For Every Team A Reason
CCBY2.0RebeccaSearle-https://flic.kr/p/KgoDg

25. Team Development
Ego + authority kills it
CCBY2.0monkeywing-https://flic.kr/p/7RrDJo

26. Team Development
Ego + authority kills it
CCBY2.0monkeywing-https://flic.kr/p/7RrDJo

27. Round 2
Back to management

28. The Team Knows What it Needs
CC-BY-2.0jjmusgrove-https://flic.kr/p/r1UuJD

29. Provide Context
Buffer and share

30. Help Make Room
CC-BY-SA-4.0Myrabella/WikimediaCommons

31. Devops Continuum
Different roles, shared purpose

32. A New Continuum
More shared purpose

33. (Management?) Continuum
More shared purpose

34. Reading List
• Nonviolent Communication
https://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/
• The Manager’s Path
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920056843.do
• High Output Management
https://www.amazon.ca/High-Output-Management-
Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
• Ego Is The Enemy
http://egoistheenemy.com/