(2016 - 3/9) Accelerating Impact: Onboarding & Mentorship

Calibrate 2016 (3/9) - http://www.calibratesf.com/

"Accelerating Impact: Onboarding & Mentorship" - Ryan Atkins, Dropbox, Engineering Operations

"First impressions matter. Learn how to leverage the onboarding experience and mentorship relationships for your new engineers to accelerate their impact while deliberately shaping your engineering culture."

Ryan works to improve the productivity of engineers and is on the Engineering Operations team at Dropbox. Over the past few years, he has onboarded hundreds of engineers, built and scaled mentorship programs, and coached dozens of engineering managers and technical leaders. Prior to working in technology, Ryan spent just over a decade in the classroom, preparing low-income, underrepresented minority students for college.

Calibrate is a conference for new engineering leaders hosted by seasoned engineering leaders. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted on September 30, 2015 and September 30, 2016 in San Francisco, California.

Transcript

1. Accelerating Impact: Onboarding & Mentorship Ryan Atkins - Calibrate SF - Sept 2016 ACCELERATING IMPACT
2. When are the best times to shape engineering culture? ACCELERATING IMPACT
3. Transitioning to a new role Like becoming an engineering manager… Transitioning to a new company First impressions matter. New hires are impressionable.
4. Goals of this talk: 1. Help you advocate for an investment in eng onboarding 2. Provide you with frameworks that will make it easier to set up: A. customized engineering onboarding B. ongoing mentorship programs ACCELERATING IMPACT
5. Dropbox Eng Ops • Built & manage program that has onboarded 500+ engineers • Built & manage internal and external mentorship programs High School Physics • 10+ years in the classroom teaching physics, math, and computer science • Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto ACCELERATING IMPACT
6. “Don’t smile until Thanksgiving.” ACCELERATING IMPACT
7. It’s easier to loosen structure than to put into place later. ACCELERATING IMPACT
8. Goals of this talk: 1. Help you advocate for an investment in eng onboarding 2. Provide you with frameworks that will make it easier to set up: A. customized engineering onboarding B. continued mentorship programs ACCELERATING IMPACT
9. Three Reasons to focus on Eng Onboarding now A structured onboarding experience will help us… ACCELERATING IMPACT
10. ACCELERATING IMPACT Plan for Scale Three Reasons to focus on Eng Onboarding now A structured onboarding experience will help us…
11. ACCELERATING IMPACT Plan for Scale Avoid Bad Pattern Matching Three Reasons to focus on Eng Onboarding now A structured onboarding experience will help us…
12. ACCELERATING IMPACT Plan for Scale Avoid Bad Pattern Matching Close Engineering Candidates Three Reasons to focus on Eng Onboarding now A structured onboarding experience will help us…
13. Plan for Scale + Avoid Bad Pattern Matching + Close Eng Candidates = Accelerate Impact ACCELERATING IMPACT
14. Reduce time to meaningful contribution from 12 to 6 weeks: 25 engineers x 6 weeks ≈ An extra 3 eng•years ACCELERATING IMPACT
15. Okay, I can advocate for eng onboarding. Now what? ACCELERATING IMPACT
16. Goals of this talk: 1. Help you advocate for an investment in eng onboarding 2. Provide you with frameworks that will make it easier to set up: A. customized engineering onboarding B. ongoing mentorship programs ACCELERATING IMPACT
17. ACCELERATING IMPACT Profound Obvious Relevant Irrelevant “mind blown…” “Interesting…” “duh…” “good reminder…” A Framework on Frameworks
18. WHY HOWHOW WHATWHATWHAT ACCELERATING IMPACT
19. WHY does this program exist? To empower new engineers have impact on product, infrastructure, and culture as fast as possible. ACCELERATING IMPACT
20. How will we succeed? By focusing on Technical, Cultural, and Social elements. ACCELERATING IMPACT
21. What structures do we need? A series of targeted classes and formalized 1:1 mentorship. ACCELERATING IMPACT
22. Dropbox Engineering Onboarding Classes Day One: • Welcome Lunch & Access! (Social) - 45 min • IDE Set Up (Technical) - 40 min Week One: • Core Sync Full Stack Talk (Cultural) - 90 min • Practices of Good Code Development, Security, Accessibility (Technical)- 2 hour • Platforms Overview (Cultural) - 60 min • Dropbox Product, Business, Org, & Top Secret #’s (Cultural) Week Two & Beyond: • Three more lunches (Social) • Specialized classes: platforms specifics, succeeding as new grad, etc. • Graduation Announcement at six weeks ACCELERATING IMPACT
23. Dropbox Engineering Onboarding Classes Day One: • Welcome Lunch & Access! (Social) - 45 min • IDE Set Up (Technical) - 40 min Week One: • Core Sync Full Stack Talk (Cultural) - 90 min • Best Practices of Code Development, Security, Accessibility (Technical)- 2 hr • Overview of Platforms (Cultural) - 60 min • Dropbox Product, Business, Org, & Top Secret #’s (Cultural) - 1 hr Week Two & Beyond: • Three more lunches (Social) • Specialized classes: platforms specifics, succeeding as new grad, etc. • Graduation Announcement at six weeks ACCELERATING IMPACT
24. Dropbox Engineering Onboarding Classes Day One: • Welcome Lunch & Access! (Social) - 45 min • IDE Set Up (Technical) - 40 min Week One: • Core Sync Full Stack Talk (Cultural) - 90 min • Best Practices of Code Development, Security, Accessibility (Technical)- 2 hour • Platforms Overview (Cultural) - 60 min • Dropbox Product, Business, Org, & Top Secret #’s (Cultural) Week Two & Beyond: • Three more lunches (Social) • Specialized classes: platforms specifics, succeeding as new grad, etc. • Graduation Announcement at six weeks ACCELERATING IMPACT
25. Formalized 1:1 Mentorship Mentor selection: • Mentor from team being joined • Not the manager, not the tech lead Mentor training and prep: • 60 min session for mentors • What worked for you when you started? • Checklist!! Mentor Validation: • Directed from Leadership • Validated by Dropbox’s Engineering Career Levels and Growth Map • Cultural Rite of Passage ACCELERATING IMPACT
26. Formalized 1:1 Mentorship Mentor selection: • Mentor from team being joined • Not the manager, not the tech lead Mentor training and prep: • 60 min session for mentors • What worked for you when you started? • Checklist!! Mentor Validation: • Directed from Leadership • Validated by Dropbox’s Engineering Career Levels and Growth Map • Cultural Rite of Passage ACCELERATING IMPACT
27. The Mentorship Checklist: Sounds simple, but it is really, really important ACCELERATING IMPACT
28. ACCELERATING IMPACT
29. Formalized 1:1 Mentorship Mentor selection: • Mentor from team being joined • Not the manager, not the tech lead Mentor training and prep: • 60 min session for mentors • What worked for you when you started? • Checklist!! Mentor Validation: • Directed from Leadership • Validated by Dropbox’s Engineering Career Levels and Growth Map • Cultural Rite of Passage ACCELERATING IMPACT
30. Mentorship is an Umbrella Term There are varying types of mentorship: craft, personal, & career. ACCELERATING IMPACT
31. Craft Speed or reliability? Rewrite or refactor? Personal How do I give feedback to this difficult coworker? Career How do I take on bigger projects and have more impact? Eng Mentorship Framework Often a mixture, but focus really helps. ACCELERATING IMPACT
32. Last onboarding pro tips: 1. Measure something 2. Time bound the program 3. Collect feedback and iterate 4. Thank people for joining you ACCELERATING IMPACT
33. Goals of this talk: 1. Help you advocate for an investment in eng onboarding 2. Provide you with frameworks that will make it easier to set up: A. customized engineering onboarding B. ongoing mentorship programs ACCELERATING IMPACT
34. Accelerating Impact: Onboarding & Mentorship Ryan Atkins - Calibrate SF - Sept 2016 ACCELERATING IMPACT