SEM 08: Keep Track Of Information About Your Direct Reports. How To Never Forget.
Become an advocate for your direct reports by keeping a shared achievement log.
Managers must keep track of large amounts of information about their direct reports. As a manager, you need to remember what someone has worked on, what goals they’re working towards, the feedback they’ve received, notable achievements, growth areas and more. You need to track a lot of information if you manage many people.
The problem is humans aren’t good at remembering things. In modern software engineering organisations, engineers will work on many projects, activities, and tasks in any given week. As a manager, you’re responsible for writing performance reviews and promotions documents for your direct reports, so losing track of information is bad for everyone.
Managers often rely on instinct to know if their direct reports perform well. The trouble with instincts is that they’re unreliable. If you aren’t tracking what your direct reports are working on, you’ll forget essential information when completing annual performance reviews. Worse still, you’ll likely miss warning signs or problems that could have been caught earlier.
I’ve not yet worked for a company with adequate software for keeping a performance record. When software is available, it’s often lacking compared to a simple document.
This week’s newsletter will show you how to use a collaborative shared document to track this information with your direct report.
🗒️ What Is A Shared Document?
A shared document is simply a collaborative document that can be used to keep track of performance, goals, feedback, and any other important information relating to employee performance and development.
You may have heard of Software Engineers keeping a “brag sheet”. A brag sheet for software engineers is a document that keeps track of an engineer’s achievements.
A shared document serves the same purpose but has the advantage of allowing the manager to contribute to and provide guidance on how to articulate the impact of someone’s achievements most effectively.
I’ve found that people are not good at “selling themselves”, and as a manager, you can help your direct reports articulate their achievements in a way that highlights the business impact and the technical details. As a manager, you need to help them quantity and clarify the impact of their work.
No Surprises
One of the great things about the shared document is that it avoids surprises regarding performance review. The document captures almost all the information you would include in an annual performance review or promotion. Your direct reports can review it regularly to see how they are doing.
If the document is lacking in certain areas, it should serve as a helpful early warning to you and your direct report, enabling you to take action earlier. For example, if your direct report cannot list any notable achievements, that should be a red flag that needs attention. For example, if someone lacks evidence in technical design or project leadership, those may be growth opportunities.
How Should I Create One?
You can use any tool for creating a shared document. At a minimum, I would ensure that you use a tool that lets you make the document private to just you and your direct report and enables collaborative editing.
Google Docs, Notion, or Confluence would be examples of tools you could use for this purpose.
What Should I Include In A Shared Document?
While there are no specific rules on what you should include, here are some suggestions that I would include:
Goals
OKRs, SMART Goals
Technical Impact
Projects delivered
Tasks completed
Problems solved
Bugs fixed
Process or efficiency improvements
Leadership Impact
Mentoring, coaching, or supporting other engineers in the team
Collaborating with other teams
Project leadership
Presentations
Conference talks
Metrics
Key business metrics impacted as a result of work
Feedback
Peer feedback
Customer feedback
Closing Points
Experiment with a shared document for each of your direct reports to better track the scope and impact of their work.
When adding to the document, use the same language as a performance review or promotion document. For example, instead of just saying “completed project X”, quantify the business impact, use data, and add colour. Include data wherever possible to support subjective statements.
A final tip is to update and review it periodically with your direct report. Once a month should be good enough for most cases.
Thanks for reading.
Get in touch
Thanks for reading. If you want to talk about engineering management, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me directly and connect on LinkedIn or via my Website.