This document is a reference to provide you with some visbility on how I interact with others, set my priorities and focus. You can use this document as a guide on making it the most effective way to work together. The audience for this document are my peers, reports and folks in my professional and personal network.

As the VP Engineering at a growing startup, I fulfill the most substantial representation of the engineering leadership. I am primarily measured by the success of my department and the projects I oversee. I see the engineering team as my "product.”

Some of the areas I deeply care about:

• Attract and retain talent by taking care of who we have and building an Engineering Brand in the relevant market(s).
• Creating clear context so people can be successful, connecting the dots between what the organization needs and what the individual needs.
• Mentoring individual contributors and managers to increase our leadership capacity.
• Iterating on our process and technology to build a scalable system, organization and business.

I am here to guide you, help you and provide you with the right environment to be the best version of yourself. If you need anything or are unsure, ask.

I make mistakes, and I want to improve, much like you. Hold me accountable. Tell me.

• Integrity. I make decisions I'd also stand behind after a good night's sleep, on an early morning walk. The best answer for me, for us, consistently.
• Growth. Learning infinitely. I spend time understanding how things work, not just accepting them at face value. Teaching others is how I show care.
• Pragmatism. Being straightforward. I remove politeness filters when directness serves better. Candor over comfort, effectiveness over elegance.
• Autonomy. Taking control of what I can and accepting what I cannot. Resilience comes from choosing battles wisely.

I use mantras to frame my mind in an intentional way.

Do you know or did you ask? An assumption can be treated as a hypothesis and should be validated. Do I know something for sure, or do I need to check assumptions with multiple people or become knowledgeable myself?

If you don’t think enough, read more, if you think too much, start writing.

• Doing without context

  Doing the right thing is a lot of effort, but it becomes significantly easier if the broader context is understood. This will allow you to make your own decisions while fully aligning with the strategic goals and mission we’re setting. Ask yourself why we need this and how does it help to reach our goals?

• Skipping Plan and Check

  The PDCA cycle is a widely used framework and provides an excellent high-level overview of how iterations can be managed. When we’re too ambitious, we skip the planning, jump into the doing and become very reactive without looking back. Often, many of the unknowns could have been easily uncovered early on without getting too far into the development where changes are incrementally more expensive to make.

• Not owning end to end

  A fixed feature is done when it is shipped and can be used. Take the ownership to fully understand how a change will make it into production and scale. Can this service handle parallelization? Does it need to? Will it work for 10, 100, 10.000 requests a second? Where and when will it break, and how can we know that we need to make changes to adapt.

How to set time with me. My calendar is open, and the easiest is to book some time. Even though my calendar looks packed, don't assume I'm "too busy," but instead reach out in Slack and ask. If I need focus time or run an errand, I will block time off as "Out of Office." Slack is great if something can wait for the next few hours. If it can't, please make it clear how urgent it is for you.

Work hours. My general routine is to get up early, use the quiet hours to do focus time, spend the day helping others with workshops, interviews, ad hoc meetings or being part of various rituals. I take breaks to walk my dog Layla (sometimes during sessions when I'm not actively participating). I will spend time in the evenings to get to high priority tasks I couldn't or will invest in learning and reading. You can expect me to be active from 8 am to 6 pm EST during a regular work week.

1:1s. You deserve a great one on one that provides you with value and helps you grow. Bi weekly, 30 minutes every time. This is your guaranteed time with me. We might adjust to a different cadence up to monthly if you have additional support from other team mentors. We'll be using the 1-1 Template and Instructions from the Mochary Method.

• I tend to focus on things that need improvement or have the potential to be a threat because these would still be topics that we have to work on or address (at some point in time). This means that I might bring up considerations or cases where I see a missing gap even though they are not the most urgent or most likely.
• My instinct is to provide a solution to everything and everyone. I’m working on it. If you catch me providing an answer without asking questions first, call me out!
• I'm naturally determined. Some call it stubborn, especially when I’m convinced that my perspective or approach is the “right” one. The best way to help me understand better is to push information and data as I base my decisions on reason rather than emotion 🖖.
• When you ask, “do you have some time?” in Slack or email, please add the topic you’d like to discuss. Otherwise, I’ll think, “do you have some time for me to tell you I’m thinking of quitting.” I’ll do the same, so you don’t have to think constantly. I want to talk to you as I’m thinking of firing you.
• I go the extra mile. I often overspend my time budget to fully understand the challenge and provide a solution that addresses the root cause. This helps me build up specialized knowledge in many areas. You'll notice that I sometimes get extremely detailed when providing an explanation. Sometimes I lose others in these conversations. I'm working on it. Call me out to get to the point and skip the details.
• I can get hyper focused on solving something, sometimes overcomplicating what could be simpler. I tend to think in more complex, layered ways than a situation sometimes requires.
• Context switching fragments my energy. I'm working on protecting focus time and being more intentional about how I allocate attention.

I joined Sherpa as the first engineer in May 2019 when we were seven people. I've seen what it takes to build something from the early days, and I carry that perspective into how I think about growth, risk, and investment. Outside of work, I enjoy photography, a good scotch, and hanging out with my dog Layla. I believe in financial literacy, personal wellness (even though it might not look like it!), and maintaining friendships that span decades. The long term vision includes repeating what we've built at Sherpa, perhaps in half the time, and eventually teaching what I've learned.

This page is for you, let me know if you find it helpful and if you agree with my statements and perspectives. Did you notice something I do that is not covered here, but should?