Readify Mad Skillz

This repo describes each of the technical roles at Readify.

It seeks to describe some defining characteristics about each role, and provide some concrete examples along the way:

Senior Developer

I am a highly sought-after member of a Readify team with a proven record of shipping high-quality code to production.

DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC I am trusted to ship full products (or vertical slices of larger products) from idea to production.

• Example I am proficient with my tools and the core building blocks used by our team.

• Example I can confidently step outside my comfort zone and adapt quickly to new technologies.

It's the anchor point used through all of our feedback and promotion cycles.

It's a living document, maintained by the very people it affects.

Background and Purpose

• I want to provide a simple breakdown of what I value most about people in Readify in the hope that most of us agree.
• I want this to read as either a narrative or as a reference.
• I want to use language that promotes personal ownership.
• I want to use language people can identify with, more human than human resources.
• I want people to be inspired to grow personally just by reading through this.
• I want people to feel like this is achievable.
• I want this to be helpful for personal and team retrospectives.
• I want this to help when recommending people for hire, promotion and recognition.
• I want people to collaborate on this as a living statement, by the people for the people.

Readify

We are: Enthusiasm/passion, people-first, Ship It!, Leadership, Reinvest

Development Roles

Managed Services Roles

Data & Analytics Roles

Innovation & Design Roles

Contributions

Readifarians should raise issues and pull requests.

Pull requests will be accepted by a peer, once it has reached reasonable consensus.

Not-yet-Readifarians are welcome to contribute ideas, however we'd encourage you to look at https://join.readify.net.

Thoughts about the retrospective process

To look back at events that have taken place and incorporate our successes and improvements into our daily work life.

Thoughts about rating

• Consider rating ourselves at the defining characteristics level so it's not too hard to maintain over time
• The examples could be used as a frame of reference for the rating
• If you're aiming for a promotion, rate yourself on both your current role and your desired role. Looking at the desired role will provide clarity about gaps you might need to fill or grow into.
  • Consider discussing this before rating with a peer or mentor, so that they can provide feedback on your goals.
• Change the terms...
  • No brainer: You're great at this! We don't even need to talk about it.
  • Maturing: Here's some suggestions, take them or leave them - it's your call.
  • It would make sense to record the suggestions.
  • Needs coaching: This is an area you're weak in, let's work out a plan and walk this out together.
  • It would make sense to record the coaching plan.
• Call special attention to clearly outstanding/exemplary behaviour.
  • Outstanding: You simply shine in this area like very few others. I think people deserve to know this about you.
  • This is more than just saying "I'm really, really good at this". It's saying that you're right up there with the best few across all of Readify at this.

The rationale behind this list

When putting this together, we looked at issues with the existing skills and behaviours matrix and tried to understand what people are really thinking when giving or receiving feedback from other people in Readify.

Here's what we came up with

Things the feedback recipient might think

• I want to get insight from someone’s real-life experiences, and from them mentoring me as I grow.
• I want ideas and opinions from someone I’ve worked with and can trust to be both candid and fair.
• I want feedback based on real-life examples rather than third hand conversations from afar.
• I like suggestions for a coaching plan that helps me grow as an individual.
• I’d like to think that my growth/salary/promotion in Readify is not at the sole discretion of a single person.
• I want my review to be based over time, like an ongoing conversation, that way I feel like there’s been opportunity to grow and to show and measure my growth and I don't get judged only using their recent memory.
• I want to know the review process is fair and open and that favouritism doesn't come into it.
• I want the review process to work fairly regardless of whether I'm on a solo gig or a team gig.

Things the feedback provider might think

• As a leader I’d prefer to provide insights for someone I’ve been working with closely, where I’ve experienced what it’s like to face the challenges they have, helping them as they develop and mature.
• I like the process to be centred around their growth as an individual
• I don't want to try and recall everything I know about someone when reviews come around, but I'd rather have it collected as a natural by-product of leading a person.
• I’d like to think that I’m not the one person responsible for a person’s growth/salary/promotion in Readify. I really don't want them to hunt me down :-)
• I’d like to think that decisions for a person’s growth/salary/promotion in Readify are based on their proven growth over time, not just because they did the right things for one month a year.

Things our People Managers might want

• I want insight about people's performance from those who work with them, not from hearsay.
• I don't scale well so I need to democratise the review process.
• I want to make sure everyone feels like they've been treated fairly and have had open and honest conversations about their performance and their career goals.