behavioural Flashcards
Describe your management philosophy.
From ‘An Elegant Puzzle,’ management should focus on building resilient systems and empowering teams to make decisions. ‘Team Topologies’ emphasizes structuring teams for fast flow of changes, with clear communication patterns. Also I like the book Turn the ship around as it’s a true story about building leadership by breaking the rules
What do you measure when evaluating the performance of devs?
‘An Elegant Puzzle’ suggests measuring through objective metrics like lead time and code quality. ‘Team Topologies’ highlights team health, and how well teams handle cognitive load.
How do you measure those things?
Use metrics such as DORA metrics for deployment frequency and failure recovery time (as per ‘Team Topologies’), or A/B testing for development outcomes (‘An Elegant Puzzle’).
When faced with an underperforming dev, what steps do you as a manager take to rectify the situation?
‘An Elegant Puzzle’ advises starting with regular feedback and concrete performance expectations, followed by coaching. Consider restructuring the team if it’s a team-related issue (‘Team Topologies’).
What does excellence look like for an engineer?
‘Team Topologies’ suggests engineers who understand and manage cognitive load effectively. ‘An Elegant Puzzle’ focuses on engineers who can break down problems and think systemically, while also mentoring others.
How do you approach estimating timelines?
‘An Elegant Puzzle’ suggests using historical data to adjust estimates based on team velocity. ‘Team Topologies’ recommends optimizing team boundaries for predictable delivery flow.
How do you coach an underperforming team member?
From ‘An Elegant Puzzle,’ start by establishing clear expectations, then build a development plan with regular check-ins. ‘Team Topologies’ suggests considering team dependencies that might hinder performance.
How do you approach identifying and accelerating career progression for top-performing engineers?
‘An Elegant Puzzle’ emphasizes individualized growth plans with stretch projects. ‘Team Topologies’ recommends rotating engineers through different team types to expand their skillset (e.g., enabling teams).
What kind of metrics have you used to assess engineer performance?
‘Team Topologies’ uses flow efficiency and cognitive load, while ‘An Elegant Puzzle’ highlights personal growth metrics such as mentorship impact and cross-functional influence.
How do you balance the need for autonomy in your team with business needs?
‘Team Topologies’ emphasizes team boundaries, where stream-aligned teams have autonomy over their tech stack. ‘An Elegant Puzzle’ suggests balancing autonomy by aligning team goals tightly with business outcomes.
How do you shield your team from unreasonable deadlines?
‘An Elegant Puzzle’ suggests negotiating scope or escalating timeline issues early. ‘Team Topologies’ advises setting up buffers in team structures to absorb external pressures.
Tell me about someone you coached through a promotion.
In ‘An Elegant Puzzle,’ Larson suggests focusing on giving engineers autonomy while providing them opportunities to lead cross-team efforts. Success comes through feedback loops and targeted development.
Tell me about a time you couldn’t coach someone to success and had to let them go.
As per ‘An Elegant Puzzle,’ if coaching and regular feedback fail, it’s essential to focus on the team’s overall health and make the tough decision early, prioritizing clarity and fairness.
How do you deal with disagreements within the team?
‘Team Topologies’ advises establishing clear communication paths and roles, while ‘An Elegant Puzzle’ recommends facilitation techniques, like structured debates, to resolve conflicts collaboratively.
How do you report your team’s success upwards?
‘Team Topologies’ suggests focusing on outcome-based reporting like lead time and cognitive load. ‘An Elegant Puzzle’ adds aligning your reports with company metrics such as ROI and business goals.
