Hello there, This document is intended to give you a glimpse on who I am as a person, my management, leadership style and overall philosophy in work context.
As a manager, my responsibility is to create the conditions where engineers can do their best work through clear goal-setting, removing blockers, and providing context. Just as importantly, I focus on ensuring that the team’s work stays closely aligned with the broader goals and mission of the company.
- Ensure alignment between business objectives, company mission, and engineering execution.
- Build a culture of trust, accountability, and experimentation.
- Provide technical guidance without micromanaging.
- Balance speed with quality by encouraging pragmatic decisions.
- Act as a bridge between engineering and other functions (product, design, stakeholders).
- Hire, grow, and retain the best people by fostering an environment where talented individuals are challenged, supported, and excited to stay.
- Ownership & accountability – I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect initiative and responsibility for outcomes. We all make mistakes but the important thing is to learn and grow from them and not repeat them.
- Collaboration – Work together, give feedback, celebrate each other’s wins. We fail as a team and succeed as one.
- Technical Skills – I expect you to use AI tools to boost productivity, but it’s essential that you understand the code they generate. AI should complement your skills, not replace them.
- Transparency – I will always be honest and transparent with you and share everything that can be shared.
- Support – I’ll remove roadblocks, coach when needed, have your back and be your advocate.
- Growth mindset – I’ll push you to stretch your skills, but also ensure you have the safety net to fail fast and learn.
- For the team: We’re shipping impactful work regularly, collaborating openly, and learning from each other. We have ownership, autonomy, and take pride in what we build.
- For individuals: You’re growing in your craft, taking on new challenges, and feeling supported in your career journey. You have clarity on expectations and the space to do your best work.
- For me as a manager: I’ve created an environment where the team is empowered, aligned with company goals, and able to execute without unnecessary friction. A true sign of success for me is if I step away for a week or two (I do enjoy venturing to places with no cell coverage, see interests), and the team continues to operate seamlessly without me then I know I’ve done my job.
I’m generally very responsive on Slack unless I’m deeply focused on something critical (see my quirks below). One of my habits is that I dislike having unread messages or emails so I usually read them as soon as I get a chance to do so. My response time may vary depending on the situation, but you can trust that I’ve seen your message. Sometimes, I mark messages/emails as unread so that I can come back to them later.
I prefer to hop on a quick video call to clarify things rather than go back and forth endlessly on Slack. If we’re in the middle of a discussion and I think a call will resolve it faster, you can expect an instant video meeting usually short and to the point.
I don’t keep work email on my phone, but if I’m ever required to check messages outside of work hours, I’ll do so. That said, I won’t respond unless it’s truly urgent. The same applies to Slack. I value my personal time and yours, so you can trust that I won’t reach out after hours unless it’s absolutely necessary.
1:1s are your time. I won’t come in with a rigid agenda unless you’d like me to. My role is to listen, coach, and understand what’s on your mind. Topics can include career goals, challenges, project feedback. If you’re open to it, I also enjoy using this time to get to know you on a more personal level what motivates you, what energizes you, and what makes you tick. If you’d prefer to keep things strictly work-focused, I fully respect that too.
Status updates are usually best shared outside of our 1:1s so we can focus on the bigger picture, your growth, challenges, and development but if you’d prefer to cover quick updates, I’m fine with that too.
I prefer a weekly cadence, but I’m flexible depending on your style and needs.
I have a strong product sense and tend to ask “why” frequently not to challenge, but to better understand context and intent. While I’m a data-driven decision maker, I also trust intuition when data is incomplete, which allows me to move forward confidently even in uncertainty. I bring a natural bias toward action that helps maintain momentum and avoid stagnation. I prefer to launch something small, learn quickly from real-world insights, and then build on it, rather than overanalyze and delay. I believe success comes from courage and a willingness to take smart risks. This mindset makes me adaptable and able to respond effectively when situations change rapidly turning potential reactivity into a strength.
When I’m deeply focused on solving a problem, I can get into a zone and tune everything else out, so if I don’t respond to something urgent right away, it’s likely because of that level of focus. Admittedly, this quirk sometimes follows me outside of work too much to my wife’s frustration.
I may come across as an extrovert, but at heart I’m an introvert who enjoys anything to do with the outdoors hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, etc. Skiing is and always will be my passion, and some of my past (hopefully future as well) interests include scuba diving and underwater photography (www.desidiver.com and www.desidiverphotography.com if you want to know more). I also enjoy playing pickleball as a fun way to stay active, and I love to learn about new things by listening to audiobooks. I recently became a dad in February of this year, so our baby boy has happily taken priority over almost everything else.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t use AI to help polish this document but the thoughts, and philosophy shared here are entirely my own.