Snapshots
Explore how to evaluate your new engineering team by gathering and comparing observations from yourself, your manager, and team members. Understand early team dynamics and identify initial leadership priorities.
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Concept of snapshots
This is your first week as a manager, but with time you’ll be able to form your own independent view of your team. You’ll know how they are performing, the direction of their work in the future, and the individuals themselves. However, since you’ve just started, you’re going to have to do some investigative work. At any given time, there are three views of the team that you can compare and contrast. They can be used to discover areas you can work on right away.
Consider the following three areas.
Your initial task is to understand those views. Once you’ve done so, you can compare them against each other to discover where your work can begin.
Key observation areas
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Your own observations: This includes what you see day in and day out when working with your team. However, you’ve only just started, so you’ll need to rely on others while you form your own view.
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Your manager’s observations: Your manager will be interested in your performance, which fundamentally is your team’s performance. What do they think about your team and why?
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Your team’s observations: This actually consists of each team member’s views, but we’ll group them into one for simplicity. How do they feel about themselves and their colleagues? How do they feel as part of the wider company?