GitLab Support Team, 3 Nov 2020

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From YouTube: Support Engineering -- Providing Feedback to your Manager - Performance Factor Review 2020

Description

Link to the slide deck in this presentation if you like to read: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1scCpQVoUbWgiU4vljXNSQ2AR9bag4aVyZNGT57VD3oI/edit#slide=id.ga42daef6d7_0_5

Link to the template if you want to see more specifics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t0b5A534Mb7ADbihZE0HwPKLwX6IaGQssZdn5UDhInI/edit#

Intermediate Support Engineer Performance Factor Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xgP0BVierRfWYlnzR33KfeVNSq2oLTBezMlNYT0NM58/edit#gid=395345394

Senior Support Engineer Performance Factor Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/166OuQVtUchuNrJb3EJgAljkMWJufYQdvgu_NDGnRptU/edit#gid=395345394

A

Hey there, this is lee senior support engineering manager, america's east with git lab, and I'm here to give a short presentation on how to provide feedback to your manager for this performance review cycle. So I wanted to take a minute and share this slide deck that I put together to talk to you about. uh What's what's happening so specifically, what I share here is for support engineers.

A

If you see other groups, they may be following slightly different processes. That's okay! That's expected we're doing what we're doing. This applies to you if you're a support engineer. So I wanted to give a small bit of background. If you've been here for a while in the past, we use compa groups. They're now switched to performance factor if you're new you'll just be exposed to performance factor I'll talk a little bit more about what that means and how that works.

A

But in that change people ops proposed that we don't have a section where ics give feedback to managers and that did feel a little bit. Weird, that's what people ops proposed.

A

So support was going with that greater engineering started to adapt and evolve the process and created a space for engineers and for individual contributors to share feedback with their managers, and when we saw that we got together as a management team and said, hey can we do this, and when we did that we said yes, we should create a space for individual contributors to share their feedback with managers. So we've adopted the process that engineering is using, so there's a template.

A

It's linked here if you're watching this on youtube, it'll be in the description as well below. Otherwise, if you're consuming this as a slide deck you're, not hearing me talk so yeah anyway. That's what this spreadsheet. This document is going to cover. So I want to take a step back zoom out now to let you know things are changing and what does that actually mean?

A

What is the process going to look like so now we have this step where ics and managers can talk about performance and you're going to talk with examples as the individual contributor, you will be leading that discussion. Your manager is not going to start that on your behalf. You should, but you don't have to if you feel comfortable or you've already been discussing performance or you don't want to discuss performance, you don't have to now.

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If you are someone who is uncomfortable but wants to become comfortable, and you don't feel comfortable talking about that with your manager, you can approach myself or another senior manager and we can help and help you start to have that conversation, but otherwise know that if you want to engage you can, if you don't that's okay as well. So once managers have some feedback from yourself or come to their own conclusions about your performance. They'll provide that to people.

A

Ops peopleapps will take some time to confirm that then they'll pass it back to the department to confirm the confirmation and then managers will share that with each person individually. So that's the general flow later on in this deck. I have some more specific dates that are important for you, but that's the general gist.

A

Now this next slide. Here I wanted to take a minute to talk about exactly what I'm sharing with you today we have made this template, which you can see on the screen and it uses the worksheet descriptions which you see with the black bars there. Now this example is outlined in the template as well, but I wanted to reinforce it here. The template is meant to be used with the descriptions from the performance factor worksheet. So now you see it I've connected it.

A

Hopefully that helps so you've heard me start to talk about this you're saying what do I actually have to do?

A

What we're creating right here with this template is a tool that, if you haven't, had a performance conversation and you want to- and you don't know where to start or maybe you started a conversation, but you want to make it easier. This template should help that's what it's there for. If you already have started a conversation and you have a performance, excuse me a path to promo doc in progress or something like that. You're golden! You don't need this template.

A

You should use those materials, but if you're saying actually I don't know where to start this template is for you or, if you're saying, I'm not sure. If my examples are good enough, how do I use them? This template is for you. So again, I want to echo you don't have to use this. It's meant to help.

A

If you want to use it, you can, if you don't, want to use it, and you think it's bad tell me about it, but otherwise, hopefully this helps and again, as I said on the last slide, use the descriptions from the worksheet to present examples in the template or whatever materials you're using and you'll see that written in the template, and that should help so to get to specific timelines.

A

If you want to have a conversation about performance, the deadline should be november, 16th anytime, from now to november. 16Th talk to your manager.

A

That gives you enough time so that the manager can maybe have a round of conversation with you and catch up and make sure before they put a final result into people ups, then people apps will do their review and then by january 31st remember people apps has to do the review for the entire company, almost 1400 people that will take some time, then they'll finalize and we can communicate and at the bottom of this slide, I've linked the general outline for engineering which may help and has some of these states echoed but know that there are some things that are different from us right.

A

General engineering is not setting that deadline of november 16th. We are because we want to be more clear and help. So with that, the last thing I want to share today, you might say: actually we have this performance factor worksheet, that's what my manager can use to justify their decision. Why shouldn't? I just use that worksheet myself and the answer is that worksheet is output and really, if you presented that worksheet to your manager, they're going to ask you for the examples.

A

So you should take the time now to get those examples to help your manager and your manager is going to be thinking of those examples when they're filling out that worksheet. So if you help them that will help them right. That's going to be really helpful. The other thing to note that I need to be clear about it's. It's a hard thing to say and hear, but your manager does determine your performance factor. You can provide examples and communicate with your manager, but they ultimately make that decision.

A

So with that, if you did a worksheet and it didn't match your manager and you thought you were right, but your manager input something different you're going to have mismatched expectations and that's going to be a really hard conversation. So I think setting the right expectation that you can provide the input to help your manager make their decision and your manager can show you the worksheet when it's all done.

A

If there are questions, then you can use that, but understand that this is the time to show the work not to say you know what it's going to be because we don't from there. The last thing I want to echo as well. This applies to managers as well myself, I'm in this same process.

A

I will not know my performance factor until it's all said and done and managers your manager, if they report to me or another senior manager, will not know their performance factor until it's all said and done so they can use the same process to use the template to help to take a look to present examples and go from there. So I want to be very clear that, across the board, it's being applied the same way.

A

No one is exempt from that experience, and hopefully, with the feedback we get this year, we can use that to evolve it for next year, so just to take the final seconds here. To recap: if you want to have performance conversations, if you don't know where to start this template and this slide deck should help if you've already started great.

A

If you don't want to talk about it, great know that your manager is going to be responsible for inputting that on november 24th, the last time that you should be talking to them about it november 16th. So keep that in mind. So thanks all. I hope this was helpful and see the youtube comments. If you're watching this for more links, if they're not present, where you're seeing it otherwise have a great one. Thanks.

A