Multiplying Your Impact Through Mentoring

Talk given at GDG DevFest MN 2017. Links from the additional resources section.

How to Ask Good Questions - https://jvns.ca/blog/good-questions/
Your Brain's API: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY14Er6JX2s
Power of Habit: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X
Software Lead Weekly: http://softwareleadweekly.com/

Transcript

1. Jonathan Maltz maltz@yelp.com / @maltzj (github/twitter) Multiplying Your Impact Through Mentoring
2. Yelp’s Mission Connecting people with great local businesses.
3. Yelp Stats As of Q3 2016 97M 32 74% 115M
4. Hi! I’m Maltz! • Full-Stack at Yelp Eat24 • Previously: Yelp Consumer App • Mentored 6 new engineers over 2 years • Big fan of cheesy grins
5. What Am I Here To Talk About?
6. What Am I Here To Talk About? Mentoring New-Hires
7. Why?
8. 1. Most powerful lever to improve your team
9. 2. Multiplies your own impact
10. 3. Helps you hire and retain great people
11. But NO ONE talks about it
12. Let’s change that!
13. What will we talk about? • Preparing for onboarding • The first couple months • Handling your mentee’s questions
14. Preparing For Onboarding
16. What does this mean? • Understand what makes a great engineer on your team ◦ Technical skills ◦ Non-technical skills ◦ Understanding of team processes ◦ Cultural things • Write these down so you can reference them!
17. A brief sample of ours (don’t worry about reading it)
18. But I Don’t Have Time!
19. But I Don’t Have Time!
20. But I Don’t Have Time!
21. Next: Design a ramp-up process • Aim for breadth of topics + velocity of completion • Add complexity gradually • Create a script for this as much as possible
22. Don’t Forget About Numero Uno
23. Don’t Forget About Numero Uno • Set expectations with external stakeholders • Be willing to give up your own productivity for a few weeks. ◦ It’s better in the long run!
24. • Understand the engineer you want them to become. • Define a ramp-up process • Don’t forget about numero uno Summary: Preparing for onboarding
25. The First Couple Months
26. Goal: Make them the engineer you want ASAP
27. How NOT To Do This • Forget about them • Throw them in the deep end and hope they swim • Do your own work instead of helping your mentee • Delegating helping to someone else
28. How TO DO This?
29. Start with a High Standard
30. Check-in Frequently The First 2-3 Weeks
31. Celebrate The Successes
32. Schedule 1:1s and Use Them!
33. Don’t Give Answers Give Tools
34. • Don’t forget about them • Start with a high standard • Check-in frequently • Celebrate the successes • Schedule 1:1s and use them • Don’t give answers, give tools. The First Couple Months
35. Handling Your Mentee’s Questions
36. Handling Your Mentee’s Questions
37. 4 Step Process
38. 1. Figure Out The Path To The Answer
39. 2. Take a Ranging Shot
40. 3. Find What They Can Learn From This
41. 4. Help Them Get To The Answer
42. Scale of Gaining Knowledge Given to you Self-discovered
43. Be Like This Guy
44. • Figure out the answer first • Take a ranging shot • Figure out what they can learn • Help them get to the answer Handling Your Mentee’s Question
45. The 3 Things To Take Home • Take time to understand the end goal of mentoring • Build good habits, especially high quality, early on • Give tools, not answers
46. Additional Resources • How To Ask Good Questions - Julia Evans • Your Brain’s API: Giving and Getting Technical Help - Sasha Laundy (PyCon 2015) • Power of Habit - Charles Duhig • Software Lead Weekly (an awesome newsletter that touches on these topics)
47. Thanks! • My email - maltz@yelp.com • My twitter - @maltzj
48. Questions
49. @YelpEngineering fb.com/YelpEngineers engineeringblog.yelp.com github.com/yelp