User manual

We wrote these at work so teammates know how to work with each other. Here’s mine.

⏰ When am I at my best?

• I’m at my best in the afternoons. That’s when I do my deep work.
• I prefer meetings in the morning, so I can keep my afternoons for focused work.
• I can still focus on something tricky in the morning (of course).
• I take short breaks to feed my cats, so I might be away for a few minutes now and then.

💬 How do I like to communicate?

• If you send me a message asking something, I usually jump straight to the answer and only then remember to reply to the “hello”.
• Async Slack first. I usually reply quickly.
• Send the full question in one message, not just “hi”. Then I can answer faster.
• I prefer threads and public channels over DMs, so others get the context too.
• If a thread gets long or complex, I’m happy to jump on a quick huddle.
• I like the “take notes” feature of Google Meet.

🎯 How do I like to receive feedback?

• Be direct and specific. A concrete example helps me most.
• Tell me in the moment, while the context is still fresh.

🗣️ How do I give feedback, and how should you read it?

• Usually I’m direct.
• I often give feedback as a question (“Have you considered…?”, “Maybe we could…”). It’s a real suggestion, not an order.

🧰 What do I need to do good work?

• Autonomy: give me the goal and trust me to find the how.
• Fast feedback loops: quick reviews and early check-ins on direction.
• Clear context: what problem we’re solving and why it matters.

⚡ What energises me, and what drains me?

Energises me

• Solving hard bugs and getting to the root cause
• Shipping features

Drains me

• Context switching: constant interruptions and lots of small meetings
• Too much bureaucracy

🙃 Pet peeves

• Meetings without an agenda or purpose
• Long back-and-forth in documents
• AI slop

🤔 What do people sometimes misunderstand about me?

• I joke a lot and I like to make people laugh. Sometimes that can be misread. It’s never meant to be at anyone’s expense.

🌧️ How can you tell I’m stressed, and what helps?

Signs to look out for

• I get quieter than usual.

What helps

• Help me prioritise: what matters most right now, and what can wait.
• I take a few breaks to pet my cats.

🌟 Things you might not know about me

• I started a PhD in Biomedical Engineering before deciding academia wasn’t for me and switching to software engineering.
• I’ve been vegan since 2024 🌱
• I can juggle 🤹
• I posted daily vlogs on YouTube from 2014 to 2015.

🎬 If I were a GIF