Setting up new developers for success: blog edition / Marijke Luttekes by Marijke Luttekes
Leave your ego at the door
Being a mentor is about them, not you.
Get your house in order first
To set up someone new for success, the team needs to have the right tools to do that.
Have an onboarding strategy
Make a playbook and define responsibilities (both for new and existing people) before day 1.
You can list everything you want someone to do in their first week, what they can expect, and who to expect it from. For example, tour the office, get a laptop, get the required administrative and development accounts, learn the best modes of the coffee machine, and more.
The reason having a written down plan is important is that the new person doesn’t know what they don’t know so they are not able to ask all the right questions.
Onboarding buddy is a very good idea to have.
Tools for communication
Have tools in place so the new people can contact you.
Documentation. Documentation. Documentation.
If a person cannot find it, it does not exist.
Also, have processes or invite the new people to improve the documentation as they learn things that are not in existing docs.
Psychological safety
Psychological safety is crucial for successful teams. It means people are comfortable in asking questions, challenging ideas and providing feedback.
Position of power
Realize the underlying power dynamics inside an organization and in your relationship with a mentee.
You do not want a clone
Once again, it’s not about you but them. People learn differently, they work differently and they approach stuff in different ways. Be open and flexible to that rather than trying to push your way to them.
New developers have new ideas
Be open for the new ideas that arise from new people in the team.
Success is a team effort, and so is failure
Share wins and losses and the stories that lead to them. Don’t assign blame but seek for the root cause of problems and fix them in process.
Related to psychological safety, you want people to admit when something’s gone wrong as quickly as possible.
Compliment in public, feedback in private
Be generous with public compliments but be gentle with constructive feedback in private.
Be practical
People over processes.
Limit contact moments
Don’t micromanage but be available.
Give mentees time to work on their own but have regular moments / meetings to catch up.
Reserve time slots
Regular catch ups are good even if there’s particularly nothing topical to talk about. In the beginning, I like daily catchups, then weekly and once people get into the groove, at least monthly 1on1s.
Treat that time as holy: do not cancel it, try not to postpone it, as this is the moment you are dedicated to the mentoring process.
It’s so important to prioritize these moments as much as you can. Cancelling them shows to someone they are less important and can severe the relationship.
Stick to 1:1 sessions
Do catch up sessions privately with one person at a time. This will give you and them the opportunity to dive deep and talk about more personal issues too.