Context: Why does professional development matter?¶
Everyone wants to know if they’re doing good work, and it’s very satisfying to see yourself grow in your job or career. It can be hard to know where to start, so we usually need help from others. When you have clarity about what’s expected of you, and what you could be doing to continuously improve, you’re significantly less likely to burn out - and more likely to meet expectations. So this process exists to help with:
Agreeing on what’s expected of you in your role
Deciding on what areas you want or need to grow in
Planning specific goals
Assessing your progress over time
Celebrating success
Asking for help when you want or need it
Our process¶
Development planning is a series of two-way conversations about what each member of the team needs and wants to learn. Engineers have these conversations with the Engineering Manager and Tech Lead; other team members have conversations with their managers and/or coaches.
Professional growth can feel very personal, and each person has their own style. This process gives us guidelines for the steps we should follow, in whatever format and style clicks for them.
Once (or twice) a year¶
Regularly stepping back from day-to-day work to reflect on the bigger picture helps you set bigger goals and notice that you’ve grown. Each person at 2i2c has someone who serves as a manager and can help them think through this process.
Reflect and talk to your manager about your work performance, how you’ve learned and grown over the past year.
Expectations you started with
What you learned, including what you can do now that you couldn’t a year ago
Where you needed help and where you went above & beyond
Your impact on the team and the communities we serve
It’s also useful to discuss your wider career goals (if you have them) with your manager or a coach, and consider what’s next. That can include:
Your broader career path
Goals for the next year
Changes to the organization’s needs and expectations
Things you want to learn, use more, or teach
Each quarter¶
We try break down each team member’s bigger goals into smaller targets that we can hit more often. It helps us see progress and stay motivated over the year.
Talk to your manager (and a coach, if you like) about the goals you set and the progress you’ve made
What have you learned so far
What help would you like
How have you contributed to the team
What do you want to work on next
Your contribution to the team KPIs
Your motivation and general well-being at work
Ask others for feedback on the areas where you’re growing, to help yourself see impact and make adjustments through the year.
Make sure to write things down - it’s easy to forget what you accomplished 6 months ago!
Every two weeks¶
Learning doesn’t happen in big chunks at the end of a quarter; it happens every day while we work. We treat learning and growth as a continuous process for our team and for individual members.
Try to do a little work that helps you grow every week.
Set aside time for bigger growth opportunities - taking a class or trying something you aren’t great at yet. We know tasks take longer when we’re learning, so it’s important to plan extra time.
Capture things you’ve learned, things you’ve taught others and any other accomplishments in your regular manager check-ins.
Share feedback and thanks with others, especially compliments - we often don’t notice the things we do well.
Resources¶
While team members can use any tools that suit, most of us use our Development Plan template.
Engineers on the team also use a self-assessment across our core technical and team skills, included in the Engineering Development Plan template.