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Communication

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1-on-1s

  1. Review this one-on-one format and guidance for reference and inspiration. We’re not expected to implement all recommendations there, though.
    1. Use a simple document format: add date for each 1:1 session and a bullet point agenda
    2. Use a numbered list to easily refer to a specific agenda point verbally and avoid confusion, in particular if we jump through points during the call
    3. Prepend the topic with your name
    4. Keep points succinct, feel free to expand to subpoints when necessary
    5. Example 1:1 document
  2. Weekly cadence. Generally 25 minutes. The first set of 1:1s will be 40 minutes for your manager and you to get to know each other.
    1. Your manager will be open to extending the time when needed.
    2. Feel free to modify the calendar event to extend the time or to reschedule. The calendar invite owner, generally your manager, will ensure that the event is editable by guests. All edits will be welcome.
  3. You and your manager co-own this document. Both of you are expected to add relevant content.
  4. The document will be confidential to both you and your manager. This provides the ability to conduct conversations on confidential issues or to have performance and career-related discussions.
  5. While status updates are welcome when relevant, 1:1 should not be dominated by updates, which can also go on the weekly reports. Instead, feel free to use to discuss concerns about your role and project, career development, and other topics that can help you succeed in your role.
  6. Consider using the 1:1 doc as a live document and as a tool to capture thoughts or discussions you’d find useful to have with your manager. You can keep a bookmark to the document and add these points throughout the week, instead of a few minutes before the 1:1 call. This also helps each party review the agenda and be prepared for the call in advance.
  7. Agenda items in the 1:1 will generally not be urgent. For items that are urgent, do not wait to the next 1:1 and reach out to your manager directly - generally Slack or e-mail.
  8. Your manager will be receptive and open to suggestions and improvements on this 1:1 format.

Team meeting

  1. We’ll be meeting as a team once a week for coordination, alignment and collaboration purposes
  2. The team meeting agenda will be prepared in advance, using a similar format as described for 1-on-1s. Everyone in the team can contribute to the agenda and is encouraged to add topics that are relevant for discussion or visibility for the whole team.
  3. To add a topic, simply add your name and a description of the topic you’d like to discuss –and be prepared to lead the discussion.
  4. Everyone is encouraged to contribute with note-taking during the call. Meetings can also be recorded.
  5. Notes and recordings should allow those not being able to attend in person to catch up async in their own time.

Weekly reports

Each individual team member provides weekly updates to their manager, generally on a Friday. The main goals for these updates are: to provide awareness to leadership and peers on the projects’ and the team’s achievements, share knowledge and identify team-wide best practices, celebrate collaboration and to act on early warnings in order to neutralize concerns.

Instructions:

  1. Make one single copy of the Weekly status report template document and replace the title with your name. You’ll be adding content to your one document every week.
  2. Leave the sharing permissions set to “The Linux Foundation” and “Edit”. If you are sharing confidential information, consider changing the people to share with to “Developer Experience and Community Success Team”.
  3. Add a link to your weekly report document to the links section of your 1:1 with your manager.
  4. Add a link to your weekly report document to the links section of the Developer Experience and Community Success team meeting agenda.

Content format:

  1. Concerns: any concerns you have about the project or your work
  2. Projects key accomplishments and contributions: tell us what the projects you are working with accomplished and how you helped
  3. Kudos: high fives to people who really helped out

Writing guidelines:

  1. Keep the updates relatively short - akin to a weekly newsletter
  2. Use ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD) in a multicultural environment, since other formats lead to confusion :).
  3. Strive to use low-context communication. Provide as much context as necessary to avoid uncertainty or confusion.
  4. Add links where relevant for the reader to learn more about a specific update.

Contacting the team

You can reach out to the whole Developer Experience and Community Success team in a manner of ways depending of the communication channel:

  1. Slack: for general questions and conversations, feel free to join the Developer Experience and Community Success Slack channel. Generally a team member or someone who collaborates with the team will respond in a reasonable timeframe. If you know who you ask a specific question, feel free to mention them directly using their Slack handle.
    1. You can use the @devex-and-comsuccess handle to mention the whole group, from any channel within the Linux Foundation Slack workspace. It is more selective than using Slack’s standard handles: @channel (as it sends a notification only to members of the group) and more direct than using @here (as it sends a notification to all members of the group, regardless of their online status). Use it only when you really require the whole group’s attention (e.g. important team notifications).
  2. E-mail: you can use the devex-and-commsuccess@linuxfoundation.org address to send an e-mail to all team members. Currently only Linux Foundation members can send e-mail to that address, but it could potentially be open to external addresses if there is a future use case for that need. Use it if you need to discuss a topic or make an announcement more confidentially with the group.

Comms channels

  1. Developer Experience and Community Success Slack channel: the team’s main communication channel for discussion and sharing knowledge related to our projects and communities. All members of the team are part of the channel, which is also open to anyone else in the organization who either wants to follow the work, ask questions or simply hang out to join. It is a public Slack channel for LF team members only.
  2. Community hangout Slack channel: the team’s social channel. This is a space to share non-work related stories. What did you do last weekend? Show off your pets, show us your last family holiday pics, memes… In summary, a space to get to know each other by offering a window into what we’re doing when we’re not in front of the computer working. All team members are included by default, but it’s voluntary to join/leave the channel. Feel free to share as much or as little as you like.