Summary of blog post

Joining new teams -> knowledge deficit.

tl;dr

Find someone on the team and set up 30m:

  • 25m: ask them to tell you everything they think you should know. Always stop to ask about things you don’t understand
  • 3m: ask about the biggest challenge the team has right now
  • 2m: ask who else you should talk to

Theory

  • 25m:
    • complete picture of team’s work
    • over index on areas of work currently under way - dive into productivity and discussions
    • nature of what people say is important - work, organization, process
    • language and terminology
  • 3m:
    • impress team with positive impact
  • 2m:
    • map of influence in the org
    • creates a map very different than the org chart

Greatest value isn’t answers, it’s asking: it shows respect for the team already in place.