STOP FRUSTRATING YOUR NEW DEVELOPERS

Tips from a teacher

Miki Rezentes @mikirez

BE THE LEARNERFace your fears

EXPOSING MY PREFERENCES

Regular feedback, clear evaluation criteria and defined

expectations are critical.

If I am not growing, I’m unhappy.

I love teams.

Training is a two person activity.

TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES

Onboarding

Continuing education/training/mentoring

Routine questions

TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE

“Tools of the trade” type knowledge

Domain - industry specific stuff

Company policies and development process

NEW DEVELOPERS

Experienced developer new to your team

Inexperienced junior developer new to all the

things.

OVERVIEW OF TEACHING/TRAINING

The whole point of teaching and training is to reduce unknowns.

If training isn’t reducing unknowns, what’s the point.

KNOWN UNKNOWNS AND UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS

• The top is what we know we don’t know

• The bottom represents all the things that we don’t even realize we don’t know.

WRONG

• The bottom of the iceberg is

woefully too small to

represent how many unknown

unknowns we have.

SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Are you reducing unknowns?

Are the devs acquiring more problem solving skills?

THE SEVEN LAWS OF TEACHING

1 THE LAW OF THE TEACHER

The teacher must know that which he

would teach; therefore, know thoroughly,

clearly, and familiarly the lesson you wish to

teach.

ONBOARDING

Create a New Engineer’s handbook

Understand the dev process and working agreements of the

team

Present your style guide

Understand how the team fits into the company as a whole

Understand how each developer fits into the team

Understand how the team deals with conflict

CONTINUING EDUCATION / MENTORING

Engineering Ladder

Style guide reviews

Core Book List and Recommended Reading List

ROUTINE QUESTIONS

You need to either have the answer or know how to find the

answer

Same teaching goals - reduce unknowns and demonstrate

problem solving skills

2 THE LAW OF THE LEARNER

The learner must attend with interest to the

material to be learned; therefore, gain and

keep the attention and interest of the pupils

on the lesson. Do not try to teach without

attention.

THE FIVE KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL GOOGLE TEAM

“A group of us in Google’s People Operations (what we call HR)

set out to answer this question using data and rigorous analysis:

What makes a Google team effective?”

Psychological safety

Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or

embarrassed?

OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERACTIONS

Meals

Water Cooler chats

Foos Ball, ping pong, other office activities

Company events/parties

Team Building

PRO -TIPDon’t start explanations with “obviously” or “clearly”

3 THE LAW OF THE LANGUAGE

The language used in teaching must be

common to teacher and learner; therefore,

use words understood in the same way by

the pupils and yourself.

2 KEYS TO SUCCESS

Don’t use domain or industry specific acronyms

Define your terms as you go

4 THE LAW OF THE LESSON

The truth to be taught must be learned

through truth already known; therefore, begin

with what is already well known to the pupil

about the subject, and proceed to the new

material by single, easy, and natural steps.

“I have an amazing mnemonic device by which I have now memorized all of your names here.

-Michael Scott

Michael Scott: Baldy. Your head it bald. It is

hairless. It is shiny. It is reflective, like a

mirror. M. Your name is Mark.

Mark: Yes.

Michael Scott: Got it. It works!

Teach from the known to the unknown

TEACHING FROM THE KNOWN TO THE UNKNOWN

When a student cannot complete this problem

I ask if they are able to do this one

5 THE LAW OF THE TEACHING PROCESS

Teaching is arousing and using the pupil's

mind to grasp the desired thought or to master

the desired art; therefore, stimulate the pupil's

own mind to action. Keep his thought as much

as possible ahead of your expression, placing

him in the attitude of a discoverer and

anticipator.

BENEFITS TO JUST ANSWERING A QUESTIONS

It’s easy

It’s fast

Makes us feel smart

Provides job security

QUESTION AND ANSWER FLOW

It’s like predictive text, but it actually works.

Reuse the same words verbatim.

This triggers the person to start hearing your words before they

ask the question.

Extremely effective for math education.

“What does “of” mean in Math?

-Teacher

“Multiply.

-student

“What’s the first thing we try to do when we see an algebraic fraction?

-Teacher

“Factor and Reduce.

-student

QUESTION AND ANSWER FLOW

It’s like predictive text, but it actually works.

Reuse the same words verbatim.

This triggers the person to start hearing your words before they

ask the question.

Extremely effective for math education.

PRO-TIPIf they don’t understand your

answers, repetition won’t help.

6 THE LAW OF THE LEARNING PROCESS

The student must reproduce in his own

mind the truth to be learned; therefore,

require the pupil to reproduce in thought the

lesson he is learning---thinking it out in its

various phases and applications until he can

express it in his own language.

PRO-TIPYou can’t talk understanding into someone.

7 THE LAW OF REVIEW AND APPLICATION

The completion, test, and confirmation of the

work of teaching must be made by review and

application; therefore, review, review, review,

reproducing the old, deepening its impression

with new thought, linking it with added

meanings, finding new applications, correcting

any false views, and completing the true.

In order for review and feedback to be

helpful and effective, the developer needs

to understand both the expectations and

the evaluation standard.

THE FIVE KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL GOOGLE TEAM

Structure & clarity

Are goals, roles, and execution plans on our team clear?

ESTABLISH A FEEDBACK

CYCLE

HIGH PERFORMERS LOVE TO SMASH EXPECTATIONS

Give them a chance, tell them the expectations

Not only does being a good

teacher help other people learn, it

will help you learn too.

QUESTIONS ? ? ?