The Talk & Observe Framework

This framework (Talk & Observe) captures the two most important ways you’ll learn as a new engineer.

1. Talk with various people on the team to learn what they do and what you need to know.

   1. To add more structure to this conversation, follow the advice from Boz (CTO at Meta): Career Cold Start Algorithm

   2. Ask people’s priorities and what concerns they have.

2. Observe how others operate at the company by studying the artifacts of their work. As engineers, we naturally have tons of markers to our progress.

   1. Look at code commits, comments on code reviews, design docs, calendar blocks, team meeting notes, etc.
   2. Spending 10-15 minutes to observe ("stalk") every person on your team will reveal tons of insight. For example, someone may say that project A is the top priority, but all their time is spent on project B -- this mismatch is an opportunity for you as the new person.