Table of contents
This post is part of my weekly engineering manager competency review series. At the end of each week, I publish a review of the notes I thought over the past week. My goal is to create a log where I can capture these insights for future me to review.
The competencies below are from Square's Software Engineering Career Ladder.
The Challenge
For 21Q3, one of our top objectives at Apollo.io is to improve our company's ability to prioritize, plan, and deliver value to customers. As an engineering manager, I was tasked with leading the transition from our current project management tool, Asana, to Jira. This was a new challenge for me, and I knew that it would require a high level of collaboration across teams and disciplines to ensure its success.
The Approach
I began by collecting data from different teams and departments, including customer support, product, and engineering. This helped me understand the impact of the current tool on their workflow and identify the main challenges that could arise during the migration.
I then spent time strategizing about the project timeline, milestones, and risks. I set out a plan to mitigate those challenges and identified the key stakeholders that would be affected by the migration.
The Results
It was a busy two weeks, but I was pleased with the final outcome of the project plan. I presented it to the stakeholders and received positive feedback. However, during the presentation, I received a question that I wasn't prepared for. I was asked about how the initiative would be communicated to people outside of my main stakeholders.
The Learning
It was a valuable lesson for me. I realized that even though I had put a lot of thought into the project plan, I hadn't fully considered the communication aspect. This made me understand the importance of thinking about communication when writing a project plan in the future.
The Next Step
I am now taking steps to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and aware of the initiative and its progress by putting in place a communication plan. This will help me address any concerns or questions they might have in a timely manner. I am excited to see how this improved approach to project planning will lead to better results for our company and our customers.