Ashwin’s README at Fyle
Hello everyone, I’m Ashwin, and I’ve been a part of Fyle since 2019.
I was born and raised in a small town in Tamil Nadu called Pavoorchatram. After completing my schooling there, I moved to Coimbatore for college.
Like many engineers, I started my journey with Fyle as an intern in May 2019. Fyle is my first company, and I literally began by learning how to navigate and make changes in a repo with over a thousand files :D
Currently, I live in Bangalore, where I spend my weekends hunting for great biryani places, experimenting with cooking my own biryani, and occasionally trekking. One of my goals after moving to Bangalore is to complete all the trekking spots around Bangalore, and I'm currently at 6 out of 10 now :)
What’s this guide about?
This guide is here to help my reports understand my work style, what I expect, how I prefer to communicate, and how I give feedback. By sharing this, I hope we can collaborate smoothly and effectively, ensuring we produce outstanding results together.
My Work Schedule
I usually start working around 11 AM and take a 30-minute break for lunch around 2 PM, then continue working until 5:30 PM. After that, I take a longer break for about 2 hours to engage in physical activities like running, walking, cycling, cricket, or badminton. I resume work afterward, spending an additional 1-2 hours. These are my golden hours when I snooze notifications and dedicate time to deep-focus work. I usually don’t respond to messages after work hours unless it’s an emergency.
I communicate well in advance when I take casual leave, as soon as the event is confirmed, except in cases of sick or emergency leave(s).
I don’t work during weekends or late nights and don’t encourage anyone to do so either.
How do I stay productive while working Remotely?
These tips may not be universally helpful as every person is different, but they have worked out well for me:
Separate Work and Personal Life: Avoid personal tasks during work hours.
Minimize Phone Distractions: Keep your phone away from your workspace.
Focus Blocks: Set uninterrupted focus hours for deep work.
Daily Scheduling: Plan your day and tick off tasks for a sense of accomplishment.
Use a Monitor Screen: Use a monitor to manage multiple tasks efficiently.
Maintain a Physical Activity Routine: Regular exercise boosts productivity and well-being.
Expectations from My Reports
Out Of Office: Inform me well in advance about casual leaves to ensure smooth delegation of responsibilities.
Daily Updates: Post daily updates in dedicated Slack channels, covering progress, plans, and blockers.
Post-Call Notes: Share notes in relevant channels after discussions to keep everyone aligned.
Have a Next Task Ready: Always be prepared with the next task to maintain workflow momentum.
Timelines: Adhere to planned timelines and prioritize timely task completion.
Testing: Thoroughly test your code to catch issues early and ensure quality.
Ownership: Take full responsibility for your initiatives and ensure their success.
Over-communicate: Provide detailed information when seeking help to expedite resolution.
Analyze Usage: Monitor the usage of the features you build and stay informed.
Code/Doc Reviews: I review documents and pull requests daily at 7:30 PM. Add me as a reviewer on GitHub for code reviews; use Slack for document reviews. Urgent requests will be addressed as soon as possible.
Bonus: Suggest process improvements or new features and take on small impactful tasks.
Communication
I heavily prefer asynchronous communication.
Public Channels:
Use public channels for all work-related matters and initiatives.
These channels serve as the central hub for all conversations about initiatives.
Expect some delay in responses, as I treat these channels as asynchronous.
Urgent or Sensitive Matters:
For urgent, personal, or sensitive issues, use direct messages (DM).
I prioritize checking DMs, except when I am on calls.
1x1 Meetings
I do a weekly 30-minute call with all my reports. Additionally, I set up a private 1x1 channel with each report, where we document all notes, agendas, async communications, and more. These calls are typically free-flowing, covering:
How the past week progressed
The status of ongoing initiatives
Key achievements and their impact
Any additional inputs or feedback needed from my end
Suggestions for team processes or improvements
Any pain points experienced during the week
Personal life matters and overall well-being
This is always a two-way communication, where I also share updates from my side. These calls help us understand each other better.
If something important comes up, don’t wait until the scheduled 1x1. My DM is always open for immediate discussions.
Each quarter, we’ll reflect on the past quarter’s progress, and challenges, and set goals for the next quarter.
Feedback
I believe feedback is crucial for growth and should be a two-way process.
Providing Feedback:
I give feedback during 1x1 meetings, through async messages in our 1x1 channels, or via day-to-day communications.
Feedback covers areas such as communication, time management, processes, documentation, and more.
We will discuss reflections on improvements in upcoming 1x1s.
Repetitive Feedback:
I aim to avoid repeating the same feedback more than once.
Repeated feedback indicates misunderstanding or missing elements from previous feedback.
I prefer direct and specific feedback, using examples for clarity.
Receiving Feedback:
Be open and honest when giving feedback, including examples whenever possible.
I am happy to work on and reflect on the improvements.
Feedback Etiquette:
I prefer giving feedback privately.
Publicly appreciate good work.
Things to Improve On
I tend to be late to meetings sometimes, and I am actively working on getting better at this. When I’m deeply focused on a call or debugging something, I occasionally lose track of time, causing me to be late for the next call. Additionally, when I have back-to-back meetings, if one runs over, it can have a cascading effect on the subsequent ones. I’m trying to enforce hard stops to stick to the planned times.
As a first-time manager, balancing my time gets challenging sometimes. I’m working on maintaining better focus hours to get my work done while also having time for team activities.
Delegation and sharing responsibilities are areas I’m also trying to improve.
Your patience and understanding as I work on these areas are much appreciated.
THE END!
That’s pretty much about me, my work style, my expectations from the team, my management style, and the areas I’m working to improve.
This is a living document that reflects Ashwin’s README as of July 2024. I plan to update it twice a year as things evolve.
Occasionally, a few team members meet and work at Paper & Pie in Indira Nagar (Bangalore). If you’re based in Bangalore and interested in joining, I’d be happy to work together.
I hope this guide helps us start strong, bond better, and achieve great results together!