Description
Challenges the status quo and effects positive organisational change outside of mandated work
We want engineers to take ownership of the product, focus on fixing issues when they see them, get the details right, and improve things as they go. We need people that effect change, champion new ideas, and work hard to move the company forward, even when there is organisational resistance.
Milestone 1
(adds 1 mile to your journey)
Identifies opportunities for organizational change or product improvements
| Examples | |
|---|---|
| Writes Hatch posts about improvement opportunities | Wrote about problems with TTR on Hatch | 
| Raises meaningful tensions in tactical meetings | Wrote about content policy problems on Hatch | 
| Asks leadership team probing questions at FAM | Reported a site issue in Github | 
Milestone 2
(adds 3 miles to your journey)
Causes change to positively impact a few individuals or minor improvement to an existing product or service
| Examples | |
|---|---|
| Picks bugs off the backlog proactively when blocked elsewhere | Advocated on own behalf for a change in role | 
| Makes design quality improvements unprompted | Implemented flow typing for promises | 
| Takes on trust and safety tasks proactively when blocked elsewhere | Audited web client performance in Chrome and proposed fixes | 
Milestone 3
(adds 6 miles to your journey)
Causes change to positively impact an entire team or instigates a minor feature or service
| Examples | |
|---|---|
| Demonstrates concepts proactively with prototypes | Defined style guide to resolve style arguments | 
| Fixes complicated bugs outside of regular domain | Proposed and implemented at-mentions prototype | 
| Takes ownership of systems that nobody owns or wants | Implemented video for Android independently, unprompted | 
Milestone 4
(adds 12 miles to your journey)
Effects change that has a substantial positive impact on the engineering organization or a major product impact
| Examples | |
|---|---|
| Champions and pioneers new technologies to solve new classes of problem | Created the interviewing rubric and booklet | 
| Exemplifies grit and determination in the face of persistent obstacles | Implemented and secured support for native login | 
| Instigates major new features, services, or architectures | Migrated medium2 to mono repo and bazel | 
Milestone 5
(adds 20 miles to your journey)
Effects change that has a substantial positive impact on the whole company
| Examples | |
|---|---|
| Creates a new function to solve systemic issues | Migrated the organization from Holacracy | 
| Galvanizes the entire company and garners buy in for a new strategy | Built Medium Android prototype and convinced execs to fund it | 
| Changes complex organizational processes | Convinced leadership and engineering org to move to Medium Lite architecture | 
Configuration Health
- ✅ Associated with 1 role
 - ⚠️ Has been referenced in no observations
 - ℹ️ No one has achieved a milestone on this ability
 
- ⛔️ Last updated: almost 5 years ago
 - ℹ️ Never conversed about
 
Role & Position Requirements
- Executorsmust be milestone 1+
 
Examples / Observations
An observation relating to Initiative has not been publicly recognized yet.
Conversations about Initiative
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