Development Assignment: Back-end engineer

  Observation created about 5 years ago

Featuring:Thomas C.Back-end Code reviewerBack-end engineer

Tom and I both consulted on the design of the new content search. While doing a PR for some of this work, he looked beyond the syntax. He noticed that the flow of the code was likely going to not be performant for large clients. This is a critical skill to be able to look at code, understand the broader flow and intuit that there could be a problem for larger data sets. Finding this issue put Tom in a crossroads. Pulling the Andon cord on this is a non-trivial act. He reached out to me to make sure that we were in agreement about the issue and to make sure that solutions to this problem were larger in scope than PR comments could address. He then took responsibility to drive clarity with the rest of the team and make sure they were all prepared to come up with a new plan.

  Observation created about 5 years ago

Featuring:Joseph A.Engineering CommunicationTechnical InvestigationCollaborationBack-end engineer

Joesph was given a big problem. Search on the learn page is slow. The big problem is determining what lessons a user has access to. The majority of the problem has to do with lessons in paths. This was not a part of the application that he had a lot of deep knowledge in. He took a lot of time to create test data (paths in paths in paths with lessons all over the place) and has worked to really understand how all of the parts work together. In fact, I would say know that he really groks it in a way that I do not. I offered him an initial design on how we should solve the problem. After working through all the details, he saw an even better solution that take the last couple steps in the journey to search nirvana. In the midst of all of this, he has done an incredible job communicating the changes with the benefits that they will bring.

  Observation created over 5 years ago

Featuring:Brittany H.We put learners firstWe share before we're readyWe ask clarifying questionsWe get agreementsBack-end engineer

Brittany has been taking the lead on our Forced Logout acceleration (doing some discovery, determining the best approach from an architecture standpoint, story shaping, delivery, etc.). While planning and working through some discovery, she ran into some roadblocks. She gave context, asked a clear question, and provided potential solutions so folks could easily comment in hopes to gain clarity and move forward in a timely manner (see the below Slack conversations for examples). Keep up all the great work, Brittany 🎉

https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1592937599264700

https://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C97TXG1PW/p1592937611265000

  Observation created almost 6 years ago

Featuring:Thomas C.We put learners firstBack-end engineer

My main objective this quarter has been to fix bugs that leave learners unable to complete Paths (since learners completing stuff is kind of the reason we exist as a company). Of the 5 big bugs on our radar, we were only able to fix 2 before my newborn son arrived a week and a half early back in December. I fully expected the Learn squad to stay focused on their other important objectives in my absence, but Tom had other ideas. While I was out, he identified and fixed the root cause of another issue (ch36348), and had made major inroads researching the others. On my first day back yesterday when I mentioned Paths in the Learn standup, Tom smiled and said "I've got news for you on that". When we sat down together and Tom explained how he'd gotten to the bottom of several major issues and even fixed one of them (and keep in mind these are bugs that have existed for years which no one has been able to figure out), my outlook on the quarter's goal went from "Well, at least we made a dent..." to "Holy heck, we can do this!" So a big shout-out to Tom for not just working on Paths bugs while I was out, but really working on them, and making progress where no one, myself included, had been able to, to the benefit of the 100,000+ learners affected by them. 👏

  Observation created almost 6 years ago

Featuring:Ethan M.Joseph A.Joshua A.Waseem D.We ask clarifying questionsWe get agreementsWe inspire others to do better workCommunityDesign CollaborationBack-end engineerFront-end engineerDiscovery engineerEpic shaperStory shaper

I am grateful for how these 4 have been communicating on this project. This is a complex project for a variety of reasons. We are splitting up the frontend and the backend. Linking elements in our app is a difficult endeavor. The way these four have communicated to one another and to me has been such a joy. Whether it be Waseem posting killer updates in the channel, Joshua and Joseph presenting their findings on technical deep dives, or Ethan walking me through expectations on epic breakdown, everyone has chipped in to really get this off the ground.

I have been inspired to bring the level of clarity I have found here in other aspects of my job.

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This section is for Lessonly folks only. Sign your team up to find your Gruuv!

This section is for Lessonly folks only. Sign your team up to find your Gruuv!

This section is for Lessonly folks only. Sign your team up to find your Gruuv!