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Situation: I had a software engineer from my broader team who wanted to grow as a Machine Learning Engineer. This person was transitioned to my team based on his interest.

Task: My task was to ensure that this software engineer grows in his role as a machine learning engineer and becomes successful while ensuring that the work he is doing aligns with the company's goals. 

Actions: Machine learning and AI were areas of high investment for my company. So his individual goals already aligned with the company's goals. I first set up a 1:1 with the new engineer and understood his skills and gaps. He already had taken some ML courses online and had some theoretical knowledge of different concepts like traditional ML algorithms, metrics for evaluation etc. I first identified a user story for the engineer to work on. This story was both impactful at the same time it was slightly less complicated compared to some of the transformer based GenAI solutions that some of the other engineers were working on. I wanted to make sure that the team member makes incremental progress towards their final goal. This project also had a chance of collaboration with other ML scientists working on other area in the company. I setup appropriate goals to track for the quarter and had regular follow up sessions to make sure he was on track. I gave him a chance to showcase his work through show n tell sessions. I made sure exactly what was expected out of the feature and also established metrics to evaluate like the false positive rate etc. 

Result: Through all of these steps the team member completed the task on time and the feature was delivered to our customer and it also got great feedback and good customer satisfaction scores. 

As a manager, there are a few things I am looking at the measure my progress and improvement.

The first thing I look at is having clear measurable success metrics for the team that aligns with the org and company and working towards meeting that goal. My current team is responsible for delivering mission-critical messages to our end users. We have various metrics tracking the reliability of our backend systems and the deliverability of our messages. To make sure we are tracking our success metrics, we do a monthly review of our core metrics and have in-person discussions if there are any potential problems or a way to improve our metrics.

The other thing I look at is people management. There are two main areas here. One is growing people and the other is doing performance management. For performance management, I have continuous conversations around performance and expectations utilizing my 1-1 time with my reports so there is no surprise when there is a performance issue. When I had someone who was marked as below expectation, the person agreed with the ratings because we had continuous conversations. While the IC was improving and got back on track, the annual performance review looked at the past year and the IC wasn’t surprised by the rating. For growing people, I also utilize 1-1 time and discuss individuals' short-term and long-term goals. I discuss with my reports where are growth areas, and how we can find opportunities to help them grow. For example, I had a mid-level engineer who was interested in improving their technical leadership skill and getting more involved in defining and scoping projects phase. I started inviting the IC to meetings with stakeholders and had a quick sync after such meetings to discuss the meeting and describe why I answered some questions in a certain way. The IC is now one of the senior engineers in the team and he is effectively leading projects involving multiple teams.

I also try to make sure I am not only handling my responsibilities well but also growing myself. I seek feedback so I can be aware of what I am doing well and where I need to improve. I do two things. I have my reports meet with my manager once a quarter where they can provide feedback to my manager without me being present, and later my lead will relay the feed to me with his input as well. The other thing is my current company does pulse surveys twice a year. When the survey results are out, I have my team get together and discuss the results and provide more context without me being present. I review the final outcome and create action items as needed. For example, one of the feedback I got was improving the overall recognition of our work. I started announcing our project deliveries and impact on the broader group and also announced some achievements through senior leadership. Later it reflected on the future pulse survey with increased score.

Stripe’s mission, growing the GDP of the internet  is very impactful.  As a Stripe user, I have experienced firsthand the meticulous craftsmanship and user-centric design that the team puts into the product, which I find truly inspiring. I can see stripe as a place that values innovation and fresh perspectives to solve complex problems. I recently attended a talk delivered by the CTO where he demonstrated using gaming strategies to design API. It was refreshing to see.    

My career journey has been a blend of founding, building, and leading teams to create scalable solutions in hyper-growth environments. In my role at Flexport, I led a cross-functional team of 6 to develop a new infrastructure that set the foundation of event driven architecture, reducing customer data reporting to near-real time. In my recent role at a startup, I built and launched 6 projects within 6 months, directly impacting growth. I thrive in roles that require a balance of strategic vision and hands-on technical leadership. 

At Mcgraw-hill, I manage diverse engineering teams spread across multiple locations and some are remote. Last year, I noticed one of our remote team members, Maggie has great potential. She is a senior engineer, an exceptionally talented individual whom I hired in 2020. And during my regular 1:1’s also, she had also expressed frustration during our regular 1:1s when I was discussing and probing about her career plans. because he felt her remote status limited her career advancement opportunities."

Recognizing Maggie’'s potential and understanding that every team member's growth contributes to the success of the whole team, I made it my goal to mentor and coach her to get her to the next level.

I initiated a series of actions tailored for Maggie's situation. First, I increased the frequency of our one-on-ones and used video calls to establish a stronger connection. I also introduced her to key projects that required cross-team collaboration, ensuring she had a high-visibility role with increasing complexity and scope. Moreover, I matched her with another senior remote mentor who had successfully climbed the career ladder.

Stretch goals

• More 1:1 facetime and frequency for remote members - It’s a great tool for me and my reports to get better alignment, strengthen relationships, build and earn trust. It enabled and taught me to improve my coaching and active listening skills with empathy, and to provide feedback.

I want to ensure the person is successful and are ready for the next role and level

• Leverage Communication and collaboration tools

• Remote Networking opportunities / Matched to a remote mentor as part of our DEI WLI

• Advocated her to Visibility and inclusion in important projects and creating stakeholder opportunities - GoReact Video assignment project which involved multiple teams across locations, is a high-visible critical initiative for our customers before the new semester starts / stretch goals

• Created opportunities for bi-monthly travel for in-house meetups with team and stakeholders

As a result of these initiatives, In about a quarter and half, Maggie's performance improved dramatically—she led the critical GoReact Video assignment project that succeeded on schedule, and also increased system integration efficiency by 25%. Within five months, she was promoted to EM role, despite the remote geographical barriers. And happy to say that she is thriving and doing great in her new role.