The “user guide to me” is a document that gives people a quick rundown of how best to work with you. There’s a lot of templates out there for how to put one of these documents together, but this is the format I was shown, and I think it covers everything someone would need to know about you before they first meet you. Other formats I’ve seen go pretty deep and I feel like that’s too much information to hand to someone before they’ve even seen your face. That’s where things go from “helpful context” to “corporate cringe”. If you decide to make a document like this for yourself or your team, keep it concise. Don’t need your whole life story. We’ll get to know each other in time, this is just some context for those first months of working together.

I’ll give you the format here and fill it in with some details about myself. Nice to meet you, hope you stick around.

Style

What helps you be the best version of you?
What pumps you up, gives you a sense of reward/accomplishment? What kind of environment helps you do your best or most enjoyable work?

• I love celebrating other people’s success
• I feel most accomplished when people on my team feel comfortable bringing sensitive issues to me
• I like an environment where I regularly work with the same people to solve problems

What’s the best way to communicate with you?
What’s the best way to convince you to do something? How do you like to receive feedback? How do you like to give feedback? How do you like to brainstorm?

• You can convince me to do something by explaining how it will benefit the organisation’s leverage. There are times we will choose to do the hard thing in my department because it enables another team to work on a higher leverage problem
• I prefer feedback 1:1 or over Slack. The feedback format we learned from a management training program was really good. In my department we did a “feedback week” event to help build the skill with everyone on the team, and we reinforce the habit at every chance we get
• I like to brainstorm with people. I think a lot better when other people are around. I always prefer to do it live

What qualities do your particularly value in people who work with you?
How can someone earn a gold star with you? What annoys you?

• Having a strong sense of self direction.
• My department does a really good job of handling change and uncertainty, which is really common in startups. They can proceed with a plan as though that is the truth, but are still willing to pivot fast as things change
• The leadership team brings in a lot of different expertise and I really value how everyone’s input is considered and we collaborate really well to solve problems. No one’s idea is ever just shut down

Work

Career Highlights
What are some relevant highlights? Memorable projects or initiatives?

• Early on in my department, we put a lot of work into building a culture of psychological safety and professional development. I feel most proud when people on my team bring issues to me that people wouldn’t bring to their manager in other workplaces. I also enjoy when people in my department proactively bring their professional development goals to me

Your role on your team
Do you have any subject matter expertise or ownership areas?

• I manage a department within the company I work at
• I have subject matter expertise in how we curate our data, pharmacology in general, and a good read on how trends are developing in the biopharma industry

What does a good work day include?
What are your favourite things to do at work? What do you want to do more of or less or? What feels productive and gives you energy? What’s draining?

• Good days
  • Long strategy sessions. I like to dig into topics and understand them fully so I can explain the results of the session with my team
  • I feel the best on days where I have a really good 1:1. More deep dives into a blocker and working with someone to come up with potential solutions
  • Promoting someone is always nice
• Bad days
  • A really draining day would be a day with meetings, but also awkward amounts of time in between. Not enough time to really accomplish anything else
  • Another type of draining day would be planning around bad news. Coming up with the communication plan for letting the teams know is always a somber event

Development

What are your “superpowers”?
What are some skills you have or ways you contribute that are in your wheelhouse?

• Pharmacology, biochemistry, and a little bit of the regulatory side

What are you working to develop/learn?
What improvements or growth areas are top of mind and how can people help you with this?

• Communication
• Management skills
• Regulatory information
• Industry trends

Scheduling

1:1 meetings:
Do you prefer to meet in the morning or afternoon? Do you like your meetings spread out or packed together? How often do you like to meet?

• I prefer to pack meetings in as close together as possible. Having a 5 minute break between meetings is nice for people to have a bio break but 10-30 minutes is too awkward of a block of time to accomplish anything else substantial
• I’m good with meeting anytime there’s space in my calendar
• Weekly meetings are a good cadence for me

Anything else

What do you nerd out on? Do you have any hobbies you’d like to share?

• I’m a nerd at heart. I have a deep love for science fiction and fantasy TV shows and movies
• If you tell me a fun fact, I need to do a deep dive to learn more about the topic
• I learned to play Dungeons and Dragons when I was 14, by someone who went on to become a professional magician
• In my undergrad I spent a lot of time hanging out with the international students and the linguistics students. I’ll always have an interest in where words come from.
• When I was studying for my MPharm degree, I got really into Historical European Martial Arts for about 3 years. I haven’t done it in a few years, but it’s definitely something I plan to get back into in the future
  • No it’s not like LARPing
  • No it’s not like reenactment
  • Yeah it’s kind of like fencing if you could also grapple
• When I was studying for my MPharm degree I also got into powerlifting. I don’t think I’ll ever be a competitive athlete, but I’ve really enjoyed the process over the years
• Anytime someone recommends a business book I’ll go get a copy and read through it as fast as I can. If it’s especially good, I’ll make some notes for my team