You CAN make a change at your new workplace

During our professional lives, we move from one workplace to another.
In every one of those places, we learn about the culture and the processes they have to offer.
One of the challenges when starting a new role in a new workplace, is taking successful past processes and implementing them successfully in the new workplace.

In this post, I will share with you some of the ways I have tried (and even succeeded) to bring about said changes.

My previous workplace

Before joining AppsFlyer Engineering, I worked at a company that had some amazing processes (IMHO). Over time, I truly fell in love with some of them. Let’s take a look at some examples:

Documenting (almost) everything

Understanding that people come and go, means that knowledge/information has to be written and stored in a place that is easy to reach, search and read.
A culture of documentation encourages you to write down what you are doing and how to use what you are creating. Over time, this can lead to better products.
In this process, documents weren’t just created, they were also managed in a public location that anyone from the group could find.

Having a formal document structure

We had a basic, general structure for different document types. It was up to you to decide the scope of the content.
The guidelines were not strict, and it was okay to add/remove sections if you felt it was the right thing to do. Since all the docs had the same basic structure, they were easy to read and understand, even if they were explaining topics that are not your bread and butter.

Customer obsession

It seems that every company claims that customer obsession is its top priority. Being obsessed means, we honestly and constantly ask ourselves if our actions are right/correct/valuable for our clients.
To achieve this, we kept challenging ourselves to maintain a direct connection with our clients (or representatives). Asking them for constant feedback, hearing their needs, sharing our roadmap, and taking actions based on their input.

All this leads to a really satisfied customer and a proud team, since you know your work is being used and used happily by your clients. Truly amazing!

Moving to a new adventure

After a few years, I decided it was a good time to take everything I’d learned and start in a new place. So I moved to a much smaller company (but not a ten-employee startup).
I’m one of the first 500 employees here at AppsFlyer, today we are around 1500 globally.
Since I joined three years ago, I’ve been learning different processes that we have, in order to see if there is anything I can help improve.
I like understanding processes and where they came from. Understanding the “under the hood” aspects, helps me connect to the process and the technology.

Getting accustomed to a new playground

One of the first things I did when joining, was to take some time to understand how things are being done. You have to take the time and explore your new workplace.

There’s a reason why the company reached a point where it grew to and hired you.
Find the things that work great, and adopt them. Find the things that are not working well (in your eyes/opinion) and ask why.
Why do they do it that way? Am I the only one who thinks this can be changed or improved?

By taking the time to understand what works and why, you’ve truly become part of the team. You are not just a “new” hire saying things must change. It will make others respect your opinions and views, since you took the time to understand theirs.

Part of the thinking process was to talk with many different people. Some were team members, team managers, learning and development leaders, and others.
I applied the same structure in all the conversations:

1. Talking about the company’s general processes — meetings, documents, handovers, and other similar topics.
2. Talking about what works well, why, and how we can measure this efficacy.
3. Talking about what can be improved, why, and how we can know that it’s a real issue?

Given my past experience and research into my new workplace, I reached the following realization:

• Some things are going great here, and are similar to what I’m familiar with.
• Some things are going great here, they’re new to me, and it’s awesome — I’ve learned new stuff.
• But some things aren’t, and I know that they can be great — as they were handled pretty well in my last workplace.

Pushing changes

After a few months at AppsFlyer, I got to a point where I could definitely identify a few pain points. I knew that these were things that had worked well in my previous workplace.
Luckily it was clear I had joined a fantastic company that welcomes feedback on required improvements or changes, with an open door policy.
Furthermore, the company’s management actively seeks feedback from all employees.

I decided to take action on a few topics. Let’s focus on two:

Documentation

When I started my new role, the development team I joined was pretty small, and almost everything was verbal. Decisions, designs, and a lot of other communications were made face-to-face. the group’s processes relied on:

1. Moving fast
2. Amazing people that we can rely on
3. Delivering products that answer clients’ needs

We were able to deliver fast, but we had cases where we didn’t remember why a decision was made or who suggested it. When someone new joined, onboarding was challenging and we spent a lot of time explaining.

What we changed
Using my experience in documenting, I created a design document template.

It took me a few good conversations to persuade my manager that it was the right thing to do. The first stage was to “make” him understand that documentation matters and is beneficial, as it creates a knowledge base that we can always go back to.
Once we were aligned we needed to figure out how to show it to the team. We wanted to make sure that others would try it, even if it might seem like a waste of time.
So, we created a template and defined it as a building block. We communicated to the team that when someone writes a design doc, they should use it as a baseline. They can take the parts they think are needed and remove the rest.
It took quite a while for this to become a standard, but over time my team understood the benefits of having this process. The impact was really good, it gave clear structure and aligned the team when designing our work.
Today, we have a design document for 99% of our features, small or big.

Customer obsession

My previous workplace helped me understand that customer obsession takes us further than just end-user obsession. It can also mean anyone we communicate with during our workday. Since it is one of AppsFlyer’s fundamentals, I focused on understanding a few AF behaviors and the reasoning behind them.

What we changed
In a development team, your customers are also your teammates. They work with you daily, and I’m sure you’d like to have good communication with them and feel that they are happy to work with you. Also, as an experienced developer, you’re expected to mentor and lead junior developers.

By understanding that my teammates are my clients, I made sure that they know we have open communication and that I’m not only here to help them with their current tasks, but also with their personal development.

What should you do when you start a new job?

Here are some key takeaways that you can use to maximize your past work experiences and environments, to improve and develop your next ones:

1. Know what you love
   Think about the places you once worked at and which processes they had that you connected to? Which of those ideas inspires you to “fight” for them in your next area of work?
2. Take the time to understand
   Don’t try to push things without really knowing what works well in your new place of work and what might need improvement. First, learn and talk to the right stakeholders to understand their pain points and perspectives.
3. Not everything at once
   Tackle things one at a time. Some items might take longer than others.
4. Find the things you can truly influence
   You can’t control everything, find the things you can influence and do your best to improve them.
5. It is never my way or the highway
   Learn to show the benefits of the things you bring with you, and adapt them to suit your new workplace.

Whether you are a new hire, or a long-time team member, pushing changes is something that you can always do.

If you follow the previous steps, I hope it will be easier and simpler.