The engineering manager chronicles: Weekly goals
In previous posts, we explored the importance of team and individual autonomy and clear communication channels for engineers in the form of a decisions tree. Building on those principles, I want to introduce a powerful approach called “weekly goals” that enhances both personal growth and team success.
Weekly goals
Agile Work and Individual Challenges:
Most engineering teams utilize agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban, which excel at prioritizing tasks and ensuring team focus. However, these can overlook individual needs:
- Easy (or “known waters”) task bias: Engineers may gravitate towards familiar or enjoyable tasks, hindering personal growth.
- Limited exposure: To achieve the sprint/team goals engineers might focus on what areas they are familiar with, which can restrict exposure to new system areas or codebases.
- Personal progress blindness: While the team achieved the goal (the sprint is completed for example), an individual has no idea if working on this one issue the entire time makes sense or not for their personal growth. Stagnation can go unnoticed within sprint cycles, leaving little room for course correction.
Prioritizing short-term goals, like sprint deadlines, may seem crucial, but neglecting engineers’ growth can have lasting repercussions. Their motivation can dwindle, leading to decreased productivity and creativity. Moreover, the team’s ability to adapt and tackle complex tasks beyond immediate deadlines can diminish.
For instance, a developer solely focused on coding “easy” features for the current sprint might miss out on learning about the system's architecture or data pipelines. This could hurt their ability to contribute to future projects requiring that knowledge.
To address these challenges, I implemented the “weekly goals” methodology:
Week 0 (Last work day, Friday):
- Team members each have a quick discussion (15 minutes) with their manager to select next week’s tasks from the prioritized backlog.
Week 1 (First day of the week, Monday):
- The entire team shares their weekly goals and planned achievements in a public, rolling-update document.
Week 1 (Last work day, Friday):
- Each member reviews their goals with their manager, discussing achievements, any overflows, and next week’s tasks.
Week 2 (First day of the week, Monday):
- The team reconvenes to share last week’s goals, progress, and “lessons learned” (successes and challenges).
Note: This does not replace the “daily” ceremony that has its own benefits, but the “start of the week” ceremony can be combined with the “daily” ceremony.
Benefits of Weekly Goals:
- Focused growth: Weekly goal setting encourages engineers to actively seek new challenges and expand their skillset. It also helps the manager steer the engineer towards items that might be helpful for their personal growth plan.
- Exposure diversification: The manager can help steer the engineer towards tasks that diversify different types of work and areas in the codebase.
- Continuous feedback and reflection: Regular goal discussions promote accountability and provide valuable feedback for improvement. The “lessons learned” is a way for both the individual and the manager to reflect and provide mutual feedback for the week ahead.
- Team learning: Sharing learning experiences fosters collaboration and collective growth within the team.
- Increased visibility: Managers and other members of the team gain greater insight into individual progress and can provide timely guidance.
- Enhanced motivation: Public goal commitment boosts engagement and productivity.
- Increases autonomy: If the team is scattered geographically, have different working hours or work-days, the daily ceremony might be limited. This helps looking at the progress at a wider angle and helps the individual know what they should focus on. This is also beneficial if members are unavailable during the day— they know what they need to complete in order to meet their goals even if they do this outside “standard” working hours. It helps an individual to learn how to manage their time to achieve their goals.
While the “lessons learned” aspect might initially feel forced, consistent practice cultivates a habit of self-reflection, enabling valuable insights. Revisiting past goals allows individuals to track their progress and celebrate their achievements.
Goals should be S.M.A.R.T.
Remember that goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
Picking the right assignment from the sprint [Specific and Relevant], understanding what should be achieved [Measurable] and making sure it makes sense to complete it in the time frame of a week (or less, or more) [Achievable and Time-Bound] helps calibrate week-over-week the assumptions, times estimates and what can be achieved.
Conclusion:
Weekly goals offer a simple yet powerful framework for fostering individual growth within a collaborative team environment. By embracing this iterative process, engineers can learn from each other, stay accountable, and continuously improve, making it a valuable addition to any agile team’s toolkit.
Here’s a helpful template we are using in our rolling document:
