Manager README

🚀 Introducing My Manager README

After 6+ years in management, learning and adapting across various companies and team types, I decided it was finally time to formalize my own management philosophy into a single source of truth. My goal was simple: to remove guesswork and make our collaboration as effective and enjoyable as possible. I was genuinely happy and appreciative to see the overwhelmingly positive reaction from the team—it validated the effort and showed how much they valued having this clarity.

The "Manager README" is a document, inspired by the technical README.md files, where a manager clearly outlines their communication style, expectations, values, and how they work best. This practice emerged in the tech industry to help direct reports quickly understand their manager's philosophy and preferences, fostering stronger, more predictable working relationships from day one.

TL;DR — Manager README

These are the habits that keep us sharp, collaborative, and kind:

• Be direct and kind. Ask questions early.
• Own outcomes end to end. Remove blockers.
• Slice to value. Ship small, learn fast.
• Raise flags early with options.
• Help each other. Share knowledge and wins.
• Balance speed and quality consciously.

⭐ Mission as a TL

My mission is to foster individual growth and fulfillment, helping each one of you reach your professional potential while creating an environment where we feel comfortable challenging ourselves, continuously learning, and genuinely enjoying our collaboration.

Bottom line: help each one of you become the best version of yourself while being part of a team where 1+1 = 3.

🏅 Team Values

• Direct, caring feedback. Be honest and respectful.
• Hunger and passion. Stay curious and proactive.
• Ownership. Drive work end to end. Remove blockers.
• Flexibility. Switch modes as needed. Stay open-minded.
• We’ve got each other’s back. Help teammates, help other teams, and always find the time.
• Quality comes first, but know when and how to balance speed and quality consciously.

💬 Communication

• Office: grab me anytime. If it is important for you, it is also important for me.
• Work/WFH: Slack → WhatsApp if needed → if urgent: call.
• Personal: WhatsApp or call if urgent.
• Don’t wait for meetings. Ping me directly.
• “This meeting could be a Slack message” — when communication can be done asynchronously and still deliver value, do it.

🔁 Team Rituals

• Weekly team (Sunday): quick personal check-in (טוב רע ומישהו שרוצים ל..הוקיר? (: ) + work updates.
• Daily 15 min (Tuesday and Thursday): progress, plan, problems. Update Slack if absent.
• Monthly tech deep-dive: challenge architecture, propose actions. Starting soon! 👨‍💻
• Monthly KPIs with PM + UX: review metrics, ideas, experiments. Starting soon! 💡

📌 Task Types

• Tickets: owned by on-call. Communicate and aim to close.
• Quick wins: hours to days. Share and make them happen; I will help where needed. Always find time for wins for us and our customers.
• Roadmap: slice by value, sync with stakeholders, PRs visible, Slack group if big, design review, bug hunt, babysit in prod, document key decisions. (Naama and I will share more detailed Product Execution guidance soon.)
• Track work via Deliverable → Tasks for transparency and easier reality tracking. Even in busy times, find a way to close PRs for others in our team and other teams. These moments test our team DNA, especially when it feels uncomfortable.

📟 On-Call Weekly Flow

• Handover + plan with next on-calls, TL, PM.
• Morning routine: check monitoring and pagers.
• Raise red flags early. Ask for help and always find a way to help others (our team and other teams).
• End-of-week summary.
• Proactive fixes: tackle recurring issues you spot.
• Keep everyone sleeping — for each person, always ask: how do we avoid waking up at 2:00 a.m.? Any idea counts.

🌱 Growth

• Weekly 1:1s driven by your agenda.
• Performance reviews: celebrate wins and set goals together so you can get to the best place you can and want.
• Fresh feedback in the moment (לתת פידבק שהוא חם).
• Learning time every week. Learn by doing; if it’s challenging, schedule 1–2 hours per week to guarantee it happens.
• Share wins on the team channel! Share wins in #rnd-wins on Slack!

🚀 Leading a Feature — Checklist

1. Understand the why. Ask questions! Challenge everything and anyone.
2. Close startup gaps. Unblock.
3. Slice to releasable value. Estimate first slices more accurately and know the rest of the path.
4. Ensure we split to deliverables and tasks.
5. Do an HLD for complex work and review it.
6. Run a design review with UX & Product.
7. Host a QA Party/Bug Hunt with relevant folks — make it happen and follow up with fixes.
8. Release with PM. Use feature flags (feature toggles) as needed.
9. Gather customer feedback post-release; partner with Product to learn how it is used and how to improve it.

🧩 Coding & Architecture

• Balance speed and quality based on context.
• Review PRs and uphold standards. Share PRs for visibility.
• Use AI tools. Keep experimenting.
• Write one-pagers for impactful technical decisions.
• Share interesting learnings with the team.
• Company best practices (link to add from your company)

😊 Bottom Line

Come energized, enjoy the work and people, and keep improving together while owning your responsibilities and staying proactive!

Inspiration & Credits

I chose to make my Manager.readme more like a one pager so I first show it face-to-face to the team and send it. But there is also a longer version with more details I chose not to share to avoid details overload.

This article is a culmination of lessons learned and inspiration drawn from brilliant people in the Israeli tech community. Special thanks to Oren Ellenbogen (Manager README), Erik Zaadi (Manager README), and Anton Zaides (Manager README) for sharing their knowledge and driving this important conversation forward.

P.S. Registration is open for my Profectus Managers Retreat kicking off in early 2026. Register here.