A "no surprises" approach to management starts with knowing who you're working with.
I've spent 10+ years as an engineer: building products, joining startups, watching some succeed and watching others fail. I have the scars to prove it. The more you understand my values, my quirks, and what drives me, the better we can work together. This doc is my attempt at transparency: who I am, what I believe, and why I make the decisions I do.
- A little about me
- What I believe
- How I think about our working relationship
- My failure modes
- 1:1s
- Engineering Culture
- Tools, AI & Staying Sharp
- What success looks like to me
- Hold me accountable
- How do you work best?
- Things you'll hear me say often
- Want to talk?
I'm based in the Chicago suburbs. Born in Damascus, Syria, raised in Riyadh, and went to university in Jordan. By the time I was 30, I'd lived across three continents, with Munich, Germany being my favorite stop along the way.
I'm a history buff, a software engineer at heart, and I was diagnosed with ADHD at 28. Getting here required overcoming a lot of personal and organizational challenges, and it's part of why I care deeply about psychological safety and meeting people where they are. I'm always open to talking about that journey and sharing what I've learned along the way.
It starts and ends with people. Every organization is the outcome of its people. The quality of what we build, the culture we create, the decisions we make: all of it flows from the people in the room. I've never seen a great team produce bad work for long, and I've never seen a bad team produce great work. Invest in people and everything else follows.
Transparency is how we get better. Without it, we're flying blind. We can't make the right calls if we don't have the full picture. We can't grow if we're shielded from honest feedback. I share what I know, I say what I think, and I expect the same in return. Not because it's a nice value to have, but because it's the only way we actually learn.
Say what you mean. Be considerate of how you say it, but don't soften it into something unrecognizable. Your words should match your intent. If they don't, you're not communicating, you're just talking.
Simplicity is a discipline. The urge to over-engineer is real and it's always dressed up as thoroughness. Fight it. The solution that the next person can understand, maintain, and build on is almost always the right one.
I'm your manager. That dynamic is real and I don't pretend it isn't. But my job is not to be above you, it's to be in service of you. I'm here to clear obstacles, give you the context you need, and make sure your best work actually gets seen and recognized.
You can disagree with me, push back on me, and give me hard feedback without it affecting how I see you. I'd rather have an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable silence.
Here is what I commit to:
- I work for your success. Your wins are my wins. If you're struggling, that's on both of us.
- I'll be straight with you. No surprises at review time. You'll always know where you stand.
- We set goals together. Not handed down to you. Business needs and your career goals both matter, and we'll find where they overlap.
- I celebrate wins and acknowledge shortcomings. Both are important, and neither gets swept under the rug.
Our 1:1s are where most of this happens in practice. See 1:1s for how I structure them.
I'm not a finished product. Here are a few things I know about myself that you should know too:
- I don't always get US cultural references. I grew up across three countries and cultures. Things like why the Super Bowl is a big deal, or why a particular holiday carries weight, these took me time to understand, and I'm still learning. If I seem oblivious to something that feels obvious, I'm probably not. I just might not have the cultural wiring for it yet. Fill me in.
- I can get too focused on the work. I care a lot about what we're building and sometimes I skip the personal. If you need me to slow down, say so.
- I sometimes plan things last minute. ADHD comes with time blindness, and despite my best efforts, I occasionally underestimate how close something is until it's very close. If you're waiting on something from me and the clock is ticking, nudge me. I won't be offended, I'll be grateful.
If you see these patterns, call me out. That's not a courtesy, it's something I'm actively asking for.
This is your time, not mine.
Use it to get support on blockers, discuss career growth, give and receive feedback openly, and surface concerns in a safe, private space.
| Time | Focus | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| ~20 min | Your agenda | You |
| ~10 min | My feedback & observations | Me |
You bring:
- 🎯 What I want to discuss
- Topics, questions, anything on your mind
- 🚧 Blockers / Challenges
- What's slowing you down or frustrating you
- 🌱 Growth / Career
- Skills you want to develop, feedback you're seeking
- 💬 Feedback for me (optional but encouraged)
- What's working well, what could be better
I bring:
- 📣 Feedback
- Recognition for recent wins, constructive input on areas to improve
| This IS | This is NOT |
|---|---|
| Your dedicated time for support | A project status meeting |
| Two-way feedback exchange | A one-sided lecture |
| Career growth conversation | A performance review |
| Early warning system for issues | The only time to raise concerns |
| A space for psychological safety | A place where you'll be judged or rated |
| A regular check-in to stay aligned | A replacement for ad-hoc communication |
- We move fast and try not to break things. Act in good faith. When things break, we fix them together.
- Engineers first. You're closer to the problem than I am, and often more technical. I give high-level direction and trust you on the specifics.
- Your focus is your most valuable asset. If something is fragmenting your attention, tell me and we'll fix it.
- Challenge ideas, not people. No idea is sacred because of who said it. Ask why. Poke holes. Avoid assumptions. Always seek to understand.
- Don't volunteer yourself to more than you can deliver. Saying yes to everything isn't ambition, it's a liability. Commit to what you can own, and own it completely.
- We write code to drive business impact, not for the sake of writing code. Elegant code that solves the wrong problem is still the wrong solution. Always ask why before asking how.
The best engineers I've worked with are obsessive about their tools. Not as a hobby, as a competitive advantage. The right tool at the right time is the difference between a week of work and an afternoon.
AI and agentic coding are not a trend to watch from the sidelines. They are force multipliers, and I expect us to use them. That means integrating AI into your workflow, not just experimenting with it. It means letting it handle the mechanical so you can focus on the meaningful.
- Use AI as a multiplier, not a crutch. The goal is to go further, faster, not to outsource your thinking.
- Stay current. The tooling landscape moves fast. If something makes us better, we adopt it. Inertia is not a strategy.
- Agentic coding is here. Automated pipelines, AI-assisted code review, generative scaffolding. These are real, available, and expected.
- The engineer who masters their tools ships more, thinks clearer, and compounds faster. That's what I aspire for all my team members.
- Follow up and follow through. Make things happen, don't wait for them to happen. Never leave something in an ambiguous state.
- Being a great engineer isn't primarily about writing code. It's about your ability to understand, maintain, explain, and manage software in production over time, and to translate business needs into technical reality.
- Bring your past experience with you. Gather more here. Nobody expects you to know everything on day one.
This document is not a marketing brochure. It's a set of commitments. If I'm not living up to something written here, I want to know. You won't be penalized for pointing it out. In fact, I'll respect you more for it.
If something feels off, bring it to our 1:1 or ping me directly. No formal process required.
The only way this works is if you hold me to it.
This doc is about me, but working well together is a two-way street. I'd love to know how you work best: how you like to receive feedback, what energizes you, what drains you, what you need from a manager. You don't have to write a full README, even a few sentences go a long way. Bring it to our first 1:1 or send it my way whenever you're ready.
"Undelivered software provides negative value."
Focus on one thing at a time. Do it well. Do it fast.
"Moving fast never means being sloppy."
Deliver what we agreed on, in the time we agreed on. And don't stay blocked for more than an hour without asking for help.
"Simplicity first."
The simple solution is usually the best one. Premature optimization is the enemy. Proactive optimization is the goal.
"It's okay to make mistakes. It's not okay to make the same mistake twice."
Learn from it, document it if needed, and move forward. Repeated mistakes are a choice.
Ping me. I mean it. My door (or DMs) are always open.