Your manager

Your manager is the person who follows your growth at Nebulab: they meet you in regular 1:1s, help you plan your development, review your performance and talk with you about your pay. They’re your point of contact, your advocate and your mentor.

Who your manager is

Your manager is the partner who follows you. Everyone at Nebulab has one, and only partners manage people.

You’re assigned a manager when you join, and Bob shows who it is on your profile. When the team changes, the partners may rebalance who follows whom: if your manager changes, you hear it from them, and your new manager picks up your 1:1s, your development plan and your review from there.

Your manager isn’t necessarily the person you work with every day. On a project you work with the Engagement Manager or partner who leads it, as Team explains.

What your manager owns

• Your 1:1s. They make sure your 1:1s happen consistently and come prepared, as described below.
• Your development plan. They help you write your development plan after each review and follow up on it with you in your 1:1s, using the career framework to show where you are and what your next level asks of you.
• Your performance review. They write the manager’s review, take it through calibration, write the summary and discuss it with you, as Performance reviews describes.
• Your compensation conversation. They talk with you about the outcome of your compensation review, and about your pay whenever you raise it.

Feedback runs through all of these: your manager gives and asks for it continuously, so nothing in your review comes as a surprise. Anything else about your work at Nebulab, from time off to a relocation or a budget request, starts with your manager too.

What Engagement Managers and Associate Partners own

Engagement Managers and Associate Partners own delivery, not people. They lead project teams, run the relationship with the client and make sure the work meets its goals and deadlines. You work with them every day and they give you feedback on your work, like any teammate does, but they don’t run your 1:1s, your development plan, your review or your compensation conversation: your manager does.

Navigating 1:1 meetings

One-on-one meetings (1:1s) are the foundation of all our growth processes, and the most important tool for coaching and exchanging feedback at Nebulab. These are recurring meetings that allow you and your manager to zoom out from the day-to-day and talk about your journey at Nebulab from a more strategic perspective.

Together with your manager, you are responsible for deciding the frequency and duration of your 1:1s (the standard is 30 minutes every two weeks, but see what works for you!) and for making time in your schedule to run them consistently.

Building a 1:1 agenda

1:1s are no different from any other meeting, and they should follow the rules of effective meetings: we strongly encourage having a recurring agenda for your 1:1s. This will ensure you make the best use of that time.

The agenda and the notes of each 1:1 live on Bob, where both of you can add to them. Your manager schedules the recurring 1:1 in Google Calendar, links it to Bob and picks the agenda template, but building the agenda is a shared effort. You should be contributing to it just as much as they are, if not more!

Our standard template, “Nebulab 1:1” on Bob, has five sections:

• You / Project: how your project is going and what could work better.
• You / Nebulab: questions about recent initiatives or areas of the company.
• Career growth: personal and professional growth, and feedback in both directions.
• Open agenda: anything that doesn’t fit the other sections.
• Action items: what each of you will do before the next 1:1, filled in during the meeting.

Typically, 1:1 agendas allow you to:

• talk about your journey and well-being at Nebulab,
• develop and follow a personal learning plan,
• exchange feedback with your manager,
• stay in the loop about what’s going on in the the rest of the company and
• have performance- and compensation-related discussions.

You should also include time for chit-chat and for getting to know each other—this will help the two of you develop trust and connection, and have more and more meaningful conversations over time.

Preparing for a 1:1

You’re encouraged to add points to your upcoming 1:1 as things happen and thoughts come to mind, so that you don’t forget about anything.

You should still take 10-15 minutes before each 1:1 to reflect on what happened since the last meeting, and make sure the agenda contains everything you want to discuss. Here are some of the questions you can ask yourself to prepare for a 1:1:

• How have you been feeling lately at work?
• Are there any aspects of Nebulab that you’d like to learn more about?
• Do you feel like your learning journey is headed in the right direction?
• Do you understand what goals your manager wants the team working towards and your role within that strategy?
• How can you educate your manager on what you are working on?
• Do you need any guidance on solving a technical/people problem?
• Are there any areas where you’d like to receive more feedback?

Managers prepare too, starting from three questions: what did we agree last time, what has happened since, and what do I owe this person? The last one is the easiest to lose track of and the one that builds the most trust. Before adding a point, a manager reads what’s already on the agenda, since the report may have raised it already. The agenda is shared, so points on it are written to the report (“your project”, “what support do you need?”) and keep anything private, like a concern about the report or feedback from someone else, out until the manager has decided to raise it.

Following up after the 1:1

During the 1:1, your manager will take notes on what you discuss and what you commit to, so that you can review your progress in the following 1:1. This creates a sense of accountability and ensures no stone is left unturned. You will be able to review the meeting minutes on Bob or Slack, so that you can reference them later.

If any action items have been assigned to you, make sure to follow up on them within the designated timeline. It’s okay if work gets in the way and you can’t complete a task, but you should let your manager know in advance so you can adjust the deadline accordingly.

Following up consistently on your 1:1s will allow you to really make the best of your time at Nebulab, and will sometimes be critical for your career progression here.