135 promotion readiness review questions

Craft · Expectation: Delivers well-scoped changes with tests, asking for help when stuck.

1. Their changes come with tests that cover the main cases.
2. Their code passes review without major rework most of the time.
3. When stuck, they ask for help in good time instead of staying blocked.

System design · Expectation: Explains how the parts they work on fit into the system.

1. Can explain where their change sits in the system and what it talks to.
2. Reads existing code and documentation before changing an area they don't know.
3. Notices when a change might affect another part of the system, and asks.

Ownership · Expectation: Follows their work through to release and fixes what they break.

1. Follows their changes through review, merge and release.
2. Fixes problems caused by their own changes without being chased.
3. Checks that what they shipped actually works in production.

Collaboration · Expectation: Asks for and acts on code review feedback.

1. Responds to review comments promptly and without getting defensive.
2. Applies what they learn in reviews to later work, not just the current change.
3. Helps teammates when asked, within their experience.

Communication · Expectation: Keeps the team informed about progress and blockers.

1. What they report in stand-ups or the tracker matches reality.
2. Raises blockers early rather than at the deadline.
3. Asks clear questions, including what they've already tried.

Craft · Expectation: Delivers features end to end with little guidance and leaves the code better than they found it.

1. Delivers features from design to release with little guidance.
2. Leaves the code they touch easier to understand and change.
3. Chooses suitable tests and tools without being told.

System design · Expectation: Designs components within an existing system and documents the choices.

1. Designs components that fit the existing architecture and conventions.
2. Writes down the main design choices and the alternatives they considered.
3. Thinks about performance, failures and data before building.

Ownership · Expectation: Takes responsibility for a feature in production, including its bugs and alerts.

1. Owns a feature in production, including its bugs and alerts.
2. Investigates incidents in their area and follows up on the causes.
3. Notices gaps in their feature, such as monitoring, documentation or edge cases, and closes them.

Collaboration · Expectation: Reviews others' work constructively and pairs when useful.

1. Gives reviews that are specific, constructive and timely.
2. Pairs with teammates or helps unblock them when it saves the team time.
3. Works smoothly with product and design on the details of a feature.

Communication · Expectation: Writes clear descriptions of their changes and decisions.

1. Writes change descriptions that explain what changed and why.
2. Documents decisions where the team will find them.
3. Explains technical topics clearly to people outside engineering when needed.

Craft · Expectation: Sets the technical standard on the team through their own work and reviews.

1. Others on the team use their work as the example of how to do it.
2. Their reviews raise the quality of the team's code, not just catch bugs.
3. Makes sound calls on trade-offs such as speed versus quality.

System design · Expectation: Designs systems spanning several components and explains the trade-offs to the team.

1. Has designed a system spanning several components that is now in production.
2. Explains the trade-offs of a design so the team understands and agrees.
3. Anticipates how a design will need to change and leaves room for it.

Ownership · Expectation: Leads a project from ambiguity to delivery, including the parts nobody owned.

1. Has led a project from an unclear problem to delivery.
2. Picks up work nobody owned, such as migrations, operations or clean-up, without being asked.
3. Keeps the project on track by spotting risks early and acting on them.

Collaboration · Expectation: Works with product and other teams to shape what gets built.

1. Influences what gets built by bringing technical options to product discussions.
2. Works well with other teams to deliver shared work.
3. Resolves technical disagreements constructively.

Mentorship · Expectation: Helps teammates grow through regular, specific guidance.

1. Regularly helps teammates grow with specific, practical guidance.
2. At least one teammate can point to something they learned from them.
3. Shares knowledge through reviews, pairing, documentation or talks.

Craft · Expectation: Solves the technical problems others get stuck on and makes the solutions reusable.

1. Is who others turn to for the hardest technical problems.
2. Turns one-off solutions into tools, libraries or patterns other teams reuse.
3. Raises the technical bar across several teams, not only their own.

System design · Expectation: Designs systems spanning several teams and gets agreement on the trade-offs.

1. Has designed a system spanning several teams that is in production.
2. Gets teams with different priorities to agree on a design.
3. Balances short-term delivery with long-term architecture in their designs.

Ownership · Expectation: Identifies the most important technical problems across teams and gets them solved.

1. Identifies the most important technical problems across teams, not just the visible ones.
2. Gets those problems solved, through their own work or by bringing others in.
3. Takes responsibility when cross-team technical work goes wrong and leads the fix.

Collaboration · Expectation: Aligns several teams around a shared technical plan.

1. Has aligned several teams around a shared technical plan.
2. Is trusted by engineering and product leaders across teams.
3. Makes other teams more effective rather than dependent on them.

Mentorship · Expectation: Grows senior engineers into technical leaders.

1. Has helped senior engineers take on technical leadership.
2. Hands over important technical work as a growth opportunity, with support.
3. Gives senior engineers candid feedback on their designs and decisions.

Craft · Expectation: Defines engineering practices the whole organization adopts.

1. Has defined an engineering practice the whole organization adopted.
2. Their technical standards are referenced across the organization.
3. Keeps the organization's practices current as technology and needs change.

System design · Expectation: Sets the long-term architecture and explains it to technical and non-technical audiences.

1. Sets the long-term architecture and keeps it coherent across teams.
2. Explains the architectural direction clearly to non-technical leaders.
3. Their architectural decisions hold up over years, not months.

Ownership · Expectation: Takes responsibility for the organization's most critical technical risks.

1. Keeps track of the organization's most critical technical risks.
2. Has seen the reduction of a major technical risk through to the end.
3. Is accountable for technical outcomes at the level of the organization.

Collaboration · Expectation: Partners with leadership on technical strategy.

1. Is a trusted partner to leadership on technical strategy.
2. Shapes company decisions with a clear technical perspective.
3. Represents engineering well beyond the team: with customers, partners or the community.

Mentorship · Expectation: Builds a bench of technical leaders across the organization.

1. Has grown several technical leaders across the organization.
2. Creates structures, such as forums, reviews or programs, where technical leaders develop.
3. The organization depends on them less over time because others have grown.

People development · Expectation: Holds regular 1:1s and gives each person specific feedback.

1. Holds regular 1:1s with each person on the team.
2. Gives each person specific feedback, both positive and constructive.
3. Knows what each person wants to develop next.

Team health · Expectation: Notices when someone is struggling and acts on it.

1. Notices when someone is struggling, even when they don't say so.
2. Acts on it: a conversation, a change in workload or getting help.
3. Helps new people feel welcome and become productive quickly.

Delivery · Expectation: Plans the team's work so commitments are met most of the time.

1. Plans the team's work so most commitments are met.
2. Breaks work into pieces the team can deliver and follow.
3. Warns early when a commitment is at risk.

Direction · Expectation: Explains to the team why their work matters.

1. Explains to the team why their work matters to customers or the company.
2. Connects the team's priorities to the company's objectives.
3. The team can explain its current priorities and the reasons for them.

Communication · Expectation: Keeps stakeholders informed about the team's progress and risks.

1. Keeps stakeholders informed about progress without being asked.
2. Shares risks and bad news early and honestly.
3. Adapts the message to the audience.

People development · Expectation: Agrees development goals with each person and follows up on them.

1. Agrees development goals with each person and follows up on them.
2. Gives people stretch opportunities that match their goals.
3. Has helped someone on the team grow into a bigger role.

Team health · Expectation: Builds a team where people raise problems early.

1. People on the team raise problems early, including with them.
2. Deals with conflict in the team before it grows.
3. Keeps the team's workload sustainable.

Delivery · Expectation: Delivers the team's objectives and adjusts plans when things change.

1. Delivers the team's objectives most of the time.
2. Adjusts plans when things change and explains the trade-offs.
3. Removes the obstacles that slow the team down.

Direction · Expectation: Turns company objectives into clear team objectives.

1. Turns company objectives into clear team objectives.
2. Says no, or not now, to work that doesn't fit, and explains why.
3. Involves the team in deciding how to reach their objectives.

Communication · Expectation: Handles difficult conversations directly and with care.

1. Handles difficult conversations directly and with care.
2. Addresses performance problems early, with clear expectations.
3. Gives the team honest context about changes that affect them.

People development · Expectation: Grows team leads and plans succession.

1. Grows team leads into confident managers.
2. Has a succession plan for the key roles in their area.
3. Spots and develops future leaders early.

Team health · Expectation: Keeps several teams working well together.

1. Keeps several teams working well together.
2. Notices friction between teams and deals with it.
3. Builds a shared culture across the teams without erasing their differences.

Delivery · Expectation: Delivers objectives that span several teams.

1. Delivers objectives that span several teams.
2. Manages dependencies between teams so they don't block each other.
3. Makes trade-offs across teams when resources are short.

Direction · Expectation: Sets a direction for their area that the teams understand and share.

1. Sets a direction for their area that the teams understand.
2. The teams can explain how their work contributes to the area's direction.
3. Revisits the direction when the context changes.

Communication · Expectation: Represents their area clearly to leadership.

1. Represents their area clearly and credibly to leadership.
2. Passes leadership's context back to the teams accurately.
3. Writes and presents updates that leadership can act on.

People development · Expectation: Builds an organization that develops its own leaders.

1. Builds an organization that develops its own leaders.
2. Most leadership openings in their area are filled from within.
3. Invests in management practices, not only in individuals.

Team health · Expectation: Shapes the culture of their area deliberately.

1. Shapes the culture of their area deliberately.
2. Acts when behavior goes against the culture they want, including from senior people.
3. The area keeps good people and attracts new ones.

Delivery · Expectation: Balances investment across teams to meet the organization's objectives.

1. Balances investment across teams to meet the organization's objectives.
2. Makes hard calls to stop or start work based on its impact.
3. Their area delivers predictably over several quarters.

Direction · Expectation: Contributes to company strategy and translates it for their area.

1. Contributes to company strategy beyond their own area.
2. Translates company strategy into clear priorities for their area.
3. Anticipates changes in the market or technology that affect their area.

Communication · Expectation: Communicates change so people understand it and can act on it.

1. Communicates change so people understand it and can act on it.
2. Listens to concerns about change and responds to them.
3. Is consistent: what they say matches what they do.