Navigating Trade-offs Between Impact and Team Health

Key Quotes

"Let's say there's some project that's going to be really impactful but team health's going to take a hit or vice versa how do you make those calls oh that's a really good one we had quite a few of these in the facebook marketplace days I would say um recognizing when a moment is really such that it's almost existential so Facebook marketplace I would definitely remember we had a couple of you know lockdowns or war rooms where it really became wow we really needed to focus like make sure and actually that's one thing I like about lockdowns or war rooms it allows the team to focus focus on what it is that we were really saying out to do and making sure we're focused on doing that really well um but it does come at a cost to team morale so I my advice is really have those deliberate trade off discussions with with with the the team and leadership"

Fiona Fung explains that when faced with a choice between high impact and team health, it's crucial to recognize "existential" moments. Fung suggests that while "lockdowns or war rooms" can focus a team, they come at a cost to morale. Fung advises having deliberate trade-off discussions with the team and leadership to navigate these situations.

"I would say that's maybe one thing that's unique of when you start supporting managers and managers like -- they are also going to have additional skill sets not just IC skill sets also manager skill sets so it's even more opportunity to figure out how you both can complement each other and and uh help each other where it's most needed so that was one really good uh you know like just new approach that was it was it was new compared to supporting -- all ICs I would say the other one that becomes even more important is building that trust but verify muscle because there's a lot of trust like you know as as managers we have a lot of responsibilities leading teams and uh but making sure that you know because I think sometimes you want me also hear advice of oh delegates like it's scaling up if you delegate too much but don't do the trust and verify you you lose touch with the project a little bit too much so finding that right balance"

Fiona Fung highlights a key difference when managing managers compared to individual contributors (ICs). Fung notes that managers possess both IC and managerial skill sets, creating opportunities for complementary collaboration. Fung also emphasizes the importance of developing a "trust but verify" approach, balancing delegation with maintaining project oversight to avoid losing touch.

"I would say save status reporting and all that for some asynchronous form if you know if like you know here in Anthropic a Slack and and so it could be a Slack message or I like to create a one on one doc that is a living doc between both of us so that any async update we can just put in there I would say save the actual one on one time for any conversations you want to have whether it's you're curious about learning about something new or you think hey there's a good opportunity for me to you know like uh dig a little bit deeper into the work that I'm doing with my manager because there might be some interesting product conversations whatever it is I would save the one on one time for those live conversations and then anything that's status reporting -- you know you can feel free to use the asynchronous forms of communication"

Fiona Fung advises prioritizing live conversations during one-on-one meetings. Fung suggests using asynchronous methods, such as Slack messages or a shared document, for status updates. Fung believes that one-on-one time is best reserved for deeper discussions, learning opportunities, or exploring work-related insights with a manager.

"There were things that were definitely similar like work with really great people people really passionate about what they're doing uh definitely speed came to mind so -- Facebook Marketplace just operated we were doing weekly updates at the time with the first version it was actually on www Facebook com so I remember there were weekly updates I remember going oh my gosh a sprint last a week like usually a sprint for me was like four weeks at you know in Visual Studio and back then I thought that was already a short time compared to you know where it started so definitely speed Facebook also felt much smaller to me back then especially coming from Microsoft"

Fiona Fung contrasts her experiences at Microsoft and Facebook, noting similarities in working with passionate people. Fung highlights speed as a significant difference, recalling weekly updates for Facebook Marketplace compared to four-week sprints at Visual Studio. Fung also observed that Facebook felt smaller in scale compared to Microsoft.

"Oh I love it it's one of my favorite topics so -- as I mentioned my first job out of college was using Visual Studio to build Visual Studio so and I'm really grateful that I got to experience that and I think that's where I've learned oh wow yeah I'm going to use a product every day that I'm building so that's where that initially came from and I feel it really gave me like not only empathy for what our users are going through but it really gives you a good pulse of the product plus it was easy on VS because you're using VS to build VS -- but then I guess I carried that over -- to Facebook Marketplace I remember our first test launch was in the Seattle area and also Hawaii and I remember I would have a pile of things that usually we would have you know donated and my husband's getting so annoyed like why do we sell this pile up I'm like no I need good inventory for me to sell on Facebook Marketplace and that was where actually it was super rewarding to not only in terms of using the product and gaining insights also just inspiration from you know meeting users of Facebook Marketplace and and seeing that what you do makes a difference so I think that just kind of carried throughout"

Fiona Fung expresses strong enthusiasm for "dogfooding," the practice of using one's own products. Fung explains that this practice began when she used Visual Studio to build Visual Studio, fostering empathy and a deep understanding of the product. Fung shares an anecdote about using Facebook Marketplace extensively for personal sales to gather inventory and gain user insights, demonstrating how this habit carried over to her work.

"I would say actually the one of the most pivotal feedback I ever received was how to receive was feedback on receiving feedback so we're engineers you know we like to set breakpoints and debug and and uh earlier on at Meta and you know when someone would give feedback I'm like oh I definitely want to get better let me ask more questions so I could debug the situation and and replay the situation and figure out how I can improve and someone gave me really good feedback of hey when when someone cares enough to come to you for constructive feedback it's already uncomfortable enough make sure that that first session you're just in read only mode just to learn and listen you may have questions but save it for another day because it's already uncomfortable for that person you don't want to anyone to ever feel like they have to justify the feedback and so just pay attention you know like just give yourself the space pay attention listen and that night like even if you have questions hold them to the next day like give yourself time to sit with the feedback and reflect