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I'm working on a tool with a very similar business purpose but it isn't sold as this because I've concluded you can't sell this. Apparently I need to move faster. Quitting the day job soon.
if you quit your day job your team will be lost without you
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once quit a job and gave them 6 weeks notice because I wanted to try and make the handover as painless as possible. My manager said “stop working today. Come in, check your emails, but don’t do any work. Forward and delegate everything that lands in front of you. Let people who reach out to you know you’re leaving and introduce them to whoever is taking over that particular responsibility. We’re going to have to wo…
That's a really interesting approach. Do you think that was too extreme? Like you could've at least done some documentation work in that time perhaps, or that it went well enough that you'd approach it that way again in the future?
It's not 'polite' to bring up the 2nd, but it _is_ there. Imagine me/you/him/her doing something wrong and bringing down Prod for X hours. Then imagine your manager telling the director "oh, and btw he submitted his resignation 2 weeks ago, and in confidence he told me he goes to our ABC competitor". That-Looks-BAD, even if it was the most honest of mistakes and even someone else's fault. Once you 'stop playing', don't touch that jenga tower!!
Here is a contrarian view. How about keeping a valuable team member instead of getting rid of them at the first chance? I can bet that the past 2-3 decades or so the American organizations forgot collectively the most they have ever forgotten since the Industrial Revolution. A skill cannot be handed over. You can painfully train someone to acquire some of it over time, but certainly you cannot “hand it over”
Skills can be handed over; it depends on the complexity. Also, two people can be equally skilled, but not have the same knowledge to operate effectively in a specific company position. Eg. your new IT guy needs to know the code to the fireproof safe where the tapes are stored.
I think this is a great idea for a product, but in my experience, the pain associated with handover is something that is earned over a long period of time. Knowledge starts to centralise in one person and they don’t do enough to disperse it. Maybe they are too busy, maybe they don’t value documentation, maybe it’s an oversight, there are lots of reasons. But that problem starts to build up and you only discover the f…
As an IT/Admin/SRE team, we've also found that training isn't just good for the industry, but it also helps to keep such knowledge islands in check. I currently need to make sure that my junior is able to take over most crucial daily tasks, and in the future, all of my important technical tasks - and he's doing wonderful. Though that's now a staffing thing, which costs money.
In the end, it's a question how sustainable a company wants to be long-term I think.
The issue is there is no incentive for the person leaving to make these handover docs and videos. They will just say the bare minimum and complete the task.
I think this is a great idea for a product, but in my experience, the pain associated with handover is something that is earned over a long period of time. Knowledge starts to centralise in one person and they don’t do enough to disperse it. Maybe they are too busy, maybe they don’t value documentation, maybe it’s an oversight, there are lots of reasons. But that problem starts to build up and you only discover the f…
For example, I am currently transitioning my P&L into a new dept. at a large organisation and the amount of work to onboard into my new manager / team is significant and my weakness in the process is the structure / organisation of my own documentation that allows me to surface the right information to the right people without repeating myself.
Similarly, I've joined new teams (small and large) as a new manager - here you want to quickly get up to speed on lots of projects and how things do/don't join together.
Personally, I would like to describe my situation to the tool about my role and (almost like a user story or 'new manager, existing company' or 'experienced manager, new company) have the tool react to the situation.
I honestly find it difficult to believe it could make knowledge transfer easier than, let's say, a template for the employee to fill out. It (knowledge transfer) is such an unstructured thing and differs wildly from post to post, and from company to company.
I imagine there would be a benefit if they are using an llm to understand key pieces of information (such as we use kubernetes); it could then just know what questions should be asked around that subject area to ensure enough details are captured as part of a handover. I can imagine it as being a template but on steroids.
Also, I have to admit I did not spend too much time reading the site. I have no idea if this is actually the case...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a really interesting approach. Do you think that was too extreme? Like you could've at least done some documentation work in that time perhaps, or that it went well enough that you'd approach it that way again in the future?
There are two parts on this approach. The 1st one is the positive "hey, chillax, transfer knowledge, don't be stressed, etc." The 2nd is security: "this guy cannot be trusted to 'touch' anything, we don't want him to plant a timebomb, we don't want him to mess things up, etc." It's not 'polite' to bring up the 2nd, but it _is_ there. Imagine me/you/him/her doing something wrong and bringing down Prod for X hours. The…