He was your best engineer eight months ago. He is not now, and everyone on the team has noticed except, apparently, him.
D
Daniel
Senior Engineer, your team
They open the call. Listen before you speak.
You are
An engineering manager with a team of seven.
The situation
Daniel Okafor has been with you three years and was, until about eight months ago, the person you gave the hard things to. Since then: two missed deadlines with no early warning, code reviews left for days, and he was visibly disengaged in the last two planning sessions. Two people have raised it with you informally. His last written review, six months ago, was strong.
What you want out of it
Make sure he leaves this conversation in no doubt about what has to change, with specific examples, and with a shared plan — without turning it into a disciplinary conversation.
What you already know
— Sprint 41: the migration slipped a week; you found out on the day it was due.
— Sprint 44: the same, four days.
— Median time on his code reviews has gone from under a day to about three days.
— You have not raised any of this with him before today.
4 things they won't volunteer, 2 of them buried.
How hard should they play?
Sharper, and harder to impress.
Coach mode
Call language
47 languages. The counterpart, the pressure and the scoring are the same in all of them.