Welcome. Consider this a cheat sheet for working with me — an outline of my style and philosophy.
Introduction
I’m Alan, an engineering leader with 20+ years experience building products in regulated industries, from early-stage 0-to-1 through acquisition. I’ve repeatedly joined companies as an early engineer and grown into leadership as the business scaled, most recently in fintech: KYC/AML, identity verification, accreditation, and compliance infrastructure.
I’m bad at staying in my lane, but I’m good at finding the right lane to be in. The hardest, most glaring problems attract my attention; I find joy in problem-solving. I’ve owned full product and engineering organizations, led enterprise sales conversations with institutional clients, built disciplines and teams, and managed roadmaps and budgets. I’m a generalist, and a wolf — but wolves run in packs.
Birders have a term, the spark bird: the one sighting that ignites a lifelong obsession. I’m that spark for the people I work with: I get others excited about hard problems, bring them along, and create room for them to take real ownership. I rally teams around ideas and build consensus rather than lean on the org chart.
Values
💪🏼 Grit
We aren’t done until the job is done. Family & friends have learned that if they call me for help, they had better be prepared to stay on the phone all day; I won’t start unless we’re going to finish.
🫱🏼🫲🏽 Generosity
Time and knowledge aren’t meant to be hoarded; spend both with purpose and intent.
😂 Joy
Find a way of working or types of work that give you energy. Life is tough and often overwhelming in big chunks; find satisfaction and delight in small chunks to give yourself the energy to tackle the hard things.
Working Style
I’m a problem solver; it’s what drives me. I get a rush out of being productive and get anxious if I feel behind, so I burn hard sometimes. I often work off-hours, and I’m ok doing so; I don’t expect you to do the same. Luckily, I have my family to keep me balanced. I am most comfortable when I’m a little stressed out.
My calendar is open and, for the most part, accurate. If there’s free space, you’re free to take it. All my invites allow edits by attendees. If you need to move a 1-1, move it — no need to ask, but I may move it again.
I will rarely move 1-1s, and I’ll never cancel them unless you ask me to.
Meeting One-on-One
Any meeting is only as effective as its agenda. I keep a shared, running notes doc for 1-1s that accomplishes more than #donut-style conversation. It provides an async channel to park low-urgency topics and keeps us on-topic while we meet. It’s private and will never be shared with anyone but the two of us. If you have something you want to chat about, add it to an upcoming agenda or the parking lot. If the parking lot fills up, we can add time to clear it out.
We can also agree to throw out the agenda and spend some social time together! Planned fun is awkward at first, but building trust is crucial, especially on remote teams; it’s hard to earn and easy to spend.
Need Something?
👎🏼 Tired: “Hey, you free?”
👍🏼 Wired: “Hey! I grabbed sc-2245, but I have questions… Are you free at 3pm ET to discuss?”
Need something from me? Ask! For best results, avoid opening with “hey” or “hi, are you busy?” I’m likely to respond, “yup!” or wait to respond until you provide more context so I can properly prioritize.
Where possible, also include any time constraints. The amount of lead time often dictates whether or not I can commit. Conversely, if you commit to something, include roughly when you expect it to be done. That allows me to know when it’s appropriate to follow up without micromanaging, and vice-versa.
Words Matter
Engineers spend a lot of time critiquing each other’s code. In a remote environment especially, you may go days where the only conversation you have with a teammate is picking apart their hard work. And when expressing an opinion, it’s very difficult to accurately convey how much you actually care about the point you’re making — we often don’t feel as strongly as we speak. Calibrate accordingly, both when giving feedback and when receiving it.
“Just” is my least favorite word. “Couldn’t we just do [my idea] instead?” is inherently dismissive. When the goal is elegant simplicity, “just” stacks the deck (often undeservedly) in your favor. “What if we did [my idea] instead?” does the same work without an implicit quality comparison.
Management Principles
- Intentional Practice — Like any craft, management deserves diligence. I often seek feedback, read, practice, and reflect on the art and science of managing humans.
- Radical Candor — It’s more than a catchy title. I communicate openly and honestly, and I welcome your feedback on how I can improve as a manager.
- Aligned Autonomy — I give you enough context to understand where we’re headed, and the space to own your path to get there.
- Sustainability — I encourage you to take breaks and prioritize your well-being, and I will respect your work-life balance and boundaries.
General Principles
- Document the why before the what.
- Prefer practical correctness over technical completeness.
- Ask good questions, and one more than you think you need.
- Prefer two-sided commitments over one-sided expectations; foster “So Say We All” moments.
- Quality is a personal responsibility first, shared responsibility second.
- Approach conflict with humility.
- Criticism is more valuable than praise; make room for, understand, and embrace feedback.
- Respect the process, but not too much.
The Handle
I need a handle, man. I don’t have an identity until I have a handle.
~ Joey Pardella
“nonrational” is an anagram of “i alan norton” which I thought was pret-ty sweet when I was in my early 20s. Beyond that, nonrational decision-making is a process that involves intuition, creativity, and subjectivity rather than logic and linearity. It’s a necessary component of great software design. Software is mostly words, naming is hard, and a good abstraction often feels right well before you can derive a logical justification.
The header logo (👨🏻💻 ∉ ℚ) is part joke, part puzzle. It reads “[technologist] [is not a member of] [the set of rational numbers]” which, in some squinty, poetic-license, Lone Star bottle cap kinda way, translates to “nonrational.”