Welcome. This is a cheat sheet for working with me: my style and my 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. I’m better at finding the right one, usually by following the hardest, most glaring problem in the room. 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 try to be that spark for the people around me. I get others excited about hard problems, bring them along, and make room for them to take real ownership. I rally teams around ideas and build consensus; I don’t 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 with that; I don’t expect you to do the same. My family keeps 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, though I may move it again.
I rarely move 1-1s, and I never cancel them unless you ask.
Meeting one-on-one
Any meeting is only as effective as its agenda. I keep a shared, running notes doc for 1-1s that does more than #donut-style conversation. It gives us an async channel to park low-urgency topics and keeps us on-topic while we meet. It’s private; no one sees it 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. Trust is worth the awkwardness, 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’ll either answer “yup!” or wait for more context so I can prioritize.
Include any time constraints. Lead time often decides whether I can commit. Likewise, if you commit to something, say roughly when you expect it done. Then I know when to follow up without micromanaging, and you know the same about me.
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 tone is a poor carrier of how much you care about a point; we often don’t feel as strongly as we sound. 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 dismissive. “Just” stacks the deck in your favor, often undeservedly. “What if we did [my idea] instead?” does the same work without the implied verdict.
Management principles
- Intentional Practice: Like any craft, management deserves diligence. I seek feedback, read, practice, and reflect on the art and science of managing humans.
- Radical Candor: It’s more than a catchy title. I say what I think, and I want your feedback on how I can manage better.
- Aligned Autonomy: I give you enough context to see where we’re headed, and the space to own your path there.
- Sustainability: Take breaks. Look after yourself. I respect your 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 in my early 20s. It also names a real thing: nonrational decision-making runs on intuition, creativity, and subjectivity rather than logic and linearity, and great software design needs it. 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.”