README

Welcome to this introduction of working with me, Blake Burch. While we’ll get closer over your first few months, this weird little document is my way of jump-starting a relationship with you. I’m laying discoveries about myself out in the open for you, and everyone else, to read and get insight into how I operate. This is not, however, an alternative to spending time together and getting to know each other.

As a person, I am a constant work in progress and so is this document. If you read anything that you disagree with, or notice that my actions directly conflict with anything written here, please let me know. While this readme is reflective of how I view myself, it’s important that I accurately capture my perception as well.

My Current Role

As the co-founder of Shipyard, it is my responsibility to ensure the success of the product, the satisfaction of our customers, and the success of every person that joins us as the company grows.

My goal is to find each team member’s strong suits and ensure that everyone has the chance to lead, build, and grow from projects that matter most to them while still driving us towards the larger business goals.

It’s worth mentioning that this role places me in charge of many aspects of the business that I’m brand new to, so there are bound to be some bumps along the way. If you feel like I’m not handling something well, please let me know.

My Work Style

Management Focus

Spending Time Intentionally. I will not micro-manage your projects, but I will not be hands-off either. It’s important that I set up time to help you think through your ideas and push you to see problems and opportunities in a different light. When you complete a project, I will give you exhaustive feedback on how I think it could be improved. We will have frequent 1:1s, and just as frequent one-offs, to dive deep into topics. I will always rearrange my schedule to ensure that we can chat. Spending dedicated time with you is one of the most important things I can do to enhance your growth and build our relationship.

Growing Your Impact. I will always try to throw tough, stretch projects in your direction to help you grow. I will listen to your interests and find projects to get you involved in that can align with those passion points. I will actively steer you away from projects that I can see will drive less value for the business. I will call you out on mindsets that may be limiting you. I will put you in front of groups of people to share your knowledge and direct people to you for areas of subject matter expertise. My goal is that when you take a step back, you will find that you have gained more exposure, more knowledge, and more ownership than most in the same timeframe.

If you feel like neither of these are true in your particular case, please tell me immediately so we can work to resolve that.

Feedback

I expect to both give and receive candid feedback in an environment that has no judgment and no punishment. It is both of our responsibilities to let each other know what we observe about each other, what frustrations we may cause, what decisions and ideas we disagree with, and what concerns we may have, no matter how small. I will always ask for your feedback no matter how many times you say you have none.

The goal of feedback is to push both of us to become better people and better leaders over time. The sooner we learn how to effectively give open feedback to each other, the sooner we’ll trust and respect each other, making our team and our ideas stronger than ever.

Individual Meetings

I plan to have a 30 minute weekly 1:1 with every direct report on the team. In the event of a scheduling conflict, I will work my schedule around to ensure we get the time together. In the event of travel, we will likely end up canceling. If you ever feel like your time is continually getting missed or not being prioritized, tell me. I never want you to feel this way.

1:1s are your time for us to discuss matters of substance, not status updates. My goal is to be a resource for you to express concerns, ask questions, and bounce thoughts off of. These conversations can be related to your job, your career, the team, the company, or your personal life. No topic should be off limits if it’s important to you and constantly on your mind. I want to hear both the good and the bad, taking the time to work through topics together.

If our 1:1 comes to a lull and neither of us have more to discuss, I will always have a few top-of-mind topics to talk about. This is my way of brainstorming and tackling the toughest issues that the business and the industry are facing. To me, this conversation is one of the most important ways to help determine the team’s path and make sure that your ideas are always considered.

If you have something important that you need to discuss with me, please don’t wait until our 1:1. Always reach out and schedule some time on my calendar. Making sure that you are taken care of is the most important part of my job.

Group Meetings

As the business ramps up, I will likely have a lot of meetings. I deliberately leave my calendar as public so you have full transparency into every meeting that I attend. This is always available for you to see where I am, what I’m doing, and when I have open time slots. If you have a question about any meeting on my calendar, just ask. I always have the team’s calendars open, so I will likely be asking about yours.

I believe that meetings should be purposeful, with clear talking points, expected outcomes/takeaways, strict timelines, and active engagement from all involved. I will try my best to ensure that every meeting I schedule meets all of these criteria.

We’re human, so there will always be meetings that don’t necessarily meet these criteria. However, it is every person’s responsibility to be vocal about meetings that do not follow these guidelines and make a constant effort to either cancel them or shift how they are run. We all contribute to the problem when we schedule meetings without providing context to attendees, accept meetings without asking for context, or complain about meetings without providing feedback or suggestions to tackle the issue.

PTO

Paid time off is exactly that. Time off. No notifications, no check-ins, and no interruptions.

You are working in a mentally strenuous position. It is incredibly important to take time off and get away from work so that you can remain refreshed and continue bringing great ideas to work. I will always actively encourage you to take a minimum of 2 weeks off each year, even if it’s just for smaller one-off mental health days. You deserve that time.

A key factor to successfully taking PTO is preparation and training. When you have an upcoming time off, you’ll need to “brain dump” and put together a written plan for what others need to cover, or need to know, to do your job while you’re gone. For longer trips (4+ days), you should work to shift your responsibilities a week prior to you leaving to make sure that your replacement fully understands the scope of the work and has no outstanding questions. I will work hard with you to make sure that your work is shifted to the rest of the team so that no one should need to contact you during your time off. Please do the same for me.

Remote Communication

Since I’m not in the same location as you, most of our day-to-day interactions will happen via Slack. I prefer its ability to compartmentalize conversations based on their subject matter, while providing visibility to a greater group. If you try to communicate with me via email about internal matters, I will likely try to reroute the conversation through Slack.

Whenever you send me a message and I’m free, I’ll always try to respond as quickly as I can. If my calendar shows me in blocks of meetings, you won’t hear from me until I’m completely out.

For more serious discussions, I prefer to default to video. There are a lot of subtle nuances that get lost in other communication methods and I have found that video calls allow for a better connection. This means that I do expect others to actively turn video on for the duration of these conversations. If connection is sub-optimal and is impeding our communication, I would prefer to pick up the phone but keep video on.

If you ever find yourself chatting back and forth with me for more than a few minutes, please don’t hesitate to initiate a video call or an audio huddle to hash things out quicker. It’s easy to get caught up in the details when we could more rapidly resolve issues with synchronous communication.

Working and managing remote is still a newer experience for me and I will be constantly experimenting to make it more seamless. All I ask is that you engage with these experiments to provide feedback and suggestions.

My Personal Style

Core Beliefs

Everything in life can be automated. While some things are more difficult than others, every decision being made in the world can be boiled down to a series of inputs and evaluations. I aim to understand the intricacies of how the systems around me currently work so I can figure out how they should work in an ideal state. It is likely that I will constantly be

We should work to add value, not just to work. Value is created by changing, shaping, or improving how individuals do something in their day to day lives. Value is not created by being a middle man, taking advantage of knowledge gaps, or simply completing necessary tasks. I believe automation and AI have the potential to wreak havoc on the fabric of society by displacing millions of jobs, so work as we know it may not be necessary or feasible. In this event, work will need to be done by those who are passionate about solving problems and driving value for society at large.

Honesty and openness is the only policy. It is incredibly important that I never stretch or skirt around the truth, no matter how much it might be uncomfortable. I strive to tell you exactly how I feel, why decisions are being made, and what my thought process is along the way. I will answer any question you throw at me with my unbridled thoughts because I believe it helps build trust. I expect the same from those that I interact with and will be visibly upset if I feel that information is being misrepresented or withheld, even with good intention.

Nuances

I value substance and depth. I am not one to shoot the shit or enjoy small talk. If I approach you, I have something specific to discuss and will jump right in. I am usually expecting you to do the same and may come off as confused if you don’t. I light up for conversations about aspirations, ideas, discoveries, futurology, theories, and deep-rooted beliefs. I disengage from conversations related to history, trivia, gossip, media, sports, or general reminiscing.

I am an introvert (mostly). Prolonged interaction with people can be exhausting for me. I prefer silence to forced conversation - it’s just my way of recouping energy. I thrive on 1:1 situations and enjoy spending time with groups of 6 or less. When the size increases beyond 6, I tend to disconnect more easily. However, since 2023, I’ve been actively transitioning to be more extroverted, prioritizing the desire to meet and connect with likeminded people in my community. It’s a subtle switch for me and one I’m still actively trying to understand.

I believe attention is a vital resource. When I have time set aside with you, I am promising to give you my undivided attention. You are the most important thing to me in that moment. I expect you to do the same for me. I tend to perceive actively engaging with electronics instead of the conversation as a sign that you don’t respect me or my time. That may not be the case, so clarifying what you’re doing can be a helpful way to mitigate these feelings.

I always want improvement. I believe everything has room for improvement and am always looking for things that can be better. Some people may refer to this mindset as “Kaizen”. Don’t mistake my critique as negativity or an attack against you. I am only trying to improve things. I am equally as hard on myself and used to be driven forward by the feeling that “nothing is ever good enough”. Through therapy, I’m actively working on improving this mindset by first focusing on what is going well at all times. This means that I still sometimes forget to appreciate or recognize the good things. If you feel like you are only ever receiving critique, feel free to ask me what I think you’re doing well and I’ll happily share.

I prefer being unfiltered and vulnerable. The world is already too concerned about saying “the right thing”. I believe that change is made by those who speak up, speak out, and are fully transparent. I’m likely to interject and speak my concerns, whether you asked me to or not. You will hear me cuss. I may say something that offends you. My focus is typically on getting the message out quickly, sometimes forgetting how this might affect others. If something I said bothers you, please just let me know. It’s likely that I missed some nuance in the initial communication.

You don’t build trust with me, you lose it. Everyone starts out on equal footing, with a high opinion. You’re working here because you’re incredibly smart and I expect great execution and great ideas from you. It’s my goal to never put people in a situation where they feel that they have to prove themselves. Instead, I try to fully believe in your capability to do your job excellently from day one, unless you prove to me otherwise.