A,
This year is 2018, the 20th anniversary of Tencent. I am 30 years old and have just worked in Tencent for 8 years.
I never thought I’d be working at the same company for eight years. Because four years is long enough to get through college, six years is long enough to get a child through elementary school, and eight years is incredibly long.
I joined Tencent in 2010, fresh out of college. On that day, thinking as a student, I could not help making a plan based on the scale of a student: three years should be enough time for me to graduate from this “social university”.
So I ran up against the deadline, learning how to get things done efficiently in the first year, leading new people in the second year, and influencing people in the third year, translating a front-end book and a design book.
I worked my way up from assistant UI engineer to senior UI engineer, first responding to demand and then looking for something to do. I keep my head down and do things very “hard”, confident that I can do everything I am asked to do well.
80% of my blog posts were written in the first three years of my life. Looking back, I have a lot of childish ideas, but I can only improve if I keep thinking and writing. On the other hand, if it feels good now, it’s bad.
Second,
In 2013, the three-year itch. I began to feel that there was no challenge in my daily work. I was not able to get “excellent” and “exceed my expectations” in the evaluation, but at the same time, I was confronted with new work challenges.
At that time, my leader asked me about my future development intention, whether I wanted to continue to study technical depth or manage the team. I said if you get the chance, try to manage the team.
Because as I understand it, there are no two options. This question is as meaningless as, “How about a raise?” It may be a little irresponsible not to lead the team.
Although I gave such a reply to the leader and started formal management training, I was still reluctant to retain a little craftsman’s mentality.
To continue to improve my personal ability, I will open up a new track: influence.
In 2014, I got serious about my writing practice and wrote this in my “Summary of being 26” :
“There are a lot of scenarios where we need to write. We need to write short RTX, longer emails, and longer shared articles, blogs, and columns. One of the most interesting things I find about writing is that the difference between what a good writer can achieve and what a mediocre writer can achieve is a hundred times greater than the difference between a good programmer and a mediocre programmer.”
“The RTX of a good writer is to make the other person understand their purpose and collaborate as if they were casting a spell. A good writer’s email keeps the recipient interested and the message clear. A good writer writes a blog that hits the reader’s mind with a paragraph and can’t help clicking “Share to Friends” in the upper right corner… It’s an effect that 100 mediocre writers couldn’t achieve.”
“A writer needs logical thinking, data analysis, McKinsey’s pyramid, psychology, almost everything…”
Everyone needs to read wechat, moments, news, books, Zhihu and videos every day… I can’t stress enough the importance of writing to one’s ability. Because writing, speaking, and design in a broad sense have a key kernel in common: figure out who your audience is, what information they have, what information they don’t have, and in what order you want them to do what you want them to do. Absurdly, they are a form of “psychological manipulation”.
So how do you learn to write (or speak, or design) well?
The answer is dull but effective: keep writing.
Reread what you’ve written, and be generous with deleting useless information and writing again.
Da Vinci says, “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” Every day before writing, Hemingway would revise the previous day’s draft again.
I did the same. At the beginning, I wrote about hydrology on my blog and book reviews on Douban, but I felt it was not enough. In February 2014, I joined the Douban column program, which required me to write a column of more than 3,000 words every week, and I could get 200 yuan of encouragement after finishing it. I was like an inactive person who forced myself into a marathon.
My first few articles are very amateur, typos, saliva, sick sentences, lack of subject, string subject, a funny end, nagging, hierarchy and order wrong…… That’s still going to be written. A few months later, when the 20-article column was finished, my writing level steadily increased from 30 to 50, which was close to passing.
Because the content of this column is relatively new (it may be the first column of thinking about “full stack engineer” in China), I gradually accumulated some readers and followed it every week. Readers kindly and kindly corrected my mistakes in the comments section.
Later, the editor of Posts and Telecommunications Publishing House saw me on Douban and asked me to write. He said that I had written a lot of things, there are also some veins, can be sorted out a book. A new challenge.
Say yes first.
The process of writing a book can only be said to support, because only 50 points of writing level, but to output 80 points of quality. I sorted out the first chapter and sent it over, only to receive the correction back as another article. The editor is very professional, no ridicule, just do objective correction.
I was ashamed, for I hated to cause trouble. I memorized the types of questions I had revised, and I chose my grammar carefully to make sure I didn’t repeat them again.
Because the rector will see the writing and prune me, but it’s my responsibility, my responsibility to the reader, to keep the roots stable. I also bought McKinsey’s Writing Weapons to learn to write more systematically.
After many rounds of proofreading, I can finally say that I have almost reached the basic standard. I wrote about the rest in my book. In August 2015, my book was published. I also carefully gave “Self-cultivation of Web Full Stack Engineers” 4 stars on Douban.
Three,
While writing has had its ups and downs, management has had its twists and turns. After trying to lead a team for a while, I officially became a team manager in 2014.
There were several immature mindsets about the responsibilities of team management:
Management is easier to master and practice than writing code
As a manager, the threshold is relatively low. Compared with the lack of core competitiveness of engineers, I still want to position myself as an engineer in my future job hopping
I like to focus on things, not management
In a team of engineers, I want to earn respect for my best skills and efforts, and I want to be able to solve problems that none of them can solve
Therefore, although I have gained some personal growth through efforts from 2014 to 2016, I am actually incompetent for the team leader.
One obvious sign of incompetence is that I agonise during employee evaluations. I don’t want any employee to have a lower-than-expected appraisal, and I’m afraid to talk to subordinates and tell them that your performance is lower than expected.
I can be disciplined and diligent, but I have a hard time changing my mind. The hardest part is that I don’t even know if I should change my mind (see, this is why changing minds is the hardest part) or just go back and be a not-so-bad engineer.
I stayed at this conceptual level for more than two years, and through intermittent practice, reading, observation, and introspection, I finally upgraded. The struggle and thought process can be seen in blog posts from 2014 to 2016.
In a word, after upgrading, I think:
Management is harder to master than writing code (or any hard skill at all), as I’ve talked to some technical experts. Hard skills can be learned by reading books, taking classes, or even online videos, and then practicing and getting better at them until they produce an output. It’s very simple. If you learn how to learn, you can learn a hard skill in a few months. Learning to manage requires a real mindset change that can take years.
The core concept of management is that “managers must be good at making effective decisions”.
Managers should pay attention to the external contribution of the organization. Measure everyone’s performance based on contribution.
I started to actively communicate with the team, and when I saw an output that didn’t meet the requirements on a daily basis, I would say straight out, “This can’t do, it’s not up to the basic level.”
Although strict, the atmosphere of the team did not decline. Because from the point of view of employees, although they are happy to be in a team with harmonious interpersonal relationship, they are more willing to join a team full of professionals. Each learns something specific from the other, and each behaves professionally.
I no longer worry about employee reviews because they are an effective management tool. Some messages that cannot be conveyed in words can be conveyed through performance reviews. In addition, low performance employees should do a good job of expectation management, so that employees will not be confused.
Four,
In 2017, I gradually became a senior manager. Once again, when I was at my ease with my job, I faced a new challenge — changing my position to lead the UX design team of Tencent Micro Cloud.
I loved the challenge. On the one hand, it was a “big challenge” that masochistic me couldn’t refuse. On the other hand, I have always been at the back of the product process, but I am also interested in front-thinking.
So, I’ve combed through my own challenges:
I used to lead a team of engineers, but now my team is made up of interaction designers and visual designers. Although the basic principles of management are common, the members of the new team need to be more familiar with them
Lack of professional design skills, especially in visual, to give advice on “how to do”
New UX design teams face more complex external relationships than ever before
How to help subordinates to professional promotion
But I also have my advantages:
You can easily understand “engineering” problems like version management, multi-platform features, development challenges, and manage risks
I have participated in the management meeting of the design department for more than three years and have a sense of the “taste” of design. Or taste far outweighs ability
When it comes to UI solutions, I have empathy for users, judging designs not just for “good looks”
My presentation ability and writing ability can improve the team
Well, it’s not all bad news. Then do it!
The first half of the year is still struggling to support (cry), but because the team is watching me, not confident to be confident.
In my spare time, I tried various apps and collected cases of UI, operation, revenue and brand to further improve my “product power”. When my wife used a new APP or was attracted by an activity to pay, I would watch her behavior. See the highlight, I will also request a pause, send me the screenshot.
In short, I hope that my professional growth can quickly fill the gap brought by the expansion of authority.
Gradually, there are some “Tencent micro cloud user experience is good” reputation, within the scope of their own influence, I can use the resources I can call, slowly fill up the loopholes, improve the experience.
But the capacity is still limited, sometimes there will be rushed out of the scheme is not reasonable. I was treading on thin ice, not because I was afraid of external criticism, but because I was afraid of damaging my boss, who had been authorized by me, and the team that was limited by my ability. In addition, Tencent Micro cloud is also a product with historical burden, so it is still far from the ideal product in my heart.
The growth challenges are equally great.
I carefully observe each person’s strengths and weaknesses, and use their strengths. At the same time, I also need to look at the output of other designers in the department horizontally, so that relatively independent products do not lead to a closed professional atmosphere. This will be the focus of the next six months to a year.
I’m far from comfortable with this challenge, and it may take me more than two years to process it, so sometimes my work feels more exhausting than the previous years combined.
I often quote yohji Yamamoto to myself:
I have never believed in lazy freedom. I have longed for the freedom that is precious and valuable, the freedom that can lead a wider life through hard work and effort. I believe in the 10,000-hour rule. I don’t believe in pie-in-the-sky inspiration or waiting for achievements. Be a free and disciplined person who lives seriously with the determination to achieve.
Diligence and hard work are just the foundation, and most people’s efforts are so low that they don’t even have talent at all.
Alternating fatigue and excitement, achievement and frustration, zigzagging along is more fun than just muddling through.
Five,
In retrospect, for eight years, I was only “briefly competent” at my job. Every time I feel comfortable handling my current routine, a new challenge arises.
Thinking about this, I suddenly realized a “Buddha nature” philosophy of work:
Every time you’re good at your current job, there’s a bigger challenge ahead.
Everyone who is qualified for the current job will be promoted. If you’re good enough, promote until you’re not.
So, regardless of your title, authority, or rank, external recognition is feedback on your abilities. Chances are, you weren’t promoted because you weren’t up to the job. If you are fully qualified and have not been assigned a more challenging task, you can either find your own work or change jobs.
On the other hand, don’t worry if you know that your ability is not up to the requirements of the post. Incompetence is the norm, so it’s good to aim for competence.
For the workplace marathon, it’s important to relax, keep working, keep developing good habits, and learn good methods and concepts.
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Author: Yu Guo
The original link: https://yuguo.us/weblog/tencent-8-years/