How to Follow Up Without Annoying People
Working with people is hard, but making them prioritize your work is even harder. Hence, one of the key skills you have to build is getting things done by others.
This edition of the newsletter contains
one quick write-up that will help you grow faster in your career
a video I posted
a paper I read
I have also shared 3 super-interesting articles to read over the weekend. Thank you once again for reading this edition of my Newsletter. Now, without further ado, let’s jump right in.
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Instead of drawing boxes, we go into the intricate details of every single system and build an end-to-end understanding. The learnings from the course can be applied at your workplace from day 1. So, if you are looking for some real engineering discussions or brainstorming, do check out my course.
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How to Follow Up Without Annoying People
Working with people is hard, but making them prioritize your work is even harder. Hence, one of the key skills you have to build is getting things done by others.
Ensuring things get done without nagging, micromanaging, or offending the people is an art. I have led many cross-functional work at Practo, Unacademy, and Google. Here are a few actionable insights
be empathetic to others' priorities, as they might have competing tasks
phrase your follow-up messages in a way that shows you value their time
A well-written message signals that you’re not just asking for a status, but also offering support to make progress, something like
""" Hi [name], just checking if there’s an update on [task]. I know you’re busy, so let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. """
space out follow-ups, and give people enough breathing room to act
build strong relationships with your peers
Remember, people naturally prioritize tasks for those they respect and enjoy working with. Invest in building these relationships by acknowledging their contributions in public forums like meetings.
When I was a Platform Engineer at Practo, on day 1, I was told to be friends with everyone, and a few months later, I realized why. I learned that people will help you, not because they have to, but because they value your partnership. This stays true in any role.
escalations should feel like collaboration, not confrontation.
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a task gets stuck. In such cases, start with direct communication and clarify expectations and blockers with the individual.
If things still don't move, loop in a senior, but frame the escalation not as a complaint but as a team effort to unblock the work. For example,
""" Hi [senior], I wanted to bring this to your attention since [task] is crucial for [goal]. [Name] and I have discussed this, but we’re still facing [specific issue]. Could you help us figure out the next steps? """
people do what gets tracked, so make sure that regular status checks are brought up during common meetings, or periodically over async platforms like Slack and Teams.
But irrespective of all the above points, there is one thing that matters the most. After someone helps, don't just move on; thank them meaningfully. Public appreciation in a team call, a quick Slack shoutout, or even a private note goes a long way.
When people feel valued, they're more likely to go out of their way to help you or prioritize your work.
By the way,
Being hands-on is the best way for you to learn. Practice interesting programming challenges like building your own BitTorrent client, Redis, DNS server, and even SQLite from scratch on CodeCrafters.
Sign up, and become a better engineer.
Here's the video I posted
I published a video - How to approach System Design
System Design is tricky, but it does not have to be difficult - be it a technical discussion at your workplace or your next big interview.
In this video, I share the two approaches that I have been using to design scalable systems in the last 10 years of my career. I have also shared the 3 key pointers to remember while approaching any system design.
Paper I read and would highly recommend
I spent some time reading Query logs alone are not enough
Search engines, like Google, rely heavily on search logs to understand search behaviors, but they are not enough. This is also true for vertical search engines like amazon, swiggy, spotify, etc.
When I was building search at Unacademy, we started by relying heavily on the search logs to improve relevance, but our relevance plateaued. No matter what we tried, the needle was not moving much.
Then I read a paper and, following key insights from it, started talking to our actual users, observed their behavior, and used tools that gave us insights on what they were 'actually' doing and struggling with. This was completely non-scalable, but so worth it.
The insights we could gather (talking to them, capturing detailed metrics, user interactions, etc) shaped the next 3 key features we launched, which shot up the relevance, CTR, and watch time.
Sometime back, I read the paper that inspired our actions. The paper is from Google (written in 2007), which talks about things we should augment the search logs that improve relevance. Spoiler alert - a bunch of them are non-scalable.
This paper is a classic example of how human feedback is the most critical thing to build a superior product. There cannot be one generic solution that fits all when it comes to search, given people have very peculiar ways of looking for certain types of things - food, restaurant, course, topics, questions, etc.
The paper is a breeze to read and would hardly take you a day to wrap up. Give it a shot if search engines or relevance systems excite you.
You can download this and other papers I recommend from my papershelf.
Three interesting articles I read
I read a few engineering blogs almost every day, and here are the three articles I would recommend you read.
Thank you so much for reading this edition of the newsletter 🔮 If you found it interesting, you will also love my courses
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