"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
African proverb
Purpose: As an onboarding buddy, your role is to help new teammates build confidence, fast. You create a safe environment where they can ask questions, try things, and learn how we work and make them ready to contribute. You're not expected to be their only guide, but you are their anchor. Make space for uncertainty. Normalize “obvious” questions. Proactively check in: Are they following conversations? Do they feel comfortable speaking up? If not, help bridge the gap and involve the team in getting them unstuck.
Pre-Onboarding
Read through this doc and ask any questions you have to your manager
2 weeks before start : Ensure your team documentation is up to date, including system diagrams, runbooks, environment set up, etc
1 week before start: Align with new starter’s line manager to identify tickets or tasks that will introduce the new hire to code base/current project/something relevant, and prepare yourself to support them
Align with People Lead, Line Manager to see how you can support on onboarding tasks to make sure we have all grounds covered, so the new team member gets the best onboarding possible
Onboarding tips
First week - ensure you meet with the new team mate in the first day. Introduce yourself, your role, and establish rapport. Explain the ways in which you can support their onboarding.
Information overload is common in the first week or two, so try to find the balance between sharing knowledge and allowing time for the new team member to assimilate the information.
Check in: Have a catch up on Friday of their first week, to gather feedback on progress so far, and how the new team member has adjusted during the first week.
In the first 2 weeks, help the new joiner to navigate their onboarding tasks and help them settle into the team. After that, you can remain as a trusted contact for questions they might have until they are fully settled in the role.
Topics to Discuss
Feel free to discuss with the team anything you believe is important to add to the list. depending on each onboarding:
| Focus area | ✔️ |
|---|---|
| New joiners are set up on systems on the first day. If they struggle, they might reach out to you, so point this to the People team | |
| Check all ‣ required per role are provided | |
| Linear overview - A detailed walkthrough of Linear, our chosen project management tool, and how it integrates with our development workflows. | |
| The new joiner runs their first task. During the first day, the manager will present the new joiner with their first task, usually a smaller, manageable task to have them started. Make sure they understand it and are confident on starting to deliver on it | |
| Share how the team operates (first week): discuss important recurring organizational meetings, their timing, content, and expectations (All Hands, Retros, Dailies, etc.) | |
| Review the services your team owns. Start with the services that the team is currently working on and how they fit into the bigger picture at WunderGraph. Consider walking through a real world example together. | |
| Discuss the On-Call rotation: The introductory meeting on Customer Insights and On call will be scheduled with Stefan, however, you can also reinforce how your team handles on-call, what the expectations are and get them to start shadowing others on call or replying to customers once agreed with the hiring manager (later in the onboarding process) - This applies to the Engineering team | |
| Each new joiner will be presented with the WunderGraph Growth Framework for their role. We map these Growth Frameworks as we scale, currently starting with WunderGraph Engineering Framework. They get an overview of these expectations when they start from the Alex, People team, and is reinforced by hiring managers during reviews. If they seem to have questions on this part, flag this to Alex. | |
| Introduce commonly used Slack channels: Check if the new team member has access to any channels that are relevant to the team or their role. | |
| Share anything else you believe will be helpful and be a sounding board for questions | |
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