How can you ensure that your contributions are also recognized?

A common challenge, especially in larger organizations, is that your manager may not always be fully aware of the specifics of your work, and your manager’s manager likely has even less visibility. It isn’t due to a lack of interest but rather the sheer volume of responsibilities and information they handle. Additionally, even for you, it’s hard to remember all the details beyond the highlights. I find a proactive strategy essential for such scenarios: sending regular progress digests.

These digests are concise, structured email updates that you send periodically to both direct manager and their manager. The aim is to offer a clear snapshot of your activities, their impact, and your forthcoming plans. See it as a method to keep your supervisors well-informed, especially when you lack regular direct interactions.

That’s it. That is the idea. You can be creative and apply it however you want. However you decide to do it, you will see gains.

In the next section, I list the key points I usually consider in my snapshots.

Key Elements of an Effective Progress Digest

To ensure your digests are both informative and impactful, here’s what you can include:

  • Specific Task Details: Provide project specifics and relevant links to the completed/picked coding tasks. It entails a 1-sentence project description, PR links, JIRA tickets and other code artefacts.
  • Data Science Related: If applicable, detail the models you’ve trained and deployed. Any A/B experiments launched and test results of the ones that concluded. Also, share the project solutioning doc here.
  • Documentation Efforts: Highlight any documentation you’ve created or maintained. You can also merge this with other points.
  • Impact and Results: Clearly articulate the outcomes of your tasks and their value to the team and company.
  • Initiatives and Discussions: Share any new ideas you’ve put forward or discussions you’ve initiated.
  • Future Plans: Outline your planned next steps.

Benefits

The effort invested in creating these digests yields substantial career benefits:

  • Enhances Diligence: Summarizing your work makes you more conscious of your efforts.
  • Boosts Positive Perception: You are perceived as a proactive and accomplished individual.
  • Creates a Performance Record: These digests serve as valuable documentation of your work, valuable during performance reviews.
  • Ensures Visibility: Even if managers don’t respond directly to each email, they will read them, which ensures they are aware of your work and its progress.
  • Effective at Any Stage: While this practice is advantageous when starting a new job (or joining a new team), I have found it beneficial at any stage.

Conclusion

Actively managing your visibility is key to long-term career growth. Sending out regular progress digests ensures that your work is recognized. You also establish a record of your accomplishments and demonstrate your value. This practice requires regular work but has good returns.

PS: I learned this trick on a tech podcast many years ago. If anyone knows which podcast or episode, please share it with me, and I will link it here.

Update: 14th Jan

PS: A related idea of brag documents explained beautifully by Julia Evans. Shared on this HN comment.