Working for Stephanie Weeks
On her departure in June, 2016
I have a lot of stories. But instead, I want to say that Stephanie really did alter my career trajectory in a fairly profound way, taking a loudmouth arrogant engineer who always thought he was the smartest guy in the room on a journey to becoming a slightly less arrogant design thinker and product guy who always thinks he’s among the smartest people in the room, and can occasionally modulate his voice. And the fact that she did so from a place of friendship, common purpose, genuine concern and enthusiastic encouragement is a model of leadership that I’m still inspired by.
A small example: I now have a voice in the back of my head on nearly every important work message I send that is a Stephanie paraphrase “are you bringing me a solution, a recommendation, or just a problem?” If I’m leading with the problems or the caveats or the reasons to say no, or I’m not doing one of the other two, it’s time to do some more thinking.
Of my 14 bosses at Blackboard (yeah, shut up), Stephanie is on that list twice, part of the longest tenure of managing me or managing people managing me at the company. Across that time I changed & grew my role more than once, I got married, she got married, we each had a child. Stephanie was among the first non-family members to know I was expecting, and that remains the best work hug I’ve ever gotten. She’s also the first and for a long time one of the few non-family members to know that our first attempt at IVF did not go well, and her compassion on that day is equally etched in my memory.
From our very first encounter in 2004 as peers in the hallways of 1899 (which I hope she will one day forgive me for), to hiking Castle Hill above Nice with John Fontaine in 2007 and the humid Nawlins riverside streets to Central Grocery for the paragon muffuletta of my life in 2012, to some fuzzily remembered bowling outings (“mademoiselle, je pense que tu es ivre, peut-être”) innumerable dance parties (“Stephanie Weeks to the Dance Floor!”) and team dinners, I have been proud to call her a colleague, friend, boss and mentor.
When we met, I was pretty sure I could do anything with code. As she leaves, I’m pretty sure I can do the right thing with a product made of code (except maybe pricing, I still can’t do pricing). Stephanie deserves a chunk of the credit and has more than a chunk of my gratitude for that.
Also DON’T GO!!!
