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Using Windmill as an Engineering manager
Using Windmill as an Engineering manager

Best practices for ENG managers

Updated over a month ago

Windmill is designed to make the lives of engineering managers easier and create a better work environment for their teams. By proactively collecting feedback and tracking accomplishments, Windy—our Slackbot—helps managers stay informed, provide actionable coaching, and streamline communication, ensuring that managers receive timely insights without having to ask. Here are six practical use cases that show how an engineering manager can effectively leverage Windmill to enhance team efficiency and employee experience.

1. Weekly Check-ins Made Seamless

Many engineering managers struggle to keep track of what everyone on their team is working on. Windmill’s accomplishments feature helps managers answer the question, “What did you get done this week?” Every Friday, Windy prompts team members to list their accomplishments for the week, enriched with relevant details like Slack threads or Linear tickets. This provides engineering managers with an easy-to-read summary of each team member’s progress without time-consuming manual check-ins. Managers can easily follow up or dive deeper into any item, ensuring they’re in the loop while still allowing engineers the autonomy they need.

2. Spotting Collaboration and Workflow Issues Early

When engineers are frequently collaborating with other teams like product, customer support, or sales, issues like miscommunication or friction can arise, often without the manager noticing until it's too late. By continuously collecting feedback whenever people work together, Windmill helps engineering managers and other department leads spot collaboration bottlenecks or potential conflicts early. For instance, if an engineer and a product manager have struggled to align on priorities, Windy can gather feedback to surface that friction. This allows managers to step in, mediate, and address issues before they escalate, fostering smoother, more effective cross-functional collaboration.

3. Leveraging Windmill During Retrospectives

Team retrospectives are a critical part of the engineering workflow, helping teams reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Windmill provides engineering managers with relevant, real-time feedback collected throughout the project cycle, making retrospectives more informed and impactful. Instead of relying solely on what team members remember during the retro, Windy’s collected feedback provides a detailed log of insights into collaboration, challenges, and successes. This allows the team to have more meaningful discussions, identify root causes more effectively, and agree on actionable steps for improvement.

4. Making One-on-Ones More Efficient

One-on-one meetings between engineering managers and their direct reports are key opportunities for coaching, support, and development. Windmill helps make these meetings more efficient by providing a summary of recent accomplishments, peer feedback, and collaboration insights. Before a one-on-one, managers can quickly review Windy’s insights to get a clear understanding of the individual’s recent work, challenges, and successes. This means less time spent catching up on basic context and more time focused on meaningful conversation, coaching, and problem-solving.

5. Building a Culture of Recognition and Growth

Windmill isn’t just about identifying issues—it’s also about amplifying the positive. The continuous collection of peer feedback means that recognition isn’t limited to an annual cycle. Engineering managers can use Windmill to regularly recognize team members for their accomplishments and contributions, even small wins. This ongoing recognition not only boosts morale but also aligns well with a growth-focused culture where people receive appreciation and know where they stand. By making feedback a regular part of work, Windmill fosters a culture where team members feel valued and more open to learning.

6. Streamlining Performance Reviews

Most organizations that leverage Windmill choose to simplify or even remove annual reviews entirely. With Windmill, continuous feedback ensures that everyone is always in the loop, reducing the need for a time-consuming formal review process. However, if you still want a more deliberate time for feedback, Windmill makes it easy. By continuously collecting feedback throughout the year, Windmill helps reduce recency bias, ensuring that both positive achievements and areas for improvement are captured over the entire review period rather than just the most recent weeks. By the time semi-annual or annual performance reviews come around, engineering managers have a rich, organized set of insights about each team member’s contributions, growth, and areas for improvement. This allows managers to create more meaningful, well-informed reviews without the stress and scramble of gathering information at the last minute, ultimately making the review process more efficient and impactful.

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