Infra Manifesto and Expectations

Why

Who are we as a company, as a team, and as individuals? Who do we aspire to be? What is THE WHY that drives us? Our WHY is the vision and purpose that is foundational to everything we aspire to build and do together. Scaling and operating effectively by making decisions based on our culture, values, and beliefs is only possible if we each understand the WHY. Once the WHY is understood it unlocks clarity and wisdom to inform everything; our decision making, innovation, and relationships. Our impact will be exponential and not just additive if our teams share the same WHY.

JHA’s Why

Jack and Jerry built the foundations of JHA around relationships. We have the opportunity in every interaction to build or improve a relationship. We seek connection and our success lies in our ability to enable community financial institutions to connect with people to form a meaningful, longterm relationship. To establish a bond that drives forward the dreams and aspirations of the people in our communities. Giving our neighbors the power to achieve more than they could on their own. Providing access to finances and services beyond their own capabilities that will enable them to buy a first home, start a new business, pursue higher learning and save for a rainy day.

Too often people are treated as less than human by big institutions striving for efficiency and a better bottom line. The exchange has turned to being transactional instead of relational. We believe that a community financial institution’s value is in treating their customers like humans instead of dollar signs. We strive to make solutions that empower them to make digital banking personal and to stay relevant in today’s competitive, technologically diverse landscape. These relationships with real people will differentiate our organization from the cold uncaring institutions that we all despise.

Your Why

You may be well down the path of understanding your why or you may be just starting the journey. Whichever that may be I am here to learn what it is that motivates you. Then understand how best to help you find a fit for that within the company and on our team. The most direct way for me to understand this is in our 1-1s, but it will unfold a little bit in our every interaction.

My Why

Imagine if there are two kinds of prophet. The first is a visionary, a futurist, one looking forward, and setting trend toward the previously unimagined. The second is a revolutionary, one who revisits the start, one who understands the intent, one who looks back for the original purpose. Neither is superior, both are in tension with the world around them.

In technology I consider myself to be the latter; a techno prophet who seeks to understand the intent of a system and to correct it as necessary to accomplish that intent. I strive in the work that I do; to fix, to understand, to restore, and in all to achieve a rhythm of function that meets with the hopes and needs of the system’s original intended design.

To abstract it beyond technology, I am an onion peeler. My motivations are to discover the depths of mysteries, to see the unseen or unrecognized, to find ways to meld the tangible with intangible, to restore the fractured, and to share these experiences and lessons with those around me.

Our Why

To be foundational. To be the layer upon which services are built and provide big picture insight around decisions that impact the whole structure. To provide stability for our teams to build upon, but also to question the status quo and consider when creative destruction is necessary. To empower teammates across a broad spectrum of technical functions; finance, implementations, support, and developers. Being technically astute is not enough, we want to build relationships that allow for truthful communication within Banno and across all of JHA. Building relationships between teams enables us to provide a platform for their services to succeed.

We strive to understand the piecing together of services, systems, and people with a view of how they function and integrate with the world around them. When we’re operating at our best we are leveraging our insight and skills to help others develop understanding.

How & What

This guide is geared around four major cornerstones; communication, availability, professionalism, and performance. Each of these has a slight tweak to make sure they reflect our values, culture and our WHY. In each area we expect empathy, helpfulness towards others and continued learning. There will not be a point at which any of us operate flawlessly achieving every one of these aspirations, but we want to be clear about what we expect of ourselves and our teams.

Communication

To work effectively and as a unified team we must be in communication. Demonstrating the ability to be responsible and work independently of direction is not enough to build a team, we have to communicate with one another and within our organization. Our teams are built heavily around team chat, video calls and collaborative work. Developing candid, caring dialog with one another comes from being vulnerable enough to get everything out into the open to quickly identify the correct course of action as a team. Assumption and silence will breed misunderstanding, distrust and lead to critical failure. We expect to push the boundaries of transparency in our communication with one another.

These practical steps empower effective communication;

Basic details to facilitate contact

• We expect team members to keep their Slack information up to date. A Slack profile should include their; role, team, and an up-to-date cell phone that can be reached.
• Optional suggestions; personality types, preferred path of contact escalation (slack mention/slack direct message/sms/hangout/phone/flare/carrier pigeon).

Status should reflect availability

• We expect team members to keep their Slack status and work calendars up to date.
• When unavailable during normal operating hours team members should mark their status as appropriate.
• Team members are expected to communicate changes to availability with their team and team lead. Sharing a specific reason is not expected only a time frame.

We expect consideration

• If a team member knows in advance that they’ll be unavailable we expect them to arrange coverage for their shift or work in flight.
• In case of an emergency we expect team members to notify the team lead. The team lead can be expected to arrange any/all work coverage.
• We expect pitching in to be a give and take. If a team member/lead observes this balance get out of whack, then the team member can expect a nudge.

We expect collaboration

• Anytime is a good time to resolve a roadblock. Questions should not be held till a team meeting.
• Each of us should push against our assumption that someone is “too busy” to help.
• Reach out proactively for help. Our calendars are not private; create a meeting invite and send them a heads up.
• Do not hesitate to pick up a phone or fire up a video call.
• Admitting you don’t know something requires a certain amount of vulnerability. We expect that to be on our teams means to ASK, to communicate about what we don’t know. To break free of spinning our wheels and reach out even when we don’t know what question to ask.

Disagree and commit

• We expect there to be difficult discussions and decisions. To move forward as a team we expect all opinions to be out on the table.
• We expect team members to voice disagreement candidly, openly, and respectfully in group discussions.
• Once all the details are out on the table then a decision must be reached. Even if a team member disagrees we expect them to commit to the go forward solution.

Navigate conflict as a team

ie. I hate conflict, how can I ever do this?

• We expect teams to assume the decisions made by others were the best possible decision at the time given the information and situation.
• Discussion from all is welcome, however, we expect each team member to recognize when they’re speaking outside of their circle of competency. Each team member has developed expert level knowledge in a unique set of domains. This knowledge makes up their circles of competency. Those circles are expanded and added to when they have built it, done it, and deployed it.
• We expect teams to have constructive rather than destructive dialogue. If the conversation is starting to go off the rails then team members should start by examining themselves and questioning their motives before focusing on others. Our disagreements should be a safe place for ideas and questions to be brought forward.

Crucial Conversation is a great place to start for more resources on how to effectively have conflict. For posterity the same article has been added to our docs wiki.

Rooted in Banno ideals and values the How We Work series includes talks on conflict, communication and problem solving.

Slack; Our Communication Tool

Slack is the most common tool for communication across our organization. This is mostly an addendum to our Chat Guidelines, but is slightly more tactical and a reinforcement to what’s available there.

• Outside of firefighting and channel triage team members are not expected to be captive to Slack. This is not license to be completely unplugged and unaware.
• The slash command /pd-team message can be used to page a specific team for an urgent issue. Teams, even firefighters are not expected to closely monitor Slack outside normal operating hours. PAGE WHEN URGENT. Not paging puts you at the mercy of chance and best effort should someone happen to see your message.
• The slash command /oncall provides a list of primary and secondary firefighters for each team.
• Channel participation should include; a team member’s team and org, firefighter, deployments, and team-banno. Additional channel participation is up to each team member as appropriate to their projects or interests.
• Team channels are intended for the members of a team to have a place to communicate openly with one another. For those that have their team channel public non-team members are welcome to join, but please be mindful non-team members should direct a majority of their communication to another team’s org-channel.
• When an in-channel communication needs high visibility then a post is a great way to help the message to stand out the from regular chat. When including direct mentions move up the scale from @individual, to @team, to @here, to @channel keeping in mind to ping as few people as necessary.
• Sent is not received. For team wide communications there is a certain expectation of awareness and acknowledgment. A quick thumbs up, ACK, or 100% goes a long way to help the sender know that their message has been seen by the group.
• When team members feel like they’re talking past each other in Slack move the conversation to a video call.
• Slack is the default for communication, but don’t hesitate to leverage other mediums. ex. Slack -> SMS -> Call.
• Many tools and tips exist and are worth an afternoon of reading to find out how to use them.
  • Slack allows users to star, pin and search topics. Consider searching before pinging.
  • Slack can be used to set personal, team and channel reminders. /remind to begin the command to try it out.

Availability

Our availability is not constrained to a specific set of hours, but instead to the work that needs done and the teams we support. We support Banno and JHA teams that are spread across a wide number of timezones, work schedules and varying levels of independent operation. Our work hours conform to the teams we’re supporting and the tooling we’ve made available to them.

The more tooling we create, then the more flexibility we have with our schedules. A perfect example is Agent Smith enabling the ProfitStars organization to work independently. Before this was in place we had less flexibility and it was crucial to their success that we closely monitored their “early morning” requests. Before Smith we had to bend to provide coverage to support our teams. We can and will be flexible, but it’s crucial to form a pattern of being available to one another and to the teams we support.

At its most basic, availability may mean a straight forward 9-5 work schedule. However, it may mean a team member works after hours occasionally or makes themselves available to step in to help a teammate. It may also mean taking down time for self-care, arriving late after working at night or being off-grid for a period of time to recuperate. What this looks like will be in constant flux. When a team member is making deposits, no one will look sideways when they make a withdrawal.

These practical steps can guide our availability

• We expect our hours to be built around the work and the teams we’re supporting. This doesn’t mean inflexibility, just that we must be mindful to orient ourselves to the goals of the larger team(Banno/JHA).

• We expect team members to consistently monitor and discern what are appropriate work hours with the above in mind. If a team member gets out of sync with the needs of the team, they can expect a gentle nudge from other team members and/or their team lead.

• We expect team members to discern and plan their work arrangements to ensure availability for meetings scheduled during normal operating hours 8-5 CST. Meetings before 9 CST at Banno are unusual, but they do happen.

• We expect team members to have time to recuperate after working late. After or ahead of late night work, notify or decline meetings occurring the following day to catch up on rest. If a meeting is critical see if another team member can attend instead.

• We expect Banno team members to be considerate of teammates spread across timezones. Be mindful of east/west/other coast participants if at all possible when scheduling meetings.

• If a team member needs to be unavailable during normal operating hours we expect them to communicate about it. A time frame is all that is required. The amount of detail beyond that is up to their discretion. Send the timeframe to the team lead/manager in a direct message, mention the timeframe in their team channel and update their Slack status. If it’s an emergency then a simple direct message to the team lead will suffice.

• We expect team members to track and communicate about their own PTO. We have a very generous and flexible PTO policy, team members are encouraged to use it.

  • Communicate time off to the team lead/manager.
  • Team members do not have to seek permission to take PTO.
  • Team members are responsible for arranging coverage for their duties for the time they’ll be out of office. Team leads and managers can help, but the ownership is on the individual to initiate the conversation.
  • Add it to the Banno-wide PTO calendar and invite yourself so that it also adds it to your personal calendar.
  • Enter it into JHA’s HCM system.
  • If you are sick, take PTO.
  • If you have a need, take PTO.
  • If you run out, but need flexibility then talk with a manager.

Our Priorities

These can run in parallel, but when they conflict these are our priorities.

1. Service stability; 24/7 on-call firefighter rotation. Banno & ProfitStars.
2. Banno Customer Support; staffed from 7-7 CST, directly supports our customers.
3. Banno Implementation; staffed 8-5 and after hours during conversion weekends.
4. Banno Deploys; developer availability is roughly 9-5 CST.
5. Banno Development; roughly 9-5 CST.
6. ProfitStars Implementations; M-Th launch windows at 10am and 2pm CST.
7. ProfitStars Hosting Support; staffed 8-5 CST.

On-Call

Service reliability is our top priority thus being On-Call will carry a higher level of expectation and responsibility. How we operate while On-Call is crucial to our success. Most of our team members will participate in a 24/7 On-Call rotation. Unplanned critical incidents can happen at any point. While On-Call we expect team members to be clear minded and accessible. Timely response and communication is paramount to the teams working an incident. High Urgency notifications will immediately page the primary and escalate to the secondary after 11 minutes.

• We do not expect the on-call firefighter to have exhaustive knowledge of everything or to be able to immediately fix everything. We do expect them to communicate and work towards a solution with their teammates.

• We expect to minimize impact not only to our customers, but also to our teams. Missing a page is inevitable and it’s ok if that’s rare. However, be aware that the effect ripples outward. A missed page effects the team that needs help, the secondary On-Call firefighter, and could result in a reputation hit for our team. If a pattern of unavailability emerges team members can expect a nudge from their team lead.

• We expect team members that have been paged to respond promptly into the appropriate Slack channel to acknowledge the page and then begin digging into the issue. Alerts generated through slash commands do not notify the originator that the alert was acknowledge in the PD App.

• We expect team members to configure PagerDuty High Urgency notification rules with their service uptime in mind. At a minimum for TechOps/Infra that includes; one notification at 0-3 minutes, one at 5 minutes and one at 10 minutes. Notifications should be spread across multiple forms for increased effectiveness; push notifications, texts, and calls. Android and iOS allow for some degree of bypassing or overriding Do Not Disturb or System Volume settings. Refer to PagerDuty’s Notification Troubleshooting for more detail.

• We expect team members to be no more than 10 minutes away from hands on keyboard while they are the primary On-Call firefighter. If in transit when paged, we expect team members to pull over to safety, communicate to those involved that they’re unavailable and then contact or escalate to the Secondary On-Call requesting their help.

• We DO NOT expect team members to monitor Slack outside of normal operating hours 9-5 CST. For urgent issues we expect teams to use /pd-team to page the primary On-Call firefighter.

• We expect team members to communicate with their secondary escalation if they need to be unavailable during an on-call shift. PagerDuty offers a quick way to configure temporary overrides to the regular schedule within the app and online.

• We expect team members to reach out to their team for volunteers if they know in advance they need someone to cover all or part of a rotation. If no one is available the secondary will assume primary.

• We do not expect On-Call firefighters to substantially push projects forward when under heavy demand related to being On-Call.

Triage Captain

Org-team channels in Slack are the initial point of contact most teams use for questions and requests. A large amount of our work flows in to us through these channels and we’ve adopted a triage playbook to assist with managing the volume of incoming work. We have a day to day rotation for our channel work to distribute the load across the team. We also use this rotation as an opportunity to distribute experience across a wide range of topics out amongst the team.

When you are the triage captain please be aware that:

• We expect the triage captain to acknowledge incoming questions in 45 minutes even if the request cannot be immediately worked.
• We expect continued communication with the requestor until the issue is resolved.
• We do not expect immediate resolution of every issue.
• We do not expect individual team members to know all the answers.
• We expect the triage captain to attempt to research and gather information about an issue first before bringing it to their team for help. However, we expect the research to be time-boxed to keep a single request from monopolizing 100% of their time while on triage duty.
• We expect that these messages are a starting point, but that it may be appropriate to ask the requestor to open an issue on GH to track efforts and progress.

Offices

We are remote focused, but there are still job functions that require being in office.

Primarily, but not limited to Cedar Falls and Springfield offices:

• helping Lory/Sue with
  • shipping/receiving
  • maintaining macs in conference areas and common spaces
• laptop upgrades, repairs and new builds.
• frame room access; maintenance and upkeep

Professionalism

A brief history. Being a part of Banno carries with it good and bad stereo-types inside JHA. The startup mentalities within Banno were in stark contrast to the often traditional corporate structures at JHA. We were exceedingly fortunate to have a board of directors and executive staff that were in the midst of a changing of the guard. In some ways the JHA leadership faced an important crossroads and after they plotted their course we happened to meet them on that same road.

Banno had built strong relationships focused around a common purpose to do things radically different. I think JHA’s leadership could see their own origin story repeating itself within Banno. This point is what stood out about the Banno team and from the outside looking in I could see the spark of great potential for impact on the larger organization.)

JHA executives and the board emphasized clearly that JHA teams were to approach the Banno acquisition with new eyes, ears and hearts. Banno was given extreme freedoms and independence that no other acquisition was offered. JHA provided us the room to innovate and do what seemed best to us, with little to no interference.

This brings us to where we are today. A team that needs to differentiate ourselves from the reputation that has rightly or wrongly gone out ahead of us. To build relationships and continue to show that professionalism is more than a cover on a book. It’s not about answering a phone a certain way or knowing all the policies and procedures of the company, but it is bound to caring. Caring about our customers and about one another. That we each have families, but we have the opportunity to extend that family to those that we’re working with.

Our individual actions, good or bad, reflect upon the whole group

• We expect our team members to be considerate, to be mindful of practical things, and to be aware of how they impact those around them.
• We expect that our team members are serious about the work they do and will seek out a work environment that allows them to focus and work effectively.

Every conversation is an opportunity to improve or form a relationship.

• We expect our team members to operate as blamelessly as possible.
• We expect team members to approach problems as OUR problem instead of YOUR problem.

Each team member is a contributor and not simply a consumer

• We expect our teams members to take initiative and understand that our value is in making others around us better. “See a need, fill a need.”
• We expect team members to participate in fixing team issues. We must be considerate, but also direct and candid. We rely on the whole team and not just an individual to correct problems.

Tactical Professionalism

• We expect you to want to bring your best to work.

  • Consider whether your work space is conducive to being at your best and putting your best work forward.
  • Does your work location present challenges that will make it hard for you to engage with your team?
  • When you’re in a meeting we expect you to consider whether this is a casual call with a peer or team, or something more formal with another department, a vendor or even a customer and adapt as appropriate. Sitting two feet from a busy espresso machine for a customer call is going to be distracting and potentially off-putting.

• Microphones and cameras will conspire to ruin you.

  • Turn on your camera.
  • Mute your mic when you’re not speaking.
  • Install noise canceling software to reduce distracting noises in the background. krisp.ai is a great free option.
  • Test out your video collaboration tools before a big meeting; Teams, Zoom, Slack, Hangouts.
  • Check with your team to see if they notice any glaring hangups with your call setup.

Performance

In an effort to get this out sooner then later we’ll be circling back around to add definition around this area. Capturing our expectations is crucial to how we operate, but cannot hold up progress in starting the discussion around the rest of this guide.

Summary

We do and will fail, but in spite of our failures we can achieve truly monumental milestones at work together.

Primers to challenge you to think differently.

Start with Why by Simon Sinek.

Radical Candor by Kim Scott.

The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown.

The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain.

10 bullets by Tom Sachs Studio. This is not intended to establish our rules or to say “this way” is the best, but instead to demonstrate the type of care, mindfulness and attentiveness we want our team members to develop as they approach their work.