Engineering ·
Make the first engineering task a test of onboarding
A small first task can reveal whether a new engineer has the access, context and feedback needed to contribute. Treat the obstacles as information about the team.
By Norwind
Choose something real and bounded
A useful first task changes an actual behavior without requiring the new person to understand the entire system. Explain why it matters, how to reproduce the current behavior and what acceptance looks like. Avoid making the task depend on undocumented knowledge held by someone who is unavailable. The aim is to expose the normal development path in a manageable piece of work.
Observe the route to completion
Notice where progress stops: account access, local setup, test data, unclear ownership or waiting for review. These are different problems with different fixes. Keep a short record of the questions the engineer had to ask. Answers that will help the next person belong beside the code or in the onboarding instructions, where someone can find them while doing the task.
Close the feedback loop
After the change reaches its intended environment, ask which instructions matched reality and which did not. Give the engineer time to correct a small part of the documentation. Review how the team responded as well as how the engineer performed. Onboarding is an operating process shared by the team, and the first task can show where that process needs attention.
A practical check
- Define a real task with a clear acceptance check.
- Prepare access and a named reviewer.
- Turn repeated questions into maintained instructions.