5 Ways to Onboard New Developers, so They Don’t Feel Lost

Since no one knows what your acronyms mean

Photo by Shridhar Gupta on Unsplash

I felt lost.

Thrown into a team with no guidance, I spent my time deciphering acronyms and bopping from meeting to meeting. What are we actually building? What am I doing here?

Joining a new team is scary, and the onboarding process can make or break your new employees.

After working on ten different teams, I’ve experienced good and bad onboarding, and I’ve been the one to organize another person’s arrival. As developers, we often stray away from menial tasks like setting up the structure for someone’s onboarding experience.

However, this is one of the most important processes on a team — it’s the gateway to new team members feeling welcome.

How do you successfully onboard new developers?

Here are five ways to ensure a smooth start for your new team members:

1. Create an Onboarding Document

A thorough onboarding document includes background context, systems they need access to, team member responsibilities, technical concepts, acronyms, and more.

Make it a living document and your team’s source of truth. The newbie should leave…