Personal User Manuals — The Good, the Bad, and a Template
What is a personal user manual and how can it help improve your team?
One-third of your life is spent with your colleagues. Writing personal user manuals is a small investment in time that can pay huge dividends for your team — not to mention it’s a great tool for self-reflection.
If you’re already sure you want to write a personal user manual, that’s great! Here’s a template you can use that was lovingly crafted by yours truly after reading many such documents.
You can adapt it to your needs and follow the instructions to host it live to the world as a web page! Check out an example.
If you have no idea what a personal user manual is or you’re on the fence about writing one, then this article is for you.
Background
For some time, there has been the concept of a personal user manual or README written by managers and made available to their direct reports. The idea is that new joiners can quickly be onboarded by receiving a guideline to various aspects of their manager’s personality. Common sections include working hours, preferred mode(s) of contact, 1:1 guidance, and personality quirks.
However, there are issues with only managers writing such documents:
- It puts the burden of adaptability onto the direct report. Ideally, managers should be adapting to the personalities of those they manage.
- If the direct report misinterprets their manager’s README or if it’s inaccurate, it is the direct report who likely suffers because of the inherent power dynamic in the relationship.
- It models interactions like an organisational chart. In reality, everyone on a team has a bidirectional relationship that is valuable and worth fostering.
Before we go much further, I’d like to say that the term “user manual” feels a bit robotic and impersonal, while “README” only makes sense if you understand the reference to programming README files. If you have a better suggestion for…
