How To Come Prepared To A Mentoring/Debugging Session

I have been unbelievably fortunate with my colleagues. I cannot believe I am getting to work with who I get to work with. 

Their kindness, brilliance, technical ability and generosity outshines absolutely everything.

I am so grateful for everything. And I love them so, so much.

n.b. This is less of a structured blog post than I normally do on this blog - it is more exploring what is to come then something I have established. I hope this is okay please - but I am open to feedback as always - thank you.

p.s. I do have some further thoughts on how to come to a debugging session but the idea here is for something that is structured and pre-planned - thank you!!! 🏞

Structuring the Mentoring Sessions

I have worked with a lot of mentors and know about the value and importance of structuring time.

Nevertheless, working with a new mentor always brings with it many challenges, and definitely takes some time to re-evaluate.

I am working slightly towards a new way of working, which I might discuss in some detail in my other blog today - but I wanted to touch on a specific topic - coming prepared to a mentoring session.

Of course, this is specific to a mentor

But I loved the suggestion of my new mentor so, so much, that I wanted to consolidate it into a blog post for myself - and to put it into words for anyone else who want to or might be able to use this as well. But really for myself I just wanted to consolidate the idea - as I benefit from clear instructions.

The method

Okay so the method is this:

• Before a session, prepare something to present 
• For example, and in my case, because both my mentor and I love Excalidraw - prepare an excalidraw diagram
• What do I think the problem is?
• What am I stuck on?
• What is the problem space around it?
• What do I think that it is?
• What do I think that we need to do from here?

The method, but not convoluted

Okay let me try to be concise once again - I am sorry

• Before each mentoring session, prepare a short thing to present
• In the case of myself and my mentor, this might be an Excalidraw diagram
• Prepare for myself,
• and present in it,
• What do I think the problem is?
• What am I stuck on?
• What do I think that the solution might be?

Okay, so this was still a bit convoluted. But I think that this is better. And at least I have consolidated for myself now - thank you.

I can't wait to try this out!

P.S.

P.S. Having chatted to my mentor - there is a P.S. - and I would like to add it please:

First - a note - I will write a full blog post on this later - but this is just an initial little write-up of some thoughts:

• In general, in with teams, if everything is laid out in a diagram when you are working in them, then you can get aligned and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
  
• It quickly brings everybody up to speed and makes sure they are all aligned and on the same page.
• It avoids the confusion that comes with trying to express complex problems and ideas verbally which may be difficult to express or understand (more on that next time though I hope!!!).
  
• It makes it much easier and clearer to understand when you can see it drawn out clearly.