Onboarding
Team Communication Tags
Set up team communication tags (e.g., Slack, Teams) to help new team members identify key contacts:
| Tag/Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Team Lead | Primary technical contact for team-related questions |
| Product CTO / Tech Lead | Product and technical strategy decisions |
| Staff Engineer | Senior technical guidance and architecture |
| QA Team Lead | Quality assurance processes and testing |
| DevOps | Infrastructure, deployments, and tooling |
| Project Manager | Project coordination and planning |
| Backend Team | Backend engineers group |
| QA Team | QA specialists group |
| Design System Designer | Design system and component library |
| Product Designer | Product design and user experience |
| Product Owners | Product requirements and priorities |
Access & Invitations Checklist
Ensure new team members have access to all necessary tools and platforms:
- Communication channels (Slack, Teams, etc.) - ask Team Lead
- Meetings (daily standup, grooming, demo, retro) - ask Project Manager or Tech Lead
- Project management tools (Jira, Confluence, etc.) - ask Project Manager or Tech Lead
- Design tools (Figma, etc.) - ask in design channel or Design System Designer
- Design tool dev mode access - send request in design tool + ask system admin to approve
- Version control repository access - ask DevOps or Team Lead
- API testing tools (Postman, etc.) - ask QA Team Lead
- Subscribe to events calendar (tech talks, team events)
Onboarding Plan
Access & Prep
| Step | Description | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Access Setup | Get all invitations: communication channels, meetings, version control, design tools, API testing tools, calendars | Team Lead, DevOps |
| Prepare Laptop & Permissions | Configure tools, development environments, required software, access permissions | Team Lead, DevOps |
| Set up AI Code Assistant | Configure AI coding assistant tools (if applicable) | Team Lead |
Product & Documentation
| Step | Description | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Product / Business Goals | High-level overview of the product, user flows, long-term strategy, business context | Product Owner, Tech Lead |
| Documentation Overview | Where documentation lives: architecture, integrations, patterns, testing, style guides, architectural decision records (ADRs) | Team Lead |
Design
| Step | Description | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Design Tools & Processes | Overview of design projects, design system rules, design tokens, handoff process, design workflow | Design System Designer, Product Designer |
Tech & Architecture
| Step | Description | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Client-Side Architecture | Application architecture, module organization, component hierarchy, state management, routing | Team Lead, Staff Engineer |
| Tech Stack Overview | Technologies, frameworks, libraries, build tools, testing tools used in the project | Team Lead |
| Backend Integration | API structure, request lifecycle, API testing tools usage, real-time communication flow, typical integration patterns | Team Lead, Backend Team |
Practical Project Work
| Step | Description | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| Project Setup | Run local development environment, environment files, available scripts, IDE setup, troubleshooting common issues | Team Lead |
| Code Review Process & Branching | PR/MR templates, approval rules, branching strategy (feature, bugfix, release), commit conventions | Team Lead |
| CI/CD & Deployments | Pipeline stages, preview environments, Git hooks, automatic checks, how to verify deployment | DevOps, Team Lead |
| QA & Testing Process | How features are tested, QA workflows, using API testing collections, reporting bugs | QA Team Lead |
Hands-On Work
| Step | Description | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| First Tasks | Small tasks: UI fixes, documentation updates, component tweaks, minor bug fixes | Team Lead |
| Pair Programming Sessions | Explore architecture in practice, implement components, refactor code, debug flows | Team Lead, Senior Engineers |
| Independent Feature Work | Grow to owning features end-to-end (design → development → QA → deploy) | - |
| Own Epic (Scoped) | Take responsibility for a well-defined epic or sub-epic: planning, implementation, communication with stakeholders | Team Lead, Product Owner, QA, Designers |
Probationary Goals (3 months)
Set clear expectations for the first three months:
- Deliver at least 2 scoped epics (defined with Team Lead)
- Maintain consistent code review activity
- Participate in technical discussions (architecture, implementation decisions)
- Propose at least 3 improvements (performance, structure, developer experience, documentation)
- Demonstrate reliable delivery & collaboration with Frontend, Backend, QA, and Design teams