Primary roles

Primary roles are a way to collect job-agnostic responsibilities under a simple framework. They provide some clarity for new and existing team members.

Today, we identify three primary roles:

Little Robot*: everyone at BLR is a Little Robot *We need a better name...

Project Lead: a team member leading a project (internal or client)

Mentor: a team member that acts as mentor to other team members

Aside from what's outlined in these roles, every team member will have specific responsibilities relating to the projects they are working on.

Note: you can have more than one role!

Little Robot*

Everyone at BLR is a Little Robot (team member), first and foremost. As a team member, I'm expected to:

Set the standard

Lead in my own domain, meaning I take initiative, bias toward action, own the execution, and take responsibility for the outcome of the decisions I make.

Act as my own manager, not needing heavy direction or follow-up for results to happen on time and on quality

Hold myself, and others, to the standard set in our

Principles⁠

Practice the pillars of

open communication⁠

⁠

Do the work

Choose to work on one or more projects

Dedicate at least a small portion of my time to work on internal initiatives to improve and grow the company

Have project-specific responsibilities defined in collaboration with project leads

Take initiative to create projects when there are relevant opportunities, potentially taking on the Project Lead role as well

Have a Mentor with whom I've created a

Growth plan⁠

and have weekly

Mentor 1-1s⁠

Seek clarity where it's lacking and express any tension as it surfaces

Project Lead

A Project Lead heads one or a few projects, whether internal (e.g. designing our CICD process) or external (i.e., client work). A Project Lead usually steps up to lead a project or does so in agreement with other team members.

As a Project Lead, I'm expected to focus on three additional pillars: