A personal README
I recently transitioned into a new role the role. As an experiment, I wrote a personal README to accelerate the process for my new team to get to know me and how I work. My main objectives were to i) help others understand me better; ii) clarify my expectations of myself, others and my new role; and iii) build trust through vulnerability.
It was with mixed feelings I pressed the share button. Am I being too open? Am I full of myself writing something like this? Luckily, I got positive feedback, and I’m glad I did it.
Context and random facts
that might make it easier to get to know and understand me.
I grew up in a tiny village in a rural area in the north of Sweden. During childhood, I spent most of my time outdoors and taking care of a wide range of animals together with my grandmother. That upbringing gave me a love of nature, wildlife and taught me empathy.
Sweden has a non-confrontational and emotionally unexpressive culture which has shaped me and how I make decisions. Using the DiSC model terminology, I tend to gravitate toward the styles i and S.
My journey with computers started as a kid playing games on my friend’s Commodore 64. My interest grew after I inherited a Macintosh 128K from my uncle’s car dealership business and the relationship came to full fruition when I built my first computer around the age of 13. I attribute my passion for coding to an enthusiastic and dedicated computer science teacher in high school.
After a detour in university (studying theoretical physics and economics ) I returned to computer science for my master’s and have worked with technology ever since.
The area of Sweden where I grew up is dominated by a working-class culture with few qualified jobs (my first job was as a lumberjack) and a strong sense of community. I believe this instilled a sense of solidarity in me and contributed to an interest in global development, human rights, and international relations. An interest that led me to work at Amnesty , Gapminder , and a short stint for the UNDP in Khartoum and New York.
I’m introverted and prefer to recharge with some quiet time. Please don’t mistake my quiet for lack of interest. I like to observe and reflect.
One of my favorite places on earth is a tiny cabin of mine located close to where I grew up. It’s not accessible by car and has no electricity, internet connection or running water. It sits right next to a lake and has a lovely wood-fired sauna (see Figure 1 below).
I enjoy doing sports. It’s how I stay productive and sane. Occasionally, I like doing endurance challenges like Vasaloppet or half marathons. Let me know if you wanna go for a run.
Music is important to me and I play a bit of trumpet. I grew up as a metalhead, and it’s still what I listen to the most, but I frequently indulge in jazz and classical music. Recent years have sparked an interest in opera.
The most expensive hobby I have is food (both cooking and eating out) and wine.
I consider myself a lifelong learner and joy of learning came out as my top character strength . I think this is also why I like software engineering. The best teams are those that learn the fastest.
In the CORE personality test I score high in conscientiousness (a need for things to get done and be right) and agreeableness, and low in need for stability.
What I value
from myself and others.
Ownership. I hold a high bar for myself, and I take great pride in always doing my best work and getting things done. “It’s not my job” triggers me.
Agency. Action beats reaction. Autonomy is important for motivation and to do great work. Autonomy at scale only works with agency. I like to take matters into my own hands and drive execution, perhaps sometimes too much.
Transparency. I think an organization is much better off when there is transparency around the work being done, decisions, processes, data, whatever. I apply this to my work and appreciate it from others.
Kindness. I always try to assume good intentions and I know everyone is fighting their own battle. Kindness sometimes mean having tough discussions or making tough decisions.
Play. Work is hard enough as it is, so having fun together and finding joy in what we do is important to make it sustainable.
Growth mindset. It’s possible to learn and achieve incredible things through dedication and great collaboration.
Feedback. I consider both the act of receiving and giving feedback a gift. Feel free to provide direct feedback to me in whatever format you prefer (sync or async), whenever you want. You don’t need to ask for permission and please be direct but not mean.
Things I enjoy or do well
and that I’m happy to help with if I can.
Continuous improvement. Learning is essential to me and I work hard to continuously improve myself. I’m a strong believer in getting 1% better every day.
Composure. In feedback, composure frequently comes up as a spike. I can find peace in chaos and crisis. Stoicism and Dzogchen are teachings that resonate with me.
Structure. I’m an organized person and I thrive on structure. That’s one of the reasons I always loved writing documentation as an engineer.
Strategizing. I like observing and debugging situations and systems. I get into flow trying to piece various bits of information together, do some pattern matching, and craft a coherent response to a particular challenge.
Communication. I enjoy crafting messages, written as well as spoken. So I’m happy to help if you want feedback on something you wrote or dry run a presentation.
Execution. I like getting stuff done, and breaking ambiguous problems into executable chunks. I consider myself having a bias for action and a strong sense of urgency. Note: I have high urgency on hiring, meaning if you have open positions to fill, I expect you make this one of your top priorities.
Stuff that’s hard for me
and that I’d like to improve, so I’m grateful for any feedback that can help me do that.
I’m introverted with mild social anxiety that sometimes makes big-room meetings stressful for me. I’m usually not at my best in such situations. To improve, deliberately try to put myself in situations where I’m forced to face my fears, and to mitigate the impact I tend to write things down to bring my points across.
I prefer to reflect for a while over thinking on my feet.
I’m sometimes too slow to ask for help.
Being assertive and candid is something that originally didn’t come naturally to me. I’ve actively worked on this for many years and made progress. Nevertheless, it requires constant and continuous practice to fully embrace radical candor.
How I work
I aim to keep my working hours between 9-18.
Synchronous meetings are great for connecting and decision-making (assuming participants have a high degree of context). For almost everything else, I have a bias toward asynchronous communication, especially in remote settings.
However, if you wanna discuss something, I’m happy to jump on a quick call instead of chatting.
If I want to convey a concept or give a status update, I prefer to summarise my thoughts in written format.
I prefer chat over email.
How I view my job
and what I hold myself accountable for.
Driving measurable business outcomes through technology investments and engineering excellence.
Aligning engineering with company goals by owning technology strategy and roadmap execution.
Building and scaling a high-performance organization and culture grounded in psychological safety, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Fostering a product-engineering mindset focused on value, while elevating quality, reliability, security, and performance.
Championing developer experience as a key lever to unlock productivity through short feedback loops and reduced friction.
Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent, while continually raising the bar.
Acting as a trusted partner to other functions and fostering strong collaboration within engineering and across the company.
Figure 1. The view from my sauna during a cold summer night.