To us that means they focus mostly on product strategy, work, and communication, and they allow the individuals on their teams to self-direct.Īt the same time, we ask our Managers to take on a lot of responsibility for their teams! We very much appreciate that that may result in Managers doing some emotional labor. We encourage Managers to be “moonlight managers”.

communicating feedback to Managers on overall team or company direction and moraleĪ note about our Managers.

self-promotion and self-advocacy to Managers.

interpretation of daily work from the cycle strategy devised by Manager.

contributing to heartbeats and kick-offs providing status updates in between as needed.

translating team feedback on overall company direction and morale to Executives.

keeping the pulse of the emotional well-being of team including workload, attachment to work, on the lookout for fatigue or burnout, team advocate.

anticipating and addressing morale issues.

maintaining general cohesion of team (via 1:1s, group hangs, etc.).

continually identifying and addressing potential performance problems in team.

creating and tracking performance improvement plans for team as needed.

formal performance evaluations for team twice a year.

writing heartbeats and kick-offs (with input from team) or contributing to Executive write-ups providing status updates in between as needed.

making personal contributions to product work (programming, design, Ops, customer happiness).

driver/delegator of work “team lead” ultimately responsible for team’s output.

interpreting cycle focus from Executives.

spot-checking Managers and stepping in as needed requesting status updates from teams.

continually identifying and addressing potential performance problems in Managers or their team dynamic.creating and tracking performance improvement plans for Managers as needed.formal performance evaluations for Managers twice a year.maintaining a consistently visible leadership presence especially during deadline-driven work.

writing heartbeats and kick-offs (with input from team) providing status updates in between as needed.

making personal contributions to product work (programming and design).

product: values, long-term direction, short-term (cycle) direction, marketing.

company: structure, finances, marketing/publishing, evaluating/adjusting core values and ethics.

Here’s how we break down each level’s duties. Basecamp has three tiers of responsibility within our job functions: Executive, Manager, and Individual.

Senior management responsibility