Connect, learn and lead your data platform team
A new manager's playbook with 50 1:1 questions
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As a new manager for a data platform engineering team, I'm currently 3.5 months into my role at a Nordnet, I have found that regular 1:1 meetings are a very powerful practice. These meetings are much more than just for status updates. For me, right now, they are a key to connect, understand, and support my team's growth. But they are also how I rapidly learn about my new team, the company, its processes, and the technology we use. I am incredibly grateful for my team's openness in these conversations, their willingness to share insights has been super important for my learning and ability to connect. I'm sharing the kinds of questions that have been helpful for me in these early months, thinking they might benefit someone else starting out as a new data platform engineering manager. Of course, these are based on my experience and may not fit every situation or every individual.
When you are new, you are not just managing, you are also on a steep learning curve. These conversations are my primary method for this. Over the years, and particularly in these last few months, I have developed a list of questions. It's not a rigid script I must follow, but more a collection of conversation starters. They help me get to know my team members well, understand their perspectives, and discuss topics we might not otherwise cover. This is not an interrogation. It's about fostering a good, open, two way dialogue to build trust and help me understand things quickly, and again, I appreciate how my team supports this.
My main goal is always to listen and understand what my team member wants and needs to discuss. But having these questions ready, and knowing why I ask them, helps us use our time together effectively. For me, it's an invaluable way to get up to speed faster.
Why these talks are especially important when you're new
Data platform teams are quite complex, operating at the intersection of infrastructure, software engineering, and data strategy. When you start as a new leader, the challenges are often magnified. Technology evolves rapidly. This means you're learning not just the current tools, but also their history and the reasons behind certain choices. The work has high stakes, so understanding how platform stability and data quality affect this specific business is crucial. You also serve diverse stakeholders. Therefore, you need to quickly learn who your platform supports and their unique needs within this company. Furthermore, these systems are often very intricate, and understanding how all the components connect is a significant part of starting effectively.
Good 1:1s are a great help with this. They are very important for building trust quickly, which is essential for honest feedback when you are the new person. These meetings also help uncover hidden problems and learn the "tribal knowledge" that isn't documented anywhere. They help align individual growth with team goals, and also help you understand those goals better. This ensures personal development contributes to the platform's improvement while you learn what "improvement" means here. It's interesting how often the best ideas for fixing long standing issues or finding quick wins come when a new person asks "why?" in these conversations. Finally, they are very important for improving the developer experience by helping you understand the day to day reality of using and building this specific platform.
My best questions for good 1:1s (and why I ask them)
Here’s a bit about why I ask these questions. My main aim is always to better understand each team member, what makes them tick, and what they need to be happy and productive. These conversations are also a huge part of my own learning journey as a new manager, helping me understand how I can best support their growth and help my team deliver work that everyone can be proud of. It’s about creating the best possible conditions for success, together. The questions I'm sharing below are the result of years of collecting and refining. Some I've come up with on my own, others I've learned from my own managers, and many I've gratefully copied from excellent blog posts and books I've read over time. While I can't always remember the exact source for each one to give specific credit, I want to extend a big thank you to everyone whose wisdom has contributed to this list. Please remember these are what I've found helpful, they're intended as inspiration, not a definitive checklist.
Getting to know each other and building connection
What got you interested in data platform engineering in the first place? This is a friendly way for me to hear their origin story in the data world. It helps me get a feel for what initially sparked their interest and passion. Understanding this helps me connect with them and appreciate their journey to our team.
Outside of work, what are you passionate about or what hobbies do you enjoy? This question helps me get to know them as people, not just as members of my team. When I'm new, making these personal connections is important for building strong and friendly working relationships.
Is there a particular tech blog, podcast, or book you've found insightful recently? This gives me an idea of the team's learning culture and what captures their individual interests. It can also point me towards useful resources for Nordnet's specific technology or current challenges, which helps my own learning too.
What's a small win you've had recently, personal or professional, that you felt good about? I ask this because it helps me understand what "good" or an achievement looks like from their perspective in this context. It also gives me early positive things to acknowledge and celebrate with them as I learn who contributes what.
If you weren't in tech, what do you think you'd be doing? This is a lighter question that helps build rapport. It’s interesting to see different aspects of their personality and thinking that might not come up in our usual technical discussions.
Motivation and engagement
What parts of your current work do you find the most energizing or enjoyable? I'm genuinely curious about what gets them excited and energized. Knowing this helps me see opportunities to align their work with their passions where possible. When people are doing work they enjoy, it often leads to great results and a happier team, which is what I'm aiming to support.
Can you describe a recent technical challenge you faced that felt particularly stimulating to solve? What made it so? This question helps me understand the specific kind of problems that really get them motivated in this environment. The "why" part is key for me to learn about the team's technical depth, their problem solving approaches, and individual interests.
When do you feel you're most 'in the zone' or achieve the best flow in your work? What are you typically doing then? A flow state is often where great work happens. If I can understand the conditions or tasks that help them get there, I can better support them by trying to protect that focus time or find more of those opportunities within our team's work.
What kind of problems are you most excited to work on in the data platform space? This gives me early indications of their individual ambitions and areas of the platform they are passionate about. This is useful for my own understanding as I start to consider the team's future direction and how I can support their interests.
If you had a 'free week' to work on absolutely anything related to our platform or data engineering in general, what would you explore? As the new person, this can reveal long standing ideas for improvements or technologies they are interested in that perhaps didn't get prioritized before. It’s an excellent way for me to tap into potential innovations and their underlying curiosity.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming weeks/months? This helps me understand their perspective on the current roadmap and which parts resonate, or perhaps don't resonate, with them. It’s a good way to gauge current enthusiasm for upcoming work.
Development, growth and future plans
What skills are you hoping to develop further in your current role? This question directly addresses their personal growth goals. It also gives me insight into potential skills gaps or areas where the team collectively might want to strengthen, which informs how I can support their development.
Looking 1 to 2 years ahead, what would you like to have learned or become really good at? This encourages them to think longer term about their career path within Nordnet’s organization. For me, understanding their ambitions helps me see how their current role can be a stepping stone and how I can support that journey as their new manager.
Are there any specific projects, technologies, or areas of responsibility that you believe would help you achieve those development goals? This helps connect their abstract goals to concrete opportunities. It can highlight existing work or needs within the team that I might not yet be aware of, and how these could align with their individual growth path.
What kind of feedback do you find most helpful for your growth? (e.g., technical code reviews, strategic discussions, process feedback, pairing sessions?, etc.) As I begin giving feedback, knowing their preferences helps me make it more effective from the outset. My goal is to provide feedback in a way that truly supports their learning.
Are there any conferences, courses, certifications, or books you've been considering that you think would be valuable? This can inform me about existing training desires or needs. It also helps me understand how the company typically supports professional development and how I can advocate for these opportunities.
Is there anyone in the team, department or wider company you'd be interested in learning from or shadowing for a bit? This can help me identify key knowledge holders or potential mentors within Nordnet. Facilitating these connections can be very useful for their growth and for my own learning about who the go to people are.
Platform and technology
If you could change one thing about our current platform, what would it be and how would you approach it? This question is extremely useful for my own learning as a new manager. It’s a direct line to understanding what the team sees as perceived weaknesses, technical debt, or frustrations with the current platform, from their hands on perspective. Understanding their ideas on how to approach changes also helps me see their problem solving skills and how we can collaboratively make things better.
From your perspective, what are the biggest strengths of our current data architecture? What are its main weaknesses or limitations? This helps me get a balanced, ground level assessment of the technology I am now responsible for. Understanding both its strong points and its shortcomings, from their viewpoint, is crucial for my initial understanding.
Are there any specific tools or technologies in our stack that you find particularly effective? Any that you find frustrating or think we should re-evaluate? This is a practical way for me to understand the developer experience with our toolset. It helps identify potential quick improvements or areas for longer term strategic changes, based on what makes their work easier or harder.
How do you feel about our current approach to data ingestion/processing/storage/serving? Any ideas for improvement? This helps me understand the specifics of how the platform functions from someone in the trenches. It also highlights where the team sees opportunities for improvement or has concerns about core functionalities, which is vital for my learning.
What are your thoughts on our data quality monitoring and alerting? Is it giving us the right notifications at the right time? Understanding the current state of data quality practices and tools is a high priority for me as a new data platform manager. Their experience with the effectiveness of our current systems is key.
How easy or difficult is it for our users (data scientists, analysts, analytics engineers, other stakeholders) to discover, understand, and access the data they need from our platform? This gives me insight into how well the platform serves its customers within the organization, from an internal perspective. It helps me understand where key stakeholder frustrations might exist and where we can improve usability.
Are there any new technologies or patterns you think we should be exploring for our platform? This indicates if there's an interest in innovation or modernization that I should be aware of and potentially support.
From a scalability or cost efficiency perspective, what are the biggest opportunities or concerns you see with our platform? These are critical aspects I need to understand quickly. The team's perspective on potential bottlenecks or optimization ideas here is very valuable for my initial assessments of our platform's health.
What's your take on our current observability stack for the platform (logging, metrics, tracing)? Is it sufficient? Understanding how the team currently debugs and monitors the system is key to assessing our operational readiness. If they don't have the tools they need, it's harder for them to keep things running smoothly.
If we were to rebuild a specific component of our platform today, what would you do differently? This "what if" question can reveal a lot about lessons the team has learned. It also shows their ideas for an ideal future system, which provides great context for me as I form my own plans and understand historical context.
What are you most proud of that you've built or contributed to? This helps me understand past successes and what they personally value in their contributions to Nordnet and platform. It's a good way to recognize their impact.
If you could improve one specific part of your day-to-day development workflow or tooling to make you more efficient or reduce friction, what would it be? This focuses on practical improvements to their daily development experience. Understanding these specific friction points helps me see where even small changes could boost their efficiency and job satisfaction, and guides my efforts to improve our overall developer experience.
Processes, workflows and teamwork
What, if anything, do you feel takes up more of your time than it ideally should? My goal here is to identify any friction or 'toil' that might be making their work harder or less enjoyable. If I can understand these time sinks, I can start thinking about how I, or we as a team, can help reduce them, freeing them up for more impactful and satisfying work.
How do you find our current planning process (sprint planning, backlog refinement, roadmap discussions)? Any suggestions for improvement? I need to quickly understand the current project management methods and whether the team perceives them as effective and inclusive. Their input helps me see how we can make these processes serve us better.
What are your thoughts on our code review process? Is it effective, timely, and a good learning opportunity? This gives me insight into the existing engineering culture, quality standards, and how knowledge is shared. I want to ensure our reviews are constructive and help everyone improve.
How do you feel about our testing strategy for data pipelines, models and platform components? Understanding the current approach to quality and reliability, and their confidence in it, is crucial as I take on this responsibility. It helps me see if our testing is sufficient or needs rethinking.
How is the collaboration within the data platform team? What's working well, and what could be better? For a new manager, learning how the team gets along and works together is something I focus on right away. My aim is to build a space where everyone feels supported and can do good work as a team.
How is the collaboration with other teams that use or give data to the platform (e.g., analysts, data scientists, analytics engineers, engineering teams)? Understanding these important relationships with other teams and their effectiveness is key for a new data platform engineering leader. Their perspective helps me see where we can improve cross team interactions.
Do you feel you have enough focus time to do deep work? If not, what are the main distractions? This tells me about the current work environment and if there are common distractions I should be aware of or try to help address, so they can concentrate on complex tasks.
What's one thing we could change about our team meetings (stand ups, retros, etc.) to make them more effective or valuable for you? As I start participating in, and eventually leading, these meetings, getting early feedback on their effectiveness is very helpful for making sure they are a good use of everyone's time.
Finding blockers and chances for improvement
Is there anything in our current processes, tools, or even how the company is structured that feels too complex or creates frustration for you? This general question can reveal problems or historical issues that I might not see immediately. My aim is to understand what makes their work harder than it needs to be.
If you had a magic wand or one wish to instantly fix one thing that slows you or the team down, what would it be? This often identifies the single biggest perceived blocker from their point of view. This information helps me prioritize where to focus my initial efforts or investigations to try and make things smoother for them.
Do you feel you have all the information, access, and tools you need to do your job effectively? My aim is to ensure there are no immediate access issues or resource gaps that I can help resolve to make their work, and my understanding, easier.
Are there any decisions, or lack of decisions, that are impacting your work in a way you'd like to discuss? This can highlight areas where organizational bottlenecks exist that I need to learn to navigate so I can better support the team.
Is there anything that's currently unclear regarding priorities or the direction of the platform/team? This helps me check if the team is clear on our main goals. If not, I know I need to make them clearer, especially while I'm still learning things myself. When everyone knows what we're aiming for, they can focus better.
Support, feedback and the manager relationship
What's the most important thing I can do as your manager to help you succeed and feel good in your work? This helps me tailor my management style to individual needs, right from the start of our working relationship, with the goal of fostering both success and fulfillment.
Do you feel you're getting the right amount and type of feedback on your work? This helps me understand the existing feedback practices and their expectations as I begin to integrate. I want to ensure the feedback they receive is genuinely helpful for their growth.
How do you prefer to receive recognition for your work? As I start to see good work, knowing how they prefer to be acknowledged helps me make those early expressions of appreciation meaningful and ensure they feel valued.
How are you feeling about your current workload and pace? Is there anything we can adjust to make things more sustainable or manageable for you? This is a direct check-in on their well-being and capacity. My aim is to help ensure a sustainable pace which supports both their well-being and long-term team productivity.
Looking back and ahead
Looking back at the last sprint/quarter, what's one thing you learned that was particularly valuable? This helps me understand their recent experiences and how the team learns and adapts. This is good context for me as a new leader and encourages their own reflection.
What’s one thing you're proud of accomplishing, and one thing you wish you could have done differently in the past month? This gives me insight into recent team achievements and their capacity for self reflection from before I joined. It encourages a balanced view of progress and learning.
As we look at our roadmap for the next 3 to 6 months, what do you see as the biggest opportunities or challenges for our platform and for you personally? This helps me understand their perspective on the near term future. It also helps identify potential issues or exciting projects I should be aware of as I become familiar with the roadmap, and how it aligns with their personal outlook.
If you were me, what would be your top priority for the data platform team right now? Extremely helpful! This gives me their view on the most pressing needs. This information can significantly help me focus my attention and my learning as I get started.
Making my 1:1s work well (especially as a new manager)
Having this list is one thing. For me, conducting these 1:1s effectively, especially being new, is another. I always try to prioritize their agenda first. However, as a new manager, I also prepare myself to gently guide the conversation if needed, to cover areas important for my own learning. I find it's very important for me to listen actively. I remind myself that since I'm new, it's okay not to know everything! I've found that asking clarifying questions like, "Can you help me understand X better?" shows my engagement and helps me learn faster. I believe that if I show genuine interest in learning about them, the team, and the technology, it greatly helps in building trust. Especially now, as I am processing so much information, I find taking notes is crucial for remembering details and for follow up. If we agree on actions, even small ones I can help with, I make sure to complete them. I believe this shows I listen and am committed, which feels very important for me as a new leader. Finally, being open about my own learning process, I find, can make them more comfortable sharing with me.
It's about connecting, understanding, and starting well
For any manager, these conversations are fundamental. For me, being a new manager in a new company, they are my main support system. They are how I build connections, understand the current situation, identify challenges and opportunities, and, ultimately, begin to lead effectively. I want to explicitly thank my team members again; these dialogues are a two way street, and their engagement is what truly makes this process of learning and connecting possible and so valuable. My hope in sharing these personal insights and questions is simply that they might offer some useful starting points for other new managers in similar data platform roles.
What are some of your best questions, especially when you've been new in a role? Are there any questions from my list that particularly resonate with you, or perhaps any you might approach differently? I’d love to hear them in the comments! I also have a different set of questions I typically ask my own manager (director), and even some I remember being useful when I was an individual contributor on a data platform team. Additionally, I've been thinking about sharing some discussion topics we’ve used that can help data platform teams formulate their ways of working. Let me know in the comments if you want me to share those in upcoming posts.