Pairing w/ Kevin

I had the pleasure of pairing w/ Kevin Kotowski, who’s important to me not only because he’s one of 8th Light’s directors but also because he interviewed me, and I know that I would not be at the light, were it not for him at some level saying I was worthy of the opportunity. I’m endlessly grateful for Kevin, because as I would tell him at lunch during our day together, ‘This has been the best professional experience of my life.’ Throughout the day Kevin would show me his part in creating environments, systems, and teams that enable crafters and clients of 8th Light to have superb experiences.

Kevin has been working in this industry and in the management of technical teams for a long time and it shows both in the content and quality of his work. The previous pairing tour stops I’ve traveled along have been filled with working directly with software. Kevin does play a huge role in the software development process and can code, he’s proven that not only throughout his career but also through beginning and completing an apprenticeship at 8th Light, showing genuine humility by doing so as an already experienced and successful software professional. So, clearly he can code but doesn’t much anymore because his skillset in the higher level challenges of building software & running software teams of quality is tremendously more valuable and a great deal less common.

The day started with working on estimates for one project in which Kevin was being contracted to provide CTO services on. Estimating is one of the more difficult things we do as crafters, and Kevin does it for multiple teams on any given day. It’s pretty impressive to think that as a director, Kevin is not only running teams of 8th Lighters, but is also a providing sellable services as a solo agent for 8th Light in our CTOaaS offering. How can one person do so much without being a giant stressball waiting to burst? Organization

Kevin might be the most organized and detail oriented person I’ve worked with outside of the Marine Corps. It’s not a perfect comparison, but the roles he plays for 8th Light: To me seem similar to the roles my Platoon Sergeants took on when I was in the infantry. Like them, he’s particular, but for good reason; he knows what systems, practices, and principles work for him (and others as well) and through maintaining these systems with discipline and care, he’s able to get an incredible amount of work done without sacrificing on communication or quality… And does so with a smile! This makes me consider my own level of organization. I’d like to pull back into my life more of the discipline around controlling what I can; that I once had but have let slip since leaving the Marines. I’ve rekindled some of those intangible inner fires since coming to 8th Light, but I have plenty left to light.

As the morning wrapped up we walked from 8th Light to a client site stopping for a short lunch along the way. It was a pleasant experience being able to walk and talk with Kevin about all sorts of things: Directorial styles, 8th Light’s organization design, the apprenticeship, it as a common binding thread, and our mutual love & gratitude for working at 8th Light. We also talked about how expensing at 8th Light works after I told him it was one of those housekeeping details that I have no idea about but am curious to learn.

After lunch, we arrived at the client site and where Kevin ran two IPM’s, one for the client we were at and another where we slipped into a quiet room for because they were remote. Kevin scripts small portions of these IPMs but mostly let’s the developers talk about their work, only interjecting when he hears something that gives him an idea relating to the path forward.

At the end of the day I asked for feedback from Kevin. I should note that the evening before Kevin and I agreed to meet at the office at 9am. The morning of pairing I hopped in an Uber at about 8:45am and within a few minutes realized I was not going to make it by 9am. I messaged him at 8:49am saying I would be there by 9:10am and I walked into his office at 9:07am. Kevin is direct and speaks with conviction, which is greatly appreciated. Of course his feedback was that I should have been on time. Even though I wasn’t crazy late, this is still a pattern for me. My timeliness needs work, and I feel terrible when I let people down, or when they have to wait on me, so this needs to be a focus for me over the next year if I’m to be happy and perceived as professional. In the USMC we had to be everywhere 15 minutes prior, and even though that often worked out to us standing in formation for hours waiting on leadership, it was still a good principle for making sure you were where you were supposed to be by the time you were expected to be there. For me the mornings are tough. I have 3 diagnosed sleep disorders and one additional sleep problem that’s really horrible when it occurs but has been happening less frequently (Reduced frequency that I believe is in part because this work makes me happy). I started to try to explain that to Kevin but it came out wrong and sounded like I was trying to make an excuse, so I held off. The truth is being a few minutes late that morning had little to do with my sleep disorders (other than the time being earlier than my unusual circadian rhythm is tuned for). Since agreed on a time and I should have said something when we were planning it out if I thought it might be an issue but I struggle to know how to talk about it. I was just running a little behind that morning and could have been more organized and would have gotten there on time. I can’t control my sleep disorders, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have the means to control my timeliness and expectations on it.

It was good to see what Kevin does and get an idea for how he directs teams. One thing I wish I would have asked him is: What can individual crafters do to make him more effective in his work? I like to ask questions like that because I genuinely try to do what I can to make the lives of people I interact with easier and happier, especially when I see that they do the same and there’s no doubt that through his work Kevin makes the work if not the lives of his teams easier.