Humanizing One-on-ones & Redefining web with Next.js 13 🚀

Hey friend,

I took a short break and went to give a conference talk in London, UK. My talk was about Building a lightning-fast app in Next.js, GraphQL and Tailwind. The conference's energy was insane, and it felt so good to connect with others.

Here is a photo of all the speakers and organizers on stage (spot me if you can 👀).

React Advanced Conf 🗓 Oct 21 & 24 @ReactAdvanced That's it for this year's #ReactAdvanced! We’re deeply grateful to all the attendees, speakers, sponsors, incredible MCs, and volunteers for making this day unforgettable. See you next year – stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/DIPsEgRcuI October 24th 2022 10 Retweets 48 Likes

I also travelled around Portugal and Barcelona as well. It was a much-needed break, and I highly recommend it if you need it. Anyway, let’s get into this week’s newsletter. 👇

One-on-one Meeting

A one-on-one meeting is very personal with your manager. If you are a leader, this meeting is more about them than you. So, avoid asking for project updates, ticket status updates, etc.; instead, focus on what they want to discuss. They are the star of the meeting, and it's your job as their leader to help them shine brighter. ⭐️

It's about growing them, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and helping them grow. Humanize the process and invest time in them. 💜

This should be your focus in a one-on-one:

• Brainstorm blockers and see if they need help
• Learn to structure your one-on-ones (more below)
• Set expectations to set a schedule
• Focus on their growth and development
• Document action items

You need to add this list of powerful questions to your toolkit. This list is excellent as it gives you a set of questions to help you navigate the conversation and get curious.

How to structure your one-on-ones: (CAPG acronym)

• Create a safe place
• Appreciate
• Provide Constructive Feedback
• Get curious and coach

You ask them questions using the list of powerful questions, get curious about their struggles, figure out how you can help them, appreciate them when they have done an excellent job and provide constructive feedback if needed.

Overall, your goal should be to create a safe place so they can be vulnerable and consider you their coach and cheerleader.

If you have given them feedback in the past, you should also appreciate it if you see any improvements. This would motivate them to work on it more. Don’t give feedback too early or too late - find the right time for it.

🚀 Here are a couple of FREE templates 🙌 for you to run your one-on-ones more effectively:

Next.js 13 is Redefining the web 🚀

Next.js has come out with a new version that changes many things. They are again trying to change how we think about building components and performance.

I've been working on recording some content to make it easier for you to learn Next.js 13 but in the meanwhile, check out how I would approach learning it.

Here is how I would approach learning about Next.js 13

• Learn about Server components, Suspense in React before you touch Next.js 13
• Create a simple app with Server and Client components such as a todo list to build a solid foundation
• Next.js Routing - Learn about the changes in pages first, such as the Image component, link component
• App folder - To adopt server and client components, you need to start moving stuff to the app folder. But please first focus on all the changes inside the pages directory before moving to the app, as it can be very confusing if you don’t.
• Once you have a solid understanding of the above concepts, start considering upgrading.

I’m planning to create threads on Twitter explaining these concepts, so keep an eye out for them.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.