Graeme Profile Picture

About Me

I lead technical teams that product and value focused. I am customer obsessed. I also believe that teams with the best culture have mastered openness and transparency while reducing noise and ambiguity. Collaboration only works well when the facts (the good, the bad and the ugly) are out in the open. As a leader, it's my job to ensure my team has all the context to understand the strategy - the WHY - behind what we're doing. I've shared an analogy with others that often gets a laugh for it's imagery but nonetheless I still find effective. A good leader is effectively a sponge that absorbs ambiguity and emanates clarity and decisiveness.


Looking to break the ice?

Ask about these to get me talking:
  • Family:
    My wife (Caitlin) and I have a son (Myles) and a daughter (Emmy). I could tell stories about them forever.
  • Animals:
    We have a rescue dog (Breeze), two cats (Champ and Minnie) and 3 chickens (Whisky, Frisky, and Fawn).
  • Outdoors:
    My wife and I were married in the Canadian Rockies in Kananaskis, Alberta (literally on a mountaintop!) and our family loves any excuse to get outside and deep into nature's wonders.
  • Sports:
    I play Ultimate, ride mountain bikes, hike, adventure race and enjoy following Formula 1.

Drop me a line

Graeme Harvey
graeme.r.harvey@gmail.com

Values

Accountability

As a manager, I believe I am accountable to my team members first, and then our stakeholders. I assert that our team can deliver best for our stakeholders if its members feel safe, heard, and taken care of.

Transparency

I will never hide or withhold info unless there is a legal or policy reason to do so. If you believe I have info I am not giving you, please ask. We'll either talk about it, or I'll tell you why I can't. If I have withheld info, it is because I believed it was unnecessary noise for you and done with the best of intentions.

Experimentation, Iteration &
Data-Driven Decisions

Through trying, we grow; regardless if we succeed or fail. I believe we must be willing to attempt changes, look at the data, and decide if we're accomplishing what we set out to. Maybe it's a little better and we keep it. Or maybe it sucks and we bin it. Either way, we learned something.

Weaknesses

Wordiness

"El Duderino, if you're not into that whole brevity thing." - The Dude. I tend to use many words when few will do. This can cause my intended message to get lost or muddled. Since I hate being perceived as unclear, I am hyper-focused on improving in this area.

Work/Life Boundaries

Just because I answer messages at all hours of the night does not mean I expect you to. I work best on scattered hours (shout out night owls!) but it's important to remember everyone works differently. I do not intend to model an expectation of constant availability.

Coffee

I need it. And sometimes I answer messages before I've had it. Honestly, it's usually in an attempt to be responsive but unfortunately, these messages read a little less polished than usual. This can cause hurt or lead to misinterpretation so I'm trying not to do it anymore. Coffee, then clarity.

Preferences

Direct & Honest Feedback

Tell it to me straight - I can handle it. The most memorable (and effective) piece of feedback I have received came from a manager who pulled me aside right after a meeting and said "You interrupted James multiple times in there. Don't do that." We elaborated, of course, but the initial delivery was timely and direct.

Remind Me

I have best intentions to do what I say I'll do. If you're not getting something from me that I've promised you - remind me. It won't "bug me". I track tasks in so many ways sometimes things fall through the cracks.

Current Roles

Taking Root

Director of Product Engineering

Leading a cross-functional department of frontend, backend, and mobile engineers / product managers and designers / data engineers.

Kitchener-Waterloo Software Quality Association

Director

KWSQA is a not-for-profit, independent organization of software professionals who have an interest in quality and testing. I attribute much of my career success to being surrounded by great professionals and mentors. This is one way I give back to the community that gave me my start.

Works

Engineering Team Metrics That Matter

Presentation • October 2021

We can measure activity, we can measure delivery, but when we measure the performance of our engineering teams, are we measuring the things that really make a difference? And, if not, how can we succeed in the tricky challenge of measuring every task an engineer does so that it creates a positive outcome for the business? Join Blake Walters and Graeme Harvey who will be discussing how you can measure the performance of your engineering teams using the metrics that matter most.

How PlanGrid (Autodesk) Achieved Consistency in Automation Across 20 Development Teams

Webinar // Cypress.io • February 2020

In this webcast, Tech Lead Brendan Drew and Engineering Manager Graeme Harvey (PlanGrid), along with VP of Engineering Gleb Bahmutov (Cypress.io), demonstrate Plangrid’s approach to ensuring quality by using Cypress tests in a microservice (App Shell) web frontend model. They also share best practices on keeping test code next to feature code.

Advice From a Work-From-Home Manager

Medium Article • March 2020

With teams working from home during these times living and working through COVID-19, I decided to share some advice from my experience managing a team remotely over the last year or so.

Reviews

  • When we were unsure, we could rely on his experience and his knowledge to help guide us to the correct solution. Even if he didn’t have the solution, he was always level headed, reasonable and would provide useful insight.

    Mark Weiss

  • Graeme is a driven individual with not only the goal of getting any job done, but finding new and effective ways of achieving it. His pragmatic way of approaching problems makes him a great team member.

    Richard Rees

  • Woof.

    Breeze