People Manager Toolkit

Build a Hiring Funnel from Scratch

Elective. A hiring funnel from JD to offer for 3+ roles is the first operational proof that you can select for talent, not just manage existing people.

Build a 4-Day Onboarding Program

Elective. A structured onboarding program is the fastest way to halve the time a new hire takes to contribute. The 4-day schedule and new-hire completion rate are the proof.

Complete a Full Performance Review Cycle

Elective. Running an end-to-end review cycle — calibration, written assessments, delivery, and follow-through — is the most important management system most new managers never build.

Ship a Team Charter and Ways of Working

Elective. A team charter operated for 90+ days proves you can align a team on how they work together — the soft-system equivalent of a technical architecture.

Design a Compensation Framework

Elective. Building a job-level compensation framework with bands and market data is the HR-adjacent skill that unlocks principled pay decisions at growing teams.

Resolve a Major Team Conflict (Documented)

Elective. A documented major conflict resolution — with outcome and follow-through — proves the hardest management skill: navigating interpersonal problems without an HR safety net.

Complete SHRM-CP Certification

Elective. The SHRM-CP is the recognised people management credential for those who want formal HR training alongside practical experience.

Improve Team Communication

Elective. Documented improvement to how your team shares information and makes decisions — meeting cadence, async norms, or escalation paths redesigned with measured result.

Improve Sprint Delivery

Elective. A measurable improvement in sprint completion rate or cycle time, with the before/after data and the specific intervention documented.

Improve Team Accountability

Elective. Proof that commitments made by your team are completed at a higher rate after a specific structural change you implemented.

Improve Team Retention

Elective. A measurable improvement in 12-month retention rate with the specific intervention documented — exit interview data, compensation change, or culture initiative with follow-up data.

Improve Knowledge Sharing

Elective. A knowledge system your team actually uses — documented processes, decision logs, or onboarding wikis with adoption evidence, not just files that exist.

Free and the most practically useful management content available. Start with the 'Trinity' episodes on one-on-ones, feedback, and coaching before anything else.

Free management frameworks and 1:1 templates from an experienced engineering leader. The feedback equation and resilience building posts are immediately applicable.

Free hiring, performance, and team health playbooks from Google's people operations research. The Project Aristotle findings on team effectiveness are the best free research on what makes teams work.

Free practitioner-written management articles from founders and leaders at real companies. The archive on management, culture, and people is deep and consistently high quality.

The official HR body's free tools and knowledge base. The job description templates and performance review frameworks are the most useful free HR resources available.