🦾 The trial period

We consider your first 12 weeks of contributing as a trial period. During this time, you'll work alongside and be treated like other IFT core contributors - you'll have access to the same information, software, (virtual) meetups, and learning opportunities. We're confident that you will be a great addition, or we wouldn't have extended an offer!

However, we have seen that sometimes things don't work out. Working remotely, on new tech, with a super flexible organisation that's constantly evolving isn't to everyone's taste. We want to be very upfront about what we expect from each core contributor.

A clearly defined initial tryout will allow enough time to get to know each other and fully appreciate how we can work together. It might also be that you decide that IFT isn't what you're looking for, and that's okay too.

👉 Check out Contributing to IFT and Value creating behaviours as a guide to help you along your journey

End-trial feedback

Within your first few weeks, you will automatically be invited to join the Lattice platform to set up your user profile. Around week 8 of being engaged with IFT, you will be prompted to select 3-6 other core contributors for your feedback circle and complete your own self-assessment of your contributions. Think carefully about who you would like to include, it should be core contributors who are familiar with your work and the contributions you have made so far.

💡 Top Tip - If you are in a services project, include core contributors within the programs or projects you support.

This feedback circle will be approved by your project lead who is also a reviewer by default.

Feedback will be collected automatically and aggregated into a report for you to discuss with your project lead during your next 1-1.

Once you have passed your trial period, we expect feedback to be regularly shared through either the Lattice platform or via your project lead on an ongoing basis.

We hope that all of our trials will be successful. Still, we may not see the potential for a productive future collaboration together. In that case, People Ops or your project lead will reach out to you about extending your trial or terminating your service agreement with IFT and any related logistics.

❓ FAQs

  • Who has access to the trial feedback?

    The People Ops team, your project lead, Carl, Jarrad.

  • Who decides on the trial outcome?

    The contributor's project lead, who is responsible for the contracting decisions on their project. People Ops acts as a facilitator in the process.

  • Is the feedback anonymous??

    Feedback from peers is anonymous and the scores and comments are aggregated. Feedback from project leads is not anonymous.

  • How do you evaluate whether a trial is successful?

    Based on the feedback received via the trial process we can assess whether a trial has been successful. We ask a diverse set of questions in the feedback form to get a mix of data points - numerical, qualitative, and comparative and aggregate all responses and scores received.

    Important standards like productivity, autonomy, visibility, the quality of output and showing advancement of the Principles would be indicators to how successful a core contributor has been during this trial period. Contributions not being impactful to IFT's overall objectives or developmental feedback, not being addressed would be reasons (among others) to end the trial.

  • Why do you ask so many contributors for feedback?

    The feedback circle is between 3-6 peers, plus a project lead. The response rate is typically ~60%. We want to get as many voices and opinions involved to make the process as fair as possible.

  • How will I know what happens with someone's trial?

    We want to be sensitive to each person's privacy by not discussing details about their performance with other core contributors. As such, we don't (at this point) announce whether trials were successful or not, but we're open to changing that if people would prefer this was made transparent. It’s likely we’d not be able to give specific details of a trial outcome, though.

  • Can I give trial feedback even if I wasn't directly asked?

    100%! You can share trial feedback anytime. You can jump into Lattice and give anyone feedback at any time!

  • This process seems pretty centralised; what's up with that?

    You're not wrong! The trial feedback process was an interim solution to make core contributor engagement as high quality and consistent as possible across Status, but it has stuck in the absence of better alternatives being identified. It's far from perfect, and we're always looking to adapt and iterate it, so share your ideas with People Ops, and we'll incorporate them!

  • How do I get feedback after the trial period?

    We encourage a continuous feedback culture, where you give and receive ongoing feedback. This can happen recurrently through our internal feedback platform Lattice, during your chats with other core contributors, and whenever there's feedback to be shared, such as at the end of a project or after a relevant event. Lattice provides a platform to give feedback to anyone at any time, as well as more scheduled times such as mid and end-of-year performance reviews.