Frameworks for effective mentoring and knowledge transfer. Use for 1:1 meetings, pair programming, onboarding, teaching technical concepts, and developing junior engineers.
This skill provides frameworks for effective mentoring, knowledge transfer, and developing other engineers.
A framework for teaching new skills progressively:
| Phase | Mentor Role | Mentee Role | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crawl | Do, they observe | Watch and ask questions | Until they understand the "what" |
| Walk | Guide heavily | They try, you correct |
| Until they can do it with help |
| Run | Provide guardrails | They lead, you advise | Ongoing with decreasing support |
Crawl: You review PRs together, thinking aloud about what you look for, why things matter, what makes good/bad code.
Walk: They do the review, you watch. You ask questions: "What about this section?" You course-correct in real-time.
Run: They review independently. You spot-check occasionally and discuss any disagreements. They come to you with edge cases.
Key principle: Stay in each phase long enough. Rushing to "Run" creates gaps.
Instead of giving answers, ask questions that lead to understanding:
| Instead of... | Ask... |
|---|---|
| "Use a hash map here" | "What data structure would give us O(1) lookups?" |
| "You need to handle null" | "What happens if this value is null?" |
| "That's inefficient" | "What's the time complexity here? Could we do better?" |
| "Don't do it that way" | "What are the trade-offs of this approach?" |
When NOT to use Socratic questioning:
Trust is the foundation of effective mentoring:
Show genuine interest in their goals
Create psychological safety
Maintain confidentiality
Be consistent and reliable
Acknowledge when they teach you
People learn differently. Adapt your approach:
| Style | Signs | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Visual | Asks for diagrams, draws things out | Use whiteboarding, architecture diagrams, code walkthroughs |
| Auditory | Learns from discussion, podcasts | Talk through concepts, think-aloud, verbal explanations |
| Kinesthetic | Prefers hands-on practice | Pair programming, experiments, building things |
| Reading/Writing | Prefers documentation | Point to docs, have them write summaries |
Most people are a mix. Start with all approaches, then observe what clicks.
Pair programming is a powerful mentoring tool when done well. See references/pair-programming-guide.md for detailed guidance.
Effective 1:1s are the backbone of mentoring. See references/one-on-one-structure.md for detailed templates.
❌ Grabbing the keyboard when they struggle ✅ Ask guiding questions, let them try
❌ "You know what a REST API is, right?" ✅ "What's your experience with REST APIs?"
❌ Explaining everything about microservices at once ✅ Focus on what they need now, save rest for later
❌ Only discussing technical work ✅ Check in on how they're doing personally
❌ "I'll just fix this, it's faster" ✅ "Let's fix this together so you see how"
Track mentee development over time:
references/pair-programming-guide.md - Communication during pairingreferences/one-on-one-structure.md - 1:1 meeting frameworks/soft-skills:write-1on1-agenda command - Generate 1:1 agendasfeedback-conversations skill - Giving developmental feedbackprofessional-communication skill - General communication patternsDate: 2025-12-26 Model: claude-opus-4-5-20251101