Welcome to your first month at Polar! This timeline helps you get up to speed and make your first contributions.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://handbook.polar.sh/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Before You Start
Equipment & Setup
- Receive laptop and equipment
- Set up home office (budget available)
- Install necessary software and tools
- Access to Slack, GitHub, Linear, and other tools
Administrative
- Complete HR paperwork
- Set up benefits and payroll
Week 1: Getting Oriented
Goals
- Get familiar with the team and codebase
- Understand our users and product
- Make your first contributions (yes, in plural!)
Key Activities
- Team introductions: Meet everyone on the team
- Product walkthrough: Understanding what we build and why
- Development environment: Get local setup working
- First contributions: Small bug fixes and improvements
Expected Outcomes
- Development environment fully working
- Understanding of our product and users
- First pull request merged
- Comfortable with team communication
Week 2: Diving Deeper
Goals
- Understand our users more deeply
- Get comfortable with our technical stack
- Start taking on meaningful work
Key Activities
- User research: Read support tickets, user interviews, feedback
- Shadow support: See real user problems firsthand
- Technical deep dive: Focus on your area of the codebase
- Pair programming: Work with teammates on their tasks
- First feature: Take on a small but meaningful feature
Expected Outcomes
- Deep understanding of user needs and pain points
- Comfort with our technical stack and development process
- Contributing to team discussions and decisions
- First feature merged
Week 3: Shipping Features
Goals
- Ship more features
- Take ownership of code quality and user experience
- Contribute to team processes
Key Activities
- Feature completion: Take ownership of more features and ship them.
- Code reviews: Both giving and receiving substantial feedback
- User testing: See users interact with your code
- Process feedback: Share observations about our development process
Expected Outcomes
- First feature shipped to production
- Comfortable with code review process
- Understanding of how features impact users
- Contributing improvements to team processes
Week 4: Taking Ownership
Goals
- Take ownership of a project area
- Plan your growth trajectory
Key Activities
- Area ownership: Take responsibility for a specific part of the product
- Project planning: Lead a larger feature or improvement
- Knowledge sharing: Help onboard the next new hire or share expertise
- Process improvement: Implement a suggestion for improving how we work
Expected Outcomes
- Clear ownership and accountability for a feature
- Contributing to hiring and onboarding processes
- Actively improving team processes
Continuous Improvement
We regularly update this onboarding process based on:- Feedback from new hires
- Observations from managers and buddies
- Changes in our product and processes
- Industry best practices