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New engineers and onboarding buddies

Engineering onboarding with diagrams in Slack

Walk a new engineer through a current system diagram and its recorded decisions, then make corrections through the board thread.

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Start with one flow a new engineer needs to understand

An onboarding buddy walks through checkout with a new teammate. The diagram gives them a shared map; recorded versions and source messages can explain how that map changed. Missing rationale still needs a person or the formal design document.
1The new teammate asks

Why is there a queue between payment and fulfillment?

A current diagram shows the queue exists. The next step is finding the change and discussion that explain it, rather than guessing from the shape.

# onboarding-lee
Lee Park2:10 PM
Why is there a queue between payment and fulfillment? Looks like extra hops to me.
Sam Rivera2:12 PM
Good question — open the board's HTML file and click the Retry queue. The decision and the thread it came from are right there.
2The buddy prepares

Bring the map and the history behind it

  • A checked, current diagram at one useful level of detail
  • The board thread and retained version history
  • The formal design document for tradeoffs and ownership
  • Authorized access to the relevant source discussion

Start with the route a real request takes through the system. Every node on the walkthrough board can be traced back to the message that added or changed it.

Checkout APIPayment processorRetry queueFulfillment worker
3Recorded rationale

Open the version and the request behind it

Source request for v2:

@Arialine add a retry queue before the worker because fulfillment may fail after payment succeeds

Open the retained version and linked source discussion. Confirm the accepted rationale with your buddy. This request alone does not explain every consequence of the design.

Arialine Decisions panel with recorded diagram changes and source-message links
4Make it a test of understanding

Make the walkthrough a test of understanding

  1. 1Ask the teammate to explain the happy path in their own words.
  2. 2Find the recorded reason for one non-obvious component.
  3. 3Identify one missing label or stale relationship together.
  4. 4Address Arialine in the board thread to request that correction; review the result.
  5. 5Keep the accepted version and normal documentation references accessible to the team.
A review that ends in a committed diagramEngineers and tech leadsOpenThe incident flow, checked and signed offIncident reviewers and service ownersOpenCreate your first boardInstall in an approved workspace, invite Arialine and make one small board.Open

Try one real team workflow

Install in an approved workspace, invite Arialine to the channel, create a small board and review one addressed revision.

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