Org Web Adapter

Editing hungryroot/2026-Q2-self-evaluation.org

#+title: 2026 Q2 Self-Evaluation
#+author: Colin Powell
#+date: 2026-06-05

* Hungryroot: Senior BE, API Team (Jan-Jun 2026)

** Q1 2026 (Jan-Mar) — Ramp-up, Platform Hardening, V1→V2 Migration

*** API Migration Leadership:
- Audited all **104 V1 endpoints**, created per-route migration tickets, documented V2 equivalents, coordinated with client teams (BE-6303)
- Removed non-slash route variants (BE-1827), filled V1→V2 parity gaps (customer_info PATCH, promo data, order skip logic, reschedule order)
- Impact: Legacy API surface area reduced. Client teams (mobile, web) now build against a single documented contract. Foundation for eventually turning off V1.

*** Data Integrity & Observability:
- Investigated/resolved Datadog signup/checkout metric under-reporting (BE-6895)
- Created Segment event name constants, ensured customer.signup fires even if Segment enqueue fails, normalized emails before auth, emitted checkout.submit after DB commit (BE-7134/7143/7144/7145)
- Impact: Marketing has accurate conversion metrics. Signup events are never lost due to Segment failures.

*** Recipes by Ingredients (100% complete):
- Added ingredient/productId filter to V2 PairingList, V3 Pairing, and V3 Filter Pairing APIs with performance evaluation
- Impact: ~46% of users report having leftover ingredients — this feature enables ingredient-based recipe discovery

*** CI Performance:
- Improved CI build-test speed by moving MySQL to tmpfs + InnoDB tuning
- Impact: Reduced test run times significantly. Demonstrated at sprint demo.

*** Security:
- Fixed SMS opt-in/opt-out authorization gap — unauthenticated requests could subscribe any phone number (BE-7373)
- Impact: Closed a potential Braze cost abuse and customer harassment vector

*** SQL Optimization:
- Analyzed/optimized calculate_nth_shipped Celery task SQL performance (BE-6882)
- Impact: Reduced DB load on a frequently-run query

** Q2 2026 (Apr-Jun) — Cookbooks MVP, Exp 242, Brand Model

*** Cookbooks MVP (Flagship Feature):
- Authored the Cookbook Technical Design Document (BE-7389 spike)
- Built the entire backend from scratch — cookbooks Django app with models (Cookbook, CookbookAuthor, CookbookCollection, CookbookSection, CookbookItem), migrations, serializers, V3 read APIs, V2 write (PUT upsert) APIs, image upload via multipart/form-data, API key auth for content ingestion
- Added admin refinements (raw_id_fields, auto-slug generation), discovery home integration (public endpoints for pre-signup homepage), search, filtering, featured cookbook support
- Impact: This is the Brand Pod's flagship feature — editorial cookbook collections on the homepage and discovery surfaces. I was the sole backend engineer designing and shipping it in ~6 weeks.

*** Favorites Tab / Exp 242 (Step 1 toward user-created cookbooks):
- Authored Exp 242 TDD defining the architecture
- Built FavoritesService with cookbook-shaped responses returning typed pairing_id/product_id items
- Delivered V3 GET endpoint for favorites and POST endpoint for shareable cookbook slugs
- Investigated missing experiment data (Segment vs MySQL discrepancy) for Fanny
- Impact: Mobile Favorites tab launching. Shareable cookbook mechanics are step 1 toward full user-created cookbooks.

*** Contract Testing Initiative:
- Evaluated Schemathesis + Pact for API drift detection (BE-7541 spike)
- Drafted Q2 goal for automated contract testing, kicked off implementation
- Impact: Phase 1 (Schemathesis) will catch schema/implementation mismatches at PR time instead of integration

*** Brand Model (Phase 1 in flight):
- Authored the First-Class Brand Model Plan — canonical Brand model replacing denormalized Product.brand_name strings
- Impact: Brand-led merchandising will build against a real model with consistent spelling, shared assets, clean cardinality

*** Team & Culture:
- Release Engineer for Sprints 106, 107, 108, 110 — managed code freezes and prod deployments
- On-call rotation duties
- Camp Counselor — employee culture role (board game meetups, book club)
- 90-day onboarding: Completed at 100% ahead of schedule
- All Q1 goals: Completed at 100% (Onboarding, Brand Pod support, Recipes by Ingredients)
- Technical trust: Stephen asked me to investigate MCP hooks for AI-assisted development
- Knowledge sharing: Mentored Cris on OpenAPI schema resolution, walked team through Cookbook architecture

* Consolidated Impact Summary

| Period | Theme | Key Deliverable | Business Impact |
|--------|-------|----------------|-----------------|
| Jan-Mar 2026 | Platform migration | V1→V2 audit of 104 endpoints, Segment data fix, CI optimization | Cleaner API contract, accurate conversion metrics, faster tests |
| Mar-May 2026 | Flagship feature | Cookbooks MVP backend — sole engineer | Brand Pod's biggest initiative, live in production |
| May-Jun 2026 | Growth feature | Favorites Tab / Exp 242 — lead backend engineer | Mobile engagement feature, path to user-created cookbooks |
| May-Jun 2026 | Platform quality | Contract testing kickoff, Brand model plan | Fewer integration regressions, first-class brand entity |

* Areas for Improvement

** 1. Scope better — say no more often

- I'm wearing too many hats: Cookbooks lead BE, release engineer, on-call, Camp Counselor, contract testing kickoff, Brand model plan, Exp 242, plus unplanned requests (Cris's linting issue cost me a day I called out in my weekly report).
- My March report flags "context switching cost" and "messed up communication with product on deadlines." The bottleneck isn't competence — it's capacity.
- Action: Pick two things to drop or defer each sprint. Be explicit about trade-offs in sprint planning.

** 2. Product-adjacent communication habits

- My March weekly report flags deadline miscommunication with product — I need to invest in over-communication.
- Action: Slack the PM after every TDD review with a written ETA summary, or bring a written ETA to standup. The raw output is great; expectation-setting is where trust leaks.

** 3. Formalize mentorship / influence arc

- I have a staff_engineer.org file and my one-on-ones touch on MCP research, but I don't have visible mentees or cross-team leverage documented.
- Action: Pick one engineer (Cris? a mobile counterpart?) and do weekly pairing. Staff-level impact is multiplied through others, not just shipping.

** 4. Post-ship learning capture

- I write excellent planning docs but I don't do post-mortems or retro notes on what went wrong. Each ship (CI bug BE-7219, deadline miss, sms_consent rollback) is a learning moment.
- Action: Write a 5-line "what I'd do differently" capture after each ship. These compound quickly.

** 5. Visibility beyond the API team

- My impact is concentrated in BE code and Brand Pod. Staff Engineer signals usually include cross-team patterns, influencing org-wide decisions, or writing that changes how other teams work.
- The contract testing TDD and V1 migration audit are strong examples — I should lean into writing those up for Confluence or Lunch &amp; Learn.
- Action: Schedule one Lunch &amp; Learn or Confluence post per quarter on a cross-cutting pattern.