Practice : Engineering Office Hours
Purpose and Strategic Importance
Engineering Office Hours are regularly scheduled drop-in sessions where engineers can seek advice, unblock problems, and discuss challenges with experts across disciplines. They create intentional time for support, peer learning, and shared problem solving - without needing formal meetings or tickets.
Office Hours reinforce a culture of enablement and responsiveness, reduce silos, and help platform or enablement teams stay connected to delivery teams' real-world needs.
Description of the Practice
- Sessions are typically hosted weekly or biweekly, either per team (e.g. SRE, platform, data) or as a rotating schedule.
- Open to all engineers - no formal agenda required.
- Questions can range from infrastructure and tooling to testing, design, or architecture.
- Sessions are timeboxed, welcoming, and facilitated with a focus on psychological safety and curiosity.
- May also include demos, Q&A, or quick design reviews.
How to Practise It (Playbook)
1. Getting Started
- Pick a regular cadence and create a recurring calendar invite.
- Share the scope, hosts, and format up front (e.g. “bring a question, blocker, or curiosity”).
- Choose a visible, accessible space - virtual or physical - and publicise widely.
- Rotate facilitators from relevant teams to avoid bottlenecks.
2. Scaling and Maturing
- Track topics and questions to inform FAQs, documentation, or tooling improvements.
- Create async channels (e.g. Slack threads, office hours boards) to supplement live sessions.
- Pair with documentation reviews, incident follow-ups, or guild conversations.
- Invite guests from product, security, or data to support cross-cutting queries.
- Celebrate when advice leads to unblockings, learnings, or reduced toil.
3. Team Behaviours to Encourage
- Ask questions early - no question is too small or too late.
- Listen actively and share insights back to your team.
- Treat office hours as community time - not just escalation paths.
- Offer to contribute improvements or docs if a gap is discovered.
4. Watch Out For…
- Sessions dominated by a few voices - encourage balance and inclusion.
- Lack of visibility or inconsistent hosting reducing participation.
- Questions going unanswered - follow-through matters.
- Using office hours as a substitute for sustainable tooling or documentation.
5. Signals of Success
- Engineers bring real challenges and leave with actionable guidance.
- Teams feel more connected, supported, and informed.
- Repeated questions lead to improved self-service and documentation.
- Platform and enablement teams stay aligned with delivery friction.
- Office Hours become a valued, trusted space for growth and support.