Read the original at Lenny’s Newsletter ↗lennysnewsletter.com · subscriber post
By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
A guest post by product leader Tamara Hinckley offering a step-by-step playbook for building a parental leave coverage plan. It walks through timing the rollout with stakeholders, choosing a leave timeline, assigning DRIs for projects and meetings, supporting a team, limiting contact availability, and advocating for yourself during review cycles.
Subscriber post — summary only01Key takeaways
- Start the coverage plan months before leave and socialize it with your manager, skip-level, team, and stakeholders.
- Assign a directly responsible individual for each project, meeting, or focus area so work continues without overloading anyone.
- Limit availability during leave, especially early on, and share a clear policy routing urgent issues through your manager.
- Managers should arrange mentors or interim leads for direct reports and handle open hiring and performance reviews before leaving.
- Write your self-review and line up peer reviewers in advance so you can still be evaluated and promoted while away.
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.