> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://starikov.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Brag Doc Template
- URL: https://starikov.co/brag-doc-template/
- Published: 2026-07-08T03:13:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-08T03:13:49.000Z
- Description: A simple template for tracking your engineering impact across a performance cycle.
- Author: Illya Starikov
- Tags: Software Engineering, AI Generated

Copy this file, fill in your own content. Update the Quarterly logs once a month. Promote items into the upper sections every 2-4 weeks. At review time, you trim and reorder. Don't write from scratch.

![](https://starikov.co/content/images/2026/05/brag-doc-template.png)

[Brag Doc TemplateLaTeX mirror of this template.brag\_doc\_template.tex18 KBdownload-circle](https://starikov.co/content/files/2026/05/brag%5Fdoc%5Ftemplate.tex "Download")

[Brag Doc Template PDFThe accompanying PDF.brag\_doc\_template.pdf64 KBdownload-circle](https://starikov.co/content/files/2026/05/brag%5Fdoc%5Ftemplate.pdf "Download")

---

## Metadata

| Field        | Value                   |
| ------------ | ----------------------- |
| Owner        | *Your name*             |
| Level        | *e.g., Senior SWE (L5)* |
| Period       | *e.g., H2 2025*         |
| Manager      | *Name*                  |
| Last updated | *YYYY-MM-DD*            |

---

## Goals

*The 2-5 goals you set with your manager at the start of the cycle. Mirror them at the end with a status and one-line outcome.*

| Goal                                                 | Status     | Outcome                                     |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| *Lead the migration of Service X to Service Y by Q3* | 🟢 Done    | *Migrated 12 services; cut p99 latency 30%* |
| *Mentor 2 junior engineers to mid-level readiness*   | 🟡 Partial | *1 promoted, 1 in progress*                 |

🟢 done · 🟡 partial · 🔴 missed · ⚪️ deprioritized

---

## TL;DR

*3-7 bullets, each one quantified. Lead with the biggest thing. This is what your manager pastes into calibration.*

- *Led launch of, cutting checkout latency 38% (p99 480ms → 297ms) for 12M MAU.*
- *Authored the Service Mesh RFC adopted by 4 orgs (\~140 engineers), eliminating \~3 FTE-quarters of duplicated work.*
- *Designed and shipped the new rate-limiting kernel; cut error budget burn 67% YoY.*
- *Mentored 3 ICs; 2 promoted (L3→L4, L4→L5).*
- *Onsite interviewer for 28 candidates; closed 4 hires.*

---

## Executive Summary

*One to three short paragraphs. What was the team trying to do, what was your role in it, what's different because you were there.*

> In H2 2025 the Checkout org's primary goal was to launch in 14 new markets. I owned the payments-integration workstream end-to-end, taking it from an ambiguous "support local payment methods in EU and APAC" charter to a shipped system processing \~$180M GMV/month at p99 < 300ms. The work spanned four teams and required a new abstraction layer (RFC-217), since adopted by Subscriptions and Marketplace.  
>  
> Beyond the project, I sponsored two mid-level engineers through their first cross-team designs; both now lead their own workstreams. Growth area: I under-invested in upward communication during the Q3 incident cluster. I've started a weekly written status to my skip in Q4 and feedback has been positive.

---

## Workstreams

*One subsection per major project. Use STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. 3-5 per cycle is typical. Fewer reads as low impact. More reads as scattered.*

### \[Outcome-shaped title, e.g., "Made international expansion possible"\]

- **Situation.** *What problem existed before you started? Quantify the pain.*
- **Task.** *What you were asked, or what you decided, to do.*
- **My role.** *Sole engineer / TL with 4 ICs / co-lead with @alice / reviewer & sponsor of @bob's work. Honest attribution makes your real contribution legible.*
- **Action.** *3-6 things you did. Decisions you made and why. Trade-offs you owned. Partners (PM, design, data) you worked with.*
- **Result.** *Numbers. Adoption. Behavior change.*
- **Artifacts.** *Links to design docs, PRs, launches, dashboards, postmortems.*

*Repeat the block above for each major workstream.*

---

## Artifacts

*Direct links. Reviewers cross-reference these. Keep it skim-able.*

- **Design docs / RFCs.** *Title: one line on impact*
- **Significant PRs.** *Title: one line on impact*
- **Talks / posts.** *Title: venue, audience size*
- **Incidents / on-call.** *e.g., IC for 3 sev-2s; 8 shifts; \~24 pages*
- **Hiring.** *Loops: 28 · Hires closed: 4 · Bar-raiser: 12*
- **Above and beyond.** *Open-source, internal community work, DEI, conference talks*

---

## Peer Reviewers

*Who can speak to which work. Share this section with them so they know what to comment on.*

| Reviewer | Relationship      | What they can speak to                    |
| -------- | ----------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| *@alice* | *Cross-team peer* | *RFC-217 review, payments collab*         |
| *@bob*   | *Direct mentee*   | *Mentorship effectiveness*                |
| *@carol* | *Sister-team TL*  | *Cross-team alignment, incident response* |

---

## Growth

*The section reviewers trust most. Name real things. "I should communicate more" is not a growth area.*

**What I got better at.** *e.g., Writing strategy docs that get traction outside my org. 0 → 3 adopted RFCs.*

**What I missed or got wrong.** *e.g., Q3 incident cluster: I under-communicated to skip-level for \~2 weeks. Course-corrected with a weekly written status; feedback positive in Q4.*

**Where I want feedback.** *e.g., Am I operating at the L6 bar on technical scope? Where am I still acting like a Senior IC instead of a Staff IC?*

---

## Quarterly Log

*The raw material. Update once a month; one entry per quarter. Promote items upward every 2-4 weeks.*

### Template entry

```
## YYYY Qn

- Shipped:   [Major PRs, launches, decisions this quarter]
- Designed:  [RFCs, docs, proposals]
- Helped:    [Mentees, unblocks, sponsored work]
- Incidents: [On-call shifts, sev levels, what I learned]
- Decisions: [Strategic decisions that landed]
- Quotes:    [Positive feedback received this quarter]
- Lessons:   [Honest notes; private to you]
- Metrics:   [Dashboard movement traceable to me]

```

### Example entry

```
## 2025 Q4

- Shipped:   RFC-217 (payments abstraction) reached 100% rollout
             Rate-limit kernel to 100% (canary started Q3)
             Onboarded @marketplace onto the new auth flow
- Designed:  RFC-217 v3 published; reviews from 4 orgs
             RFC-218 (Service Mesh follow-on) draft circulated
- Helped:    Co-authored @alice's L3 → L4 promo packet
             Sponsored @bob's first cross-team design review
             Unblocked @marketplace on auth migration (3 × 40min)
- Incidents: IC for 2 sev-2s (Oct 14, Nov 2); 12 pages total
             Cut false-positive rate 60% via alert config
- Decisions: Deferred Project Zeta to H1 (~6 eng-weeks saved)
             Pushed back on premature dual-write; saved a quarter
- Quotes:    @director on RFC-217: "clearest doc this quarter"
             @skip on RFC-218: "exactly the right altitude"
- Lessons:   4-day meeting series that should've been a doc;
             next time, propose async first
- Metrics:   p99 checkout 312ms → 297ms (post-canary)
             Build time 41min → 17min (CI parallelization)
             Error budget burn 4.2× SLO → 1.4× SLO YoY

```