Episode 465: Talking to your report's previous manager and how to replace a 30-year-old ticketing system

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Jun 16, 2025

The hosts tackle the delicate art of communicating with former managers about new team members. They weigh the value of past feedback against the potential biases that come with it. Laughter ensues as they ponder the challenges of replacing a clunky, 30-year-old ticketing system. Insights reveal how ingrained habits can hinder change, but there's hope for modernization. Engaging anecdotes showcase how to appreciate the current system while nudging for progress, emphasizing the importance of careful integration when introducing new tools.

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ADVICE

Manage Prior Feedback Carefully

Gather as much input from previous managers about new team members but consider potential biases.
Use the feedback to proactively watch for patterns without letting it overly influence your judgment.

INSIGHT

Focus on Future Potential

Past issues of an employee belong to their history, but their future performance is your leadership opportunity.
Resetting someone with a new team can foster growth and change old patterns.

ANECDOTE

Git-SVN Bridge Success Story

At a prior company, early adopters used a Git-SVN bridge to gently transition from Subversion to Git.
Demonstrations of faster workflows and useful features naturally convinced others to switch.

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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

A listener named Mike says,

To what degree do you think it’s appropriate to talk with your peer managers about people that have moved from their team to yours? How much weight do you give their criticisms of an IC that they used to manage that is working out just fine under your leadership? How do you know if it was mostly due to a conflict in their relationship, or if there’s a nugget of truth you need to look out for?
Hi, thanks for a great show. I’ve listened to 400 episodes in a year - thanks for making my commute fun!

I’ve been at my current job as a software developer for a year. It’s a great company overall, but we rely on a 30-year-old in-house ticket system that also doubles as a time reporting tool. It lacks many basic features, and project managers often resort to SQL and Excel just to get an overview. As you can imagine, things get forgotten and lost easily. Everyone dislikes it, but the old-timers are used to it.

They want any replacement to be cheap and also handle time reporting, which really limits our options. I suggested to keep using the old system for time reporting only for now, but the reaction made me feel like I’d suggested going back to pen and paper.

While the company is old and set in its ways in some areas, it has made big changes in others, so I’m not ready to give up hope just yet. How can I at least nudge the company toward adopting a more modern ticket system to improve visibility and planning? I’ve shown examples that save time and offer better overviews, but it hasn’t made much impact. Where should I focus my efforts—or do I just have to learn to live with it?

Some more context: This is in Europe and the culture at the company is generally open to feedback and discussions from anyone. I have 10+ years experience and a relatively good influence. My manager is driving change successfully to make the company more modern but I suspect he might have given up on this one.