The short version
- The buddy role is described as mentoring and performed as a help desk. Most of what they do is look things up on someone else's behalf.
- A lost month for the buddy is the usual cost, and it is never in the sprint plan, so it reads as the buddy being slow.
- Split the role: retrieval goes to the record, mentoring stays with the human. Mentoring is what they are good at and what the new hire needs.
- Good buddies start declining the role after the second time. That is the signal to fix the design rather than find a more willing volunteer.
The onboarding buddy is a good idea implemented in a way that punishes whoever accepts it. Nobody intends this, and it happens on almost every team, for a reason that becomes obvious once you sort what the buddy actually spends their time on.
"Buddy month is a lost month for the buddy."
The role as described and as performed
| As described | As performed |
|---|---|
| Help them understand the domain | Tell them where the staging credentials are |
| Coach them through their first tickets | Confirm whether a pattern is current or legacy |
| Introduce them to the team | Explain who approves what |
| Be a safe person to ask anything | Answer forty retrieval questions a week |
The left column is high-value work that requires a person. The right column is retrieval, and it consumes the month. So the buddy does the role they were assigned and delivers almost none of the value it was designed for.
The lost month nobody plans for
The cost never appears in a plan. The buddy keeps their full sprint commitments, absorbs the questions on top, and either works longer or delivers less. If they deliver less, it looks like underperformance, because the reason is distributed across a hundred two-minute interruptions that nobody recorded.
The second-order effect is worse. Good buddies, the ones who answer patiently and explain well, get asked to do it again. After the second or third time they decline, which means the role migrates to whoever is least able to say no, which is usually the person least equipped for it.
Split the role
Separate the two columns explicitly, and give the retrieval half somewhere else to go.
With StandIn, each person on the team confirms a ninety-second brief at the end of their day, mostly pre-drafted from the work they already did. The new hire asks the team's StandIns first: where a thing stands, why an approach was chosen, who owns a decision. They get the answer in the relevant person's words, with a source under every answer, clearly labelled, at whatever hour they are working. It never guesses, so when the record cannot settle something it says so and names who to ask, which routes exactly the mentoring questions to the buddy.
The buddy's month then looks like the left column. They are coaching rather than looking things up, which is both more valuable and considerably more satisfying, and it is why people will accept the role a second time. See StandIn for the first 30 days.
What a buddy should actually do
With retrieval handled, the role becomes small and specific.
- Two protected slots a week, thirty minutes each. On the calendar, so the joiner does not have to judge whether now is a bad moment.
- Review their first three pieces of work closely. Not for correctness alone, but for the assumptions behind the approach.
- Introduce them to four other people. Explicitly, with a reason each time. This is what stops the buddy remaining the sole route in month two.
- Answer the judgement questions. Should I refactor this, is this worth raising, how does this team handle disagreement. Nothing else can do this.
That is a few hours a week rather than a lost month, and it is a role worth doing.
Common Questions
How much time does an onboarding buddy need?
A few hours a week if the retrieval questions go elsewhere, and more than a day a week if they do not. Budget it explicitly either way, and reduce the buddy's own commitments accordingly.
Should the buddy be senior?
Not necessarily. Someone one or two years in is often better for the mentoring half, because they remember what was confusing. Seniority matters for judgement questions, which is a smaller share than most people expect.
Why do people avoid being a buddy?
Because the role as performed is a help desk with no capacity allowance. Fix the design and the same people volunteer again, since the coaching part is genuinely rewarding.
Should the buddy also be the reviewer?
For the first few pieces of work, yes, since the review is where the most useful teaching happens. After that, spread the reviews around so the joiner builds a relationship with more than one person.
Log off like you mean it.
Your StandIn answers the questions that come up while you're out, from what you actually wrote down, so the return pile stays small.