README for Bomee Jung

Hi! I’m Bomee, Co-Founder and CEO of Cadence OneFive.

Bomee is pronounced “bohm-ee.” It’s a pure Korean name (i.e. a name that can’t be written in Chinese characters) meaning, approximately, “spring-child” (Did you know there were hippies in Korea? My parents were hippies). The J in Jung is a hard, as in Jack, not a “y” as in “young.”

I am here because:

  1. The graph on climate action needs to be exponential. Our work will meaningfully contribute because housing accounts for a disproportionate share of GHG emissions from buildings, a top GHG emitter alongside transport.
  2. All climate actions have justice consequences, so we should DO climate justice intentionally.
  3. I’m excited to build a company that has respect for people’s well being and self actualization in its DNA. It’s really high time to do better than the ideas about work that originated in the early days of industrialization (sort of like our addiction to fossil fuels).
  4. The #1 thing I want to do at work is jointly problem-solve stuff with people. What I enjoy most about working with Marc, for example, is we have enough shared context, but also different experiences, so we can throw out ideas, debate them, and then come up with a set of things to test. So: please have opinions; be ready to push and pull on it; and then be ready to DO something about it.

Role at Cadence OneFive

In a nutshell, I build the infrastructure for the company to exist and do its work, and set high-level strategy (with with my co-founder, Marc)

A repeat-founder friend told me that a startup is like an indie movie, where you have all the same roles that need to be filled as to make The Titanic, but a tiny fraction of the people to fill them, so the director is also the writer, producer, casting director, costumes, and music. That seems right, and kudos to indie movie makers!

For the moment, my hats include:

  • Head of Fundraising: Initially, I didn’t know that the CEO had to do the capital raising! I spent 20+ years doing not-startup-things, but funny enough included a lot of fundraising. Startup fundraising is different enough that I’m learning a lot, but also similar.
  • Interim Head of Operations: I’m your HR, IT support, payroll department, contracts department, and . . . um, mail room, I guess - need a mailing list? I’m your gal.
  • Interim CFO: Me and Quickbooks have achieved a tentative detente.
  • Interim UX quality control: I’m the person with the tasting spoon at the pass calling for one more baby carrot for the garnish or whatever.
  • Deprecated! Yay! ~Peaker plant for writing code~: only if all other resources are tapped out and the extra pollution is worth tolerating for a short time; slated for phase out (Gosh, that was a satisfying metaphor). Vi never really leaves your fingers, as it turns out!

Folks with internal handbook access can read my work plan to see how I’ve prioritized these at any given time.

About Me

I identify as:

  • #actuallyAutistic. Happy to talk to you about it.
  • immigrant American of Korean heritage. As a teenager, I chose to be American. I don’t expect to fit in anywhere, but I value that being American doesn’t require fitting in.
  • trans-inclusive radical feminist (“radical” as in “root”, not as in “extreme”), meaning I believe gender (like race) to be a social construct and patriarchy to be a foundational layer among many systems that maintain unjust distributions of power rooted in violence and social and economic structures that oppress everyone, though differentially; Liberation requires constant work by everyone, and part of my work is building a feminist company: power-literate, belonging-focused, and justice-oriented. My pronouns are she/her.
  • a trained urban planner, a person who causes decisions to be made about built environments in the interest of moving society toward civilization while preserving universal human dignity during and through the climate emergency.

I started working on climate action in cities because I realized in my late 20s that climate change is THE most urgent challenge of my generation and that cities are the lever that has to move the global economy. I also just love cities made for people and the social lives they make possible. Though I started working on technology (1998) and Climate (2002) before housing (2008), I am a houser first and last. Shelter is the first need that must be met for someone to grow into the person they could be. We have everything we need to ensure that every person is housed well, and it’s on us to muster up the will to make it so. Housing is a human right!

Like many people, I worry about what kind of world my kids will have to navigate by the 2050s, when they’ll be in their primes. Where we are as a society in managing the climate transition and the effects of climate change – how unequally we share resources, what rights we protect and which we give up in the name of protection – will greatly affect how much they’ll be able to realize their human potentials. So, on a personal level, that’s what drives my sense of mission.

My professional background is summarized in my speaker bio and my LinkedIn profile.

Professional Priorities

At work, I am committed to:

  1. Obviously, to keep us moving fast enough and alive long enough to figure out a solution that people are consistently eager to pay us for.
  2. Keeping focus on the climate justice mission while building a product that removes friction for multifamily retrofits at market scale
  3. Building a vibrant intellectual community within the company and a work culture aligned with our values.
  4. Prioritizing openness whenever and wherever possible, in information, process, etc., so that we can have healthy conflict and for restorative conversations when things go sideways

Outside work, I am committed to:

  1. Mainstreaming the idea of quality housing as a human right.
  2. Supporting people, particularly those with less access, getting into climate action careers. To that end, I set aside time for “open office” informationals.

Help Me Help You

If there is something I can do to help you, let’s discuss it! I have a particular job to do here, but I’m also just a person who wants you to succeed.

  1. I will give you my full attention when asked to focus on something.
  2. I will listen with the intent to hear and understand you.
  3. When I give feedback, it will always be honest and with the intent to help you. I am invested in you doing well while at Cadence OneFive and happy to help you in whatever your future path may be beyond Cadence OneFive.

Please let me know:

  • Your preferred working style: do you like to exchange ideas on paper first, or blue-sky extemporaneously and then refine? When are you most “on” for collaboration? Do you like spontaneous chats, or is that distracting?
  • The type of feedback that motivates you: I tend to be very direct and problem-focused. When you tell me how things land with you, I can calibrate better.
  • If I’m not providing the praise you need, prompt me (“Hey, how’m I doing?” will work). Rest assured that I don’t give insincere feedback, but left to my own devices I might skip right over celebrating something that deserves celebration and go on to the next problem in line.
  • How are you feeling? Please tell me in words. I’m not good at interpreting social cues, so I may be ascribing thoughts or feelings that are at odds with what you are feeling (especially negative emotions).

How You Can Support Me

Understand My Neurodiversity Traits

As an autistic person with an Asperger profile, I sometimes interact in ways that may seem unconventional to neurotypical people. Please note that while I make efforts to accommodate others, there are aspects of my neurodivergence that require mutual understanding and adaptation.

Please try to:

  • Hear WHAT I’m saying. I mean just what I say. I don’t imply things – I just say them. You can just take what I say at face value. If in doubt, please ask.
  • Ignore HOW I’m saying it. Affect–implied emotion conveyed via volume, pace, pitch, and inflection–is not my friend. Also, don’t read into my facial expressions. I don’t know what my face is doing, but apparently, it’s not usually looking super friendly.
  • QUESTIONS are requests for information. I’m asking questions because I’m following a train of thought to understand whatever we’re discussing. I’m not questioning to criticize or imply anything about you.
  • Hear the specific WORDS. I usually choose words for specific meaning. Don’t assume I’m using words loosely or to represent broader concepts.

Please know that during times of stress or anxiety, my ability to self-regulate may decrease. If you feel I’m being critical or shutting you down, it’s likely unintentional. Please inform me immediately if this happens so I can recalibrate.

Help Me Be Strategic

  • Raise issues early on you think I may be overlooking and don’t hesitate to challenge my assumptions. I enjoy the push-and-pull of testing ideas through debate and don’t take it personally.
  • I crave the data and may ask you for the weedy details (and ask a lot of questions) so I can understand your synthesis. I take in information best when messages and documents:
  • Use short, bullet-point lists and simple, concrete language
  • Put action-items first, followed by detail in inverse pyramid style
  • Use tables and flow charts in addition to (or even rather than) paragraphs
  • I like to keep an eye on all the moving parts. Please put things on my weekly radar screen that you think are important so I’m also aware

Keep Me Accountable

  • Please set deadlines for me. If you need to hear back from me by some specific time, please let me know that. If you have Hubspot access, feel free to make me a task with a deadline. And feel free to nag.
  • I have a truly terrible memory and depend on written notes. If it seems like I’ve forgotten something, I very well may have. Please check in, remind me, and call out delays promptly. On the upside, you can tell me the same silly joke once a quarter and I will enjoy it every time.
  • I appreciate good meeting hygiene! But I’m not always great at sticking to it – You can cut me off if I start rambling on and on.

Help Me Manage the To-Dos

  • Please tell me what to expect and when, and please send me follow-ups and status updates often. I really appreciate what to you may feel like overcommunication.
  • Please pitch in on clerical, admin, and support tasks! I tend to do rather than delegate these because I want you to spend your time doing high-value work; however, my schedule can get overwhelmed with these and then I am not myself bringing my A-game on your or the team’s behalf. So, look around - what needs doing? Is there a process that needs a champion? Some documentation that’s out of date? A policy that needs to be researched?

Pet Peeves, etc

  1. Whatever it is, please give it to me straight. The kind of circumlocution you might employ to spare someone’s feelings will probably not work with me because I won’t understand what you’re trying to tell me AT ALL. At worst, it will trigger my bullshit-meter.
  2. I really appreciate it when people RTFM, and for there to be an M to R, we need to “document first” and keep up the value of documentation by actually using it.
  3. If we are meeting in person, let’s meet in a quiet place. I can’t hear very well over moderate levels of background noise.
  4. There’s no need to cc me on emails “just FYI.” If you need me to look at something in email correspondence, please write a note for the contact in Hubspot and tell me what you need me to be aware of, respond to, etc.

When I’m Available

I was doing a great job fighting workaholic tendencies until getting on this start-up journey! Sadly, my work-life balance is out of whack right now, and I’ll be trying to get it back in line.

My timezone is US Eastern time: GMT-4 in the summer and GMT-5 in the winter.

  1. You can reliably find me online from 8:30 am to 6 or 7 pm EST on weekdays. I’m often online WAY outside those times, but you do NOT need to respond to me if you see pings outside your working schedule, unless I’m yelling “URGENT!” <– very rarely happens.
  2. Messaging: I am highly available on Slack and strongly prefer Slack messages in the appropriate public channel (vs DM). Keeping email to external stuff helps me inbox zero across my Slack-Hubspot-Email buckets.
  3. Meetings are a constant struggle! I try to avoid meetings on Mon and Fri, and try to keep external meetings to Wed and Thurs. Please rely on Calendar availability for meeting scheduling (I have multiple calendars so to see my availability, please use the calendar called “Bomee ALL”). If you see a conflict and you think your meeting is worth squashing my existing commitment, just book the time and then ping me on Slack. Also, I’m sorry I’m late – I sometimes have trouble getting off the prior meeting..

Communication Preferences

  1. ASAP. I don’t even know what verb to put in front of that. I am in a hurry. I appreciate the quick response over a longer, more thoughtful one that is going to take longer to compose.
  2. Be Direct and Explicit. Clear, straightforward communication helps me understand you better. Avoid hints or expecting me to ‘read between the lines’.
  3. Provide Context. If you’re changing topics or referring to something we discussed earlier, please give me a brief context. If I ask for context on something that you think I should already know, please be patient. I forgot.
  4. Offer Clear Feedback. If my behavior is causing discomfort or confusion, please tell me directly and specifically. I appreciate the opportunity to adjust my approach when needed. I am quite good at listening with intent and context, and I don’t take feedback personally.
  5. Avoid Assumptions. Don’t make assumptions about my intent or motivations based on my affect or based on your past experience with neurotypical folks. If you’re wondering, just ask.

Personality Assessment Results

Many team-building programs seem to use personality assessments as a starting point to teach people to speak so that their listeners can hear. As an austistic, I totally get that we can better resolve conflicts and misunderstandings when we consider that the other person(s) in the room think differently. I share my assessments in that spirit, and invite others to share theirs with me:

Since middle school I have tested INTJ for MBTI (though sometimes I flip to E).

My Clifton Strengths Strengthsfinder themes are

  1. Strategic - creates alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
  2. Achiever - works hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.
  3. Analytical - searches for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all of the factors that might affect a situation.
  4. Command - has presence. They can take control of a situation and make decisions.
  5. Activator - can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They want to do things now, rather than simply talk about them.

The Great Divide: Star Trek vs Star Wars

I got my fill of bildungsroman and hero’s journey stuff as a teen and just don’t enjoy those as much personally. So, needless to say, I fall on the side of:

  • Tribbles > Ewoks
  • Data & ship’s computer > R2D2 & C3PO
  • Klingons > Darth Vader
  • The Borg > Evil Emperor
  • Vulcans > Jedi

Seriously though, what is there not to like about Star Trek? Nearly every episode is about a bunch of hyper-competent and doggedly empathetic people trying to accept what is alien on its own terms!