Success: what does it look like for you and your business? What is it that is going to make your company and your products more successful than your competitors? What do you want your website traffic to look like? How will its usability and functionality lead to successful transactions?
Getting to these answers and realizing these inflection points take execution and teamwork across an entire organization. For Internet-oriented companies, while there are several drivers that can propel a successful business forward: marketing, sales, product, engineering, biz dev, and design, the execution of these aspects is ultimately about conversations with that breed of online knowledge workers known as Engineers.
Knowing how to talk to engineers, the technical facilitators of your online game plan, is critical. It is something that Kate Matsudaira, the vice president engineering and CTO for Decide.com, advises first-hand as the key to getting things done. Like Decide.com helping you decide which consumer electronic products to buy with the right features and at the right price, sorting and sifting the most important criteria for your purchase decision, Kate understands the same thought processes when communicating with engineers. She explained it all out at the Seattle Interactive Conference in 2012 and to us at Seattle24x7.
From Kate’s perspective, engineers aren’t simply “builders,” they create complex structures. For this reason, she recommends involving engineers early on in the process. This ensures your engineering partners can schedule the right amount of time to plan properly. Better still, solicit your engineers’ ideas. They may have very insightful ideas but be reluctant to voice them in large group sessions. Help out by being attentive to their input and drawing out their thinking
If your engineers always seem to say no, it can be because people aren’t posing the questions properly. For example, you can ask “Why” in five different ways: Is there something that you think works better? Is there something wrong with what I’m asking? Are there other priorities that are standing in the way from you saying yes? Are there solutions that we’re not considering? Can I help you or find someone who can?
If the answer is still “no,” it’s for a reason. Seek resolution based on your engineers’ interests and goals, not their position. Have them teach you, and come up with the solutions together. By simply taking the time to understand the engineering department’s motivations and concerns you will foster a more productive working relationship.
There is a tendency to over engineer in many instances , which means letting speed and completeness preside over the quality and simplicity of a project. Avoid this hastiness by planning together and taking the time to hammer out what is necessary for the project. Remember, it’s more than just building. How hard are you asking engineers to work: extra hours, weekends? Give engineers a purpose in order to place the results in context and show your appreciation. Explain why what they are being asked to do is going to benefit both the customers and the software.
Remember that people specialize, so just adding more engineers, isn’t going achieve faster results, it’s only going to make the communication process more difficult. Also remember that you can’t rely on estimates. One flaw of engineers is that they over estimate their abilities, trying to please people by giving estimates that aren’t really accurate and end up having to work overtime to meet it. So, when you say, let’s just slip the date, this drives engineers crazy because every time something is added to the project, there is an additional risk.
When was the last time you had a truly enormous breakthrough or achieved one of those big audacious goals?
It’s hard to think of these because they don’t happen that often. However, small wins do happen all the time. It’s called the progress principal. Even small progress, like fixing a bug, or helping someone else, can be very essential to the overall success of a company. Show the before and after value of engineers’ work. Show them the results, how customers are responding to the product. Show the progress.
Engineers have no idea how the marketing side works and what those executives are doing with their time. Try to explain and show what you’re doing so that both sides can relate to each other better. Help educate people about the value you are bringing to the organization. How do you do this? It comes down to trust. Not just with your boss but with everyone you work with. Use the same tools. Try to connect everyone and be able to see each section of the project laid out.
Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions in order to understand. Ask, and if you still don’t understand the answer, ask for clarification. It never hurts to round out your skills. For example, you may not be able to learn code, but try to learn what code can do.
Kate’s Tips on Asking for Help
1. Pay attention to timing.
Context switching is costly. Interrupting engineers can be catastrophic to their work. Don’t be offended if they don’t get back to you right away.
2. Share context, explain why you want to know
3. Seek understanding
Make an effort to hear what engineers have to say, show them respect.
4. Express gratitude
5. Ask questions-let them explain and work through their own conclusions
Kate’s Exercise on Coworkers
#1 Make a list of the people with whom you have the best relationships
#2 Make a list of the most important people on your team
How similar are those lists? If they are fairly different, you may have a problem. Ask yourself, how can you improve your relationships on the team? How will that impact your work and happiness? If the engineers on your team don’t like you, try examining why you don’t like them. It’s most likely because you have different styles. The halo effect is when people base whether they like a person solely on one trait about them. Try not to take it personally if someone doesn’t seem to take to you. If it’s more complex than that, try to rebuild burned bridges. There is always some sort of common ground between any sort of people, so attempt to find it. Focus on the future, not the past.
Reciprocity is our social currency. If someone does a favor for you, they are more likely to do it again. This is called the Benjamin Franklin Effect, if you do something nice for someone, you’ll feel a connection with them. So, if there is an engineer you have a problem with, ask them for help. And don’t give up.
Summary:
Be awesome, be open to new knowledge, be one united team, work towards a common goal, build relationships and fix the broken ones to create a team.
Remember, “Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try.”
A last word of advice, don’t ever tell an engineer, “It’s just a few lines of code.” Let’s face it: “Everything is a few lines of code!”[24×7]
