What can go throughout the Developers mind
Part 1: “Who is gonna use this feature the way it is defined?“
In general, this thougth can come often to each developer’s mind. The Business owners and the clients often define not very clear business cases and the developers got confused and sometimes even frustrated.
Developing a project is like a puzzle. Each feature is a piece of it and the developers and the business team have to find the suitable place for each feature in the given project. Sometimes the developers might not like the end result, but the important thing is that they have complete it. Leave the Business team to worry about the end product.
Comming of “Who is gonna use this feature the way it is defined?” thougout the mind of developer is a result of two things — big Ego and too much confidence in their understanding of the business. Lets talk about this.
Usually, this question comes to mind while you work on feature and you notice strange, illogical business demands and unexpected user experience. At that point you become unsure and you might start asking yourself similar to this questions:
“Did I understand it right?”
“Do I need more information about it?”
“Is it a good idea to ask the business and share my concerns?”
The first two questions are very reasonable. When you are not sure about something, just ask and do not worry — this is the right thing to do. With this questions you show the Product owner and/or the client that you want to be sure you will deliver exactly the case you have been asked to develop. With this you show to them some responsibility, which is good for your reputation in their eyes.
As for the last one — “Is it a good idea to talk to the business and share my concerns?”, it is better first to consider every possible outcome. For start, consider do your concerns give a valuable feedback to the business? Then, think about how the Business team will react — do they need your opinion and help, is anything from it really important or most of it are suggestions which probably are not needed at the moment. Lastly, think about your appearance in such conversation — you are attempting to discuss something that is not your responsibility. What the business team is gonna see is someone, who wants to make an impression. This certainly is not your intention but in reality that is what is gonna happen. Important fact is that helping the business doing its job is not helping you look like a rockstar. What’s even more, it can harm your reputation, erose the trust the business team has in you and the work you are doing for them. So, just keep calm, do your job and try to control and conceal your Ego.
It might happen that, in future, the business sees the potential issue you saw previosly and tell you to fix it. I know that at this moment part of you want to start an explanation process of how you already thought about it while you work on the feature the first time, how you wanted to discuss it back then, but you did not have the confidence in you, etc. This is not gonna work for the team, for you and for the product as well, because it is the same mistake —following your Ego blindly and trying to prove yourself better than the bussiness, which, as we already discuss, is not gonna produce positive outcome. Keep Calm And Just Fix It. This is your job after all and you are gonna get paid for that. Also, this is completely fine to happen as part of an iterative product growing process. Both the developers and the client learn more about the users of the product. Every addressed feedback strenghtens the connection between the team you are part of and the users. The trust grows and the two sides start to look in similar direction. This is guarantee for better future for both sides.
Conclusions “Who is gonna use this feature the way it is defined?“:
— Who is gonna use the feature is not your concern and responsibility as developer!
— If you are not asked, never enter into discussions about Feature purposes. If you are asked, share clearly and shortly your opinion without entering into too much specifics
— Never try to get Dividends from Business team’s mistakes-it will backfire at you with big reputation and trust consequences
You can find Part 2 here: https://medium.com/@ognegrum91/what-can-go-throughout-the-developers-mind-9f554e5f9324
