Dear Techies, Please ask ‘why’?
Technology has changed the world and techies are the royalty of this new world. It’s no surprise that there is a shortage of tech talent and almost all organizations today are finding new ways to attract and retain techies. While quantity is a challenge, the quality is an even bigger challenge.
However, the even biggest problem with our current tech talent is their inability to combine business and tech thinking. I have heard most founders and Product Managers crib about not being able to align tech and business together. Having spent the last 3 years with an amazing team that built one of the best personalization and marketing automation system, I learnt a few things about how techies can up their game and stitch the gap.
- Ask ‘Why?’: My biggest issue with current breed of techies is their tech-first thinking. Even before you have completed your first line about what you want, they will start thinking in lines of code. They wont ask ‘Why’ they just think ‘How’. So dear techies, please take off your blinders and believe that world is more than black letters on white terminal.
Its a world where how technically sophisticated a product has little relevance to the guy using it. Before you write the first line of code, be clear on why it matters and what does your company/team want to achieve. Think business first and technology second. Believe in the your ability and ability of Stack Overflow to get the technology in place. - Stop with the Jargons: Stop throwing jargons — Redis, Cassandra, Hadoop, Memcached etc. Stop talking in alien language and break things down to the basics. Help folks around you understand what you are doing so that they can learn and contribute. Remember if you cant explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.
- Be a product guy: If you want to move on to making world-class products and hirekickass folks be a Product Guy. Be the guy who understands and contributes to the vision of the product instead of just the tech-geek. Think about the impact your product should/must have on users before thinking the timelines and tech feasibility.
- Be Nice: Be nice to the business development and marketing folks. Be nicer to folks who don’t talk in your language (better yet, pick up some of their language). Switch-off the God-mode and listen to problems of those around you. You have the ability to help almost anyone around you and make their life better. A small 20 line script for you may be a giant leap for not-so-tech oriented folks. It will help you connect the dots better.
- Keep amazing us: I am a fan of technology. I am bigger fan of techies. I love how they push the human race forward and how they amaze me every single time I meet them. Just keep doing the amazing work and include more of us in your thinking and doing.
Onwards and Upwards!
