Your point about stepping in as the user’s advocate makes me wonder
How do you personally decide when it’s worth pushing back on a developer’s “brilliant” idea versus letting the team explore it so they still feel ownership of the solution?
Such a great perspective, Andreas. It reminds me that even without coding, there’s so much you can do to support a team. I hope to bring this mindset to my future work, focusing on users and helping make things more intuitive.
I am sure you will be great at this. From what I read of your's, you have great empathy, which will help you bring the message across without alienating everyone.
And even if you do occassionally. That's part of the learning curve. 😁
Your point about stepping in as the user’s advocate makes me wonder
How do you personally decide when it’s worth pushing back on a developer’s “brilliant” idea versus letting the team explore it so they still feel ownership of the solution?
Frank, That's the million dollar question for leaders. And honestly, there isn't the perfect answer for it.
Personally, I try to stick to what my heart tells me. More often than not, it tells me to stick up to my opinion and challenge.
Yet, sometimes, the battle is not worth the risk.
Back when I was a project manager, I was much more willing to let the team take the decisions without me - mostly to reinforce ownership.
If you intervene too often, they will start depending on you making decisions for them.
As a non-leader, though, you'd have to find that balance for yourself. It depends a lot on each team's dynamics, too.
That's true..
People tend to let others do their heavy-lifting at the slightest opportunity
Such a great perspective, Andreas. It reminds me that even without coding, there’s so much you can do to support a team. I hope to bring this mindset to my future work, focusing on users and helping make things more intuitive.
Thank you very much for reading and commenting.
I am sure you will be great at this. From what I read of your's, you have great empathy, which will help you bring the message across without alienating everyone.
And even if you do occassionally. That's part of the learning curve. 😁
Thank you so much for your kind words, Andreas :)
I am the team buzzkill.
No it's true.
The number of features I've killed by asking 'But who actually asked for this?' has earned me a reputation lol.
But you know what, our user satisfaction scores have gone up since I started being more ruthless about user-centricity.
Developers initially hated me for questioning their beautiful architectures.
Now they come to me BEFORE building things.
Culture change is possible, but it requires someone willing to be temporarily unpopular.
Happy Tuesday evening, Andreas.
Awesome!
That's a great reputation to have, I think.
And certainly so needed!
😊
Thank you for reading my article and commenting.
Have a great Thursday!
I hope you are having a good week Andreas.
Happy Thursday to you as well :)