DirtyInformation

Why? Why? Why?

30 Sep 2013

Are you afraid to ask, “why?” It is such a simple question. Just one syllable and the sentence is complete. Yet I remember struggling with my ability to ask that very question. Now I ask myself, “Why not?” Asking is a great way to make sure you are delivering true value to your customer.

I’d like to start like Freud and blame our parents. If you grew up like me you weren’t really allowed to utter that word to your parents when they told you to do something. Also if you were like me it was because I repeated the question over an over until I had driven someone crazy. So why alone can bring back memories of frustrated parents, and we don’t want our customers to be frustrated with us.

Customers are paying us to ask them, “why?” When we ask, “why,” we are taking the opportunity to truly understand what the customer needs. The customer sees that we are trying to understand the heart of their business. No customer is going to be upset that we are excited and inquisitive about what they want us to accomplish. If they want someone to sit down and not have input then they should have hired someone else. What better way to know more about the product than to ask lots of questions.

The answers help better direct the product and make decisions about how to move forward. When we understand the why we can let the customer know how sound of an idea we are working on. News Flash: The customer isn’t always right. It is part of our job to help them get there. It is really hard to help fulfil their needs when we don’t truly understand their needs.

Okay, I need to ask myself now, “Why did I write this article?” Well, I’m tried of seeing bad features in great products. I’m tired of cleaning up after people who refused to ask that simple question. Sure, I appreciate the client, but I’d much rather spend my time adding new features instead of fixing the ones that were misunderstood or half-cocked ideas.

Pluses to asking “Why?”

• a better understanding of the feature/product
• a basis on which to anticipate future direction
• knowing if this is really the “right” feature
• delighting the customer with their hiring decision

The Past

• Testing Named Agents 03 Feb 2017
• Two Duplication Refactorings in Elixir 18 Jan 2017
• B is for BigDecimal 24 Sep 2014
• A is for Abbrev 02 Sep 2014
• Missed Chances 15 Aug 2014
• Style Guides are Failures 15 Jun 2014
• What is BDD anyway? 15 Apr 2014
• An Agile Contract 31 Mar 2014
• What Do I Want 23 Mar 2014
• Just the Tip 16 Mar 2014
• Important Partnerships 11 Mar 2014
• Lost in Translation 03 Mar 2014
• Story Splitting Revisited 23 Feb 2014
• Let your yes be yes and your no be no 16 Feb 2014
• Lethal Injection 09 Feb 2014
• Smaller is Better 02 Feb 2014
• A Second Time 26 Jan 2014
• Introspective 20 Jan 2014
• Self Reflection for the Win 06 Dec 2013
• Why? Why? Why? 30 Sep 2013
• A New Gig 18 Sep 2013
• Exceptional Comments 15 Jun 2013
• Role Objects in Acceptance Tests 30 Apr 2013
• Open Closed Ruby Woes 28 Apr 2013
• Write Something 12 Apr 2013
• A Great Cast of Characters 06 Mar 2012
• When is the Release Party? 19 Aug 2011
• Single Responsibilty, How Did I Forget You 12 Apr 2011
• Change Classes not Styles 05 Nov 2010
• My MongoDB Cookbook Recipe 20 Jul 2010
• Agile Says What? 05 Nov 2009
• Inject & Me - BFFs 07 Sep 2008