What’s your worst mistake when proposing a new idea to stakeholders?
I asked 7 senior #softwareengineering leaders one simple question:
What’s your worst mistake when proposing a new idea to stakeholders?
The result: I learned about 3 Mistakes that everyone(from intern to exec) must avoid.
Today we dive into Mistake#1.
𝗔𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝟭 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮!
𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 1: 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 1 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳
Too often, you choose to focus on the implementation and execution of the idea.
But, you should focus on understanding the problem:
1/ Why we are solving it
2/ For whom we are solving it
3/ What are many options with pros & cons
You know that someone will review your 1 pager, so you think about the problem from all dimensions. It expands your thinking and understanding of the problem at hand. Often forcing you to arrive at the MVP version of the solution!
𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 2: 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴
1/ You write 1 pager in a shared Google doc and add reviewers. Soft review starts asynchronously without needing everyone in a room.
2/ This gives you the opportunity to revise often and include feedback on the way.
𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 3: 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘭
When early reviews are complete, you invite approvers for a small meeting -> You resolve all the queries online -> Get the 1 Pager approved.
But there are 2 more mistakes between Phase 1 and Phase 3.
We will learn about them in the next posts.
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In this post, we learned about Mistake#1 — As an engineer, you love to think about your problem in mind, but that’s a mistake. You need to write your idea in a document.
Have you been guilty of this mistake too, ever?
