Face Time, Not FaceTime

Now that we are clear about the theme of this article, we can discuss one of the best things to happen in my career. Sometimes as a developer you need to just close the door and isolate yourself due to workload or concentration. I get it and I think we have all been there once or twice. Regardless of opinion, I do think that being able to have discussion effectively in the office is important for your career. Let’s discuss why.

What Do You Really Mean?

When discussing the technical aspects of a project, it can sometimes be a little difficult to have discussion over requirements if others are not familiar with your side of things. For example, if Bob from Accounting really needs that report built by tomorrow but he can’t explain how he wants to see his charts, you send him an email to ask. He sends you an email that says “how we have always built them”, or something along those lines. How are you supposed to know that he really wanted to use the report template from 5 years ago?

In situations like this, I am fond of simply sitting down and having face time with Bob to discuss and gather requirements for his report. This would do many things for the situation that we are about to reveal.

Talking It Out

One of the biggest ways my career improved as a developer/analyst was communicating requirements in person. Doing this face to face was essential as it translated my explanations on how I would perform my duties more clearly, without the frustration and wait times of going back and forth via email. This would turn out to be invaluable for saving time on work items.

Building Trust

Now that we have established that having discussion with another human in real life possibly increases the effectiveness of communication (who would have guessed?), it is safe to assume that this added to the trust I would build with each and every user, consultant, and business partner I spoke to. They know you, have seen you, and they are now more confident and eager to work with you further. I have no scientific evidence of this, but I definitely felt this way about most of the projects I worked on.

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Mastering Your Craft

We have all heard the phrase “practice makes perfect”, which implies that doing something many times will make you better than you were before. I can apply this to my experiences as a developer more than anything. After speaking with other project members to gather requirements in a meeting, I would build my repertoire and skill set of navigating conversations in the corporate setting. I am naturally a very shy person and do not like it when others put me on the spot to speak publicly, so this at first was a hurdle for me. Gaining the confidence to be outspoken in the meeting room highlighted my strengths and skills.

Conclusions

When it is all said and done, I never found it helpful to discuss anything overly complicated to another project member outside of my wheelhouse through email or any other medium other than clarifying in person. There was always something to be said about connecting and communicating effectively, building relationships, and just straight up getting the job done without becoming the blocker.

Have you had any experiences like this? Leave a comment below!