A question I ask so many times a day
Being a lead developer, I get asked this more times a day than I can count. It may not be in that exact phrase, but that question will for certain pop up in my thinking along the way. My thought process always flows in the same direction when I get asked “Is it possible to have …?” or “Can we set up this page for them to …?” or “We want our clients to …” or (and this is my favorite question prefix) “What would it take to…?”
What happens is that I usually listen, digest, and translate the question. These are the steps that I go through in order to finally get to “What is a Good Idea?”
- After getting asked a question, I think about the technologies involved to fully answer the question.
- Once I understand the technologies involved, I think about how those technologies will interact with the ones currently implemented.
- If everything is still ok, then I think about the best way to provide a solution.
- After I’ve thought my way through the solution, I ask myself “Is this a good idea?”
- Based on my answer in number 4, I proceed to follow the original question up.
This is a really simplified version of my thought process, but it pretty much breaks down how I go about fulfilling a proper answer to many of the questions I get asked daily. Until I’m about 80% of the way through my thinking, “What is a Good Idea?” doesn’t even come into play. Being the lead developer, a good idea means something different than to a project manager. Being an entrepreneur and a forward thinker, that question poses something totally different than the other two.
So the next time someone comes to you and asks you “What is a Good Idea?”, take a step back (listen) and evaluate (digest/translate), and see if in the end the solution is a “Good Idea”.