How to waste time and overcomplicate things

Re:How to waste time and overcomplicate things by kqr on Sunday February 27, 2022 @04:37AM (#30486738)

This is why I no longer do things when people tell me to "do X". I want to know the context: which problem do we think we are solving with X? Why do we think that is the right problem to solve? What other problems could we solve instead?

It makes me a pain in the ass, of course, but a highly effective pain in the ass, I hope, and it seems also one that customers appreciate.

Edit: Oh, and whenever someone says "the customer needs X and Y" the important follow-up is "what makes you believe that?"

Sometimes there's a good reason. Often it's "they said during a meeting that so-and-so, which makes me think that maybe so-and-so, which, if so-and-so, implies that so-and-so."

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Re:How to waste time and overcomplicate things by marcosdumay on Sunday February 27, 2022 @09:48AM (#30488920)

> Oh, and whenever someone says "the customer needs X and Y" the important follow-up is "what makes you believe that?"

Yeah, that. If possible, the right thing to do is go to that customer and ask "hey, a quick question, what are you trying to achieve when you use that X or Y feature your asked for?"

In my experience, the odds of they answering your question are about as large as the odds of they saying "what are you taking about? I have no need for X or Y and never asked for them." While if you keep talking to the PM, that second answer will never come through.

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