non-tech person in tech here ✋
as a software engineer, what are things that you want your non-tech colleagues to know (especially designers—if you work with them in a product team)?
hiya! 👋 thank you for this very interesting question, anon! i've personally never had trouble working with designers (it's one of the things said designers have said they love about working with me, if i may say so 🙈), but i'll try my best to speak to this in the capacity that i can ☺️
some engineers might say, "it would be great if you understood at least some code," but when i've tried to find out why they say that, it usually turns out that they're not looking for you to become another programmer necessarily, what they're looking for is actually some level of understanding, of feeling like we're on the same page, speaking the same language, and this goes for working with any non-tech person, whether it's a product manager or client services or sales.
so don't hesitate to be curious and ask questions to find common ground! i think that's the foundation of good communication across different fields / industries / etc. 🤝
for example, one main point of contention we always have between engineering and literally every other department is, in a nutshell: "why isn't this feature out yet?" vs. "why are our features so buggy and why are you taking so long to fix it?" i don't think non-engineers typically realize that their demands are often at odds with each other, which is understandable given a non-tech background, but what irks me is when we explain ourselves and others refuse to listen. thankfully, at my workplace at least, we're starting to be heard, so we can now take the necessary time to build our features following good engineering principles rather than hackathon-style to meet demands and deadlines (that are often internally imposed anyway!). as a result, we have less bugs and investigate/fix bugs quicker because we have good quality code and monitoring, which is better for our end-users too! 🙏
i don't know if i can completely answer your question besides this because i also feel like the answer is also going to be different for different companies and companies of different sizes and with different tech stacks, which is why i think it always comes back to staying curious, open, and communicative! most engineers are typically very friendly and love talking about all things tech! 🤓
some ways i've found to ask questions about things i don't understand in the workplace in a way that doesn't make me feel like an idiot:
what do i need to know to support you/this project? — sometimes you have time to dig deep and understand everything, sometimes you don't 🤷♀️ but you always want to have the bare minimum info you need to do your job well 💪
my background/experience is mainly in x, so could you explain y concept again, please? — let them know where you're coming from so they can try to meet you in the middle! 😇
<paraphrase your understanding so far>, is that right/what you meant? — paraphrasing levels up your understanding as well as demonstrates active listening! ✨
hope this helps! ❤️ and actually, there is one thing i want designers to know: their attention to detail, creativity, and empathy are their superpowers in my mind, and often their designs are what get us excited and inspired to build! 💐
