As a developer I'm often brought solutions, rather than problems. What I mean is that someone will come to me and ask how to do something, often times something that's not simple or even recommended. For an extreme example, one might ask me how to make a car drive over water.
This is when, as a developer, it's ok to ask that person, even if it's your boss, why he wants to do that. The answer often times offers a much better solution. Bosses are excellent at coming up with the big picture, but sometimes forget to leave the solution finders the chance to find the best solutions. In my earlier example, the problem was simply that they wanted to leave New Jersey, and the answer they really needed was just to use a bridge.
So next time you're brought a really odd question, don't just answer it, ask them what they're going to do with that solution, ask them why they needed it in the first place, and you might just make everyone happier in the process.
I deal with this on a regular basis. Often times it's something like "I want this piece of information" but what they really want is a completely different data set.
ReplyDeleteAsking to see the sales person on all orders often means they want to know the revenue for a specific sales team and are planning on filtering and subtotaling the data in Excel themselves.
This is also rampant in game design. Saying "I want more quests" often means that the quests you have are boring, that they find a completely unrelated aspect unappealing (I don't like the buying/selling system, so give me more quests so I can find what I want!), etc.
Unfortunately, getting this type of information is often hard, since people may not have a good grasp on what, exactly they want. It's hard to give someone what they want if they'll only "know it when they see it." It's even harder when the answer is "everything".