On working with smart people

After having worked for my company as the sole writer and arbiter of all things documentation, I find myself in a unique position of having to explain myself. A lot. Like…a lot a lot.

I’ve recently taken on a leadership role for my team of writers at work. I specifically recommended hiring these people because they were smart. But more importantly I recognized in their interviews that they were kindred spirits with their ability to seek out chunks of technically complex information from disparate sources and weave them together with little understanding of a proper order for everything save for the general sense of “I know this is roughly right.”¹

And therein lies one of the biggest problems with having smart people working with you. My team of writers weave together information that they’ve found, scrounged, and otherwise managed to wheedle out of even the most reluctant developer. Data spelunking and interrogation if you will. They don’t always understand what that information refers to. Vaguely, yes. And sometimes a little more than that. But on the whole they don’t and yet, desptie this they’ve usually they’ve done a great job. I’m inordinately proud of what they’ve ferreted out. They have worked hard to convince themselves that the pattern they’ve woven is right because it’s what makes the most sense.

Except when I know that it’s not right. Or mostly right but not quite. And convincing them of it requires a great deal of effort. Rarely, if ever, can my answer be as simple as “No, it’s not working.” I’m not suggesting here that there aren’t times when “No” isn’t wholly appropriate as a response. But saying it that way doesn’t help. No one learns, everyone gets frustrated, and poof, I’ve stifled pretty much every bit of ninja level creativity and coolio problem solving I’ve hired my team members for in the first place.

For a growing team, I think the key to successful critique is being able to answer “No” and follow it immediately with “Here’s why” even if the why is short.²

…except then I run into my own problem: there’s usually no easy and quick way to say why. I too am going with my gut because I’m one of them. I’m a writer and data spelunker and weaver of information too. And I don’t always completely understand the tech either.³ So the net result is that I have to into great detail about why the pattern isn’t working because I have to teach them beyond what they’ve already taught themselves about the topic using the scant information they’ve scrounged up.

So now I’m having to follow a pretty specific path to stretch my own skills as a team leader if I want the team to grow properly:

1. Figure out what my fellow writer did.
2. Figure out where the info came from specifically in context.
3. Figure out how I’d do it differently if at all.
4. Figure out when it wouldn’t matter which of our ways it was done in.
5. Figure out what the customers really need.
6. Explain that all to the writer so they do better next round and do it themselves to me when I flip spots with them.

Did I mention that I usually have to do this in a very short time? Like less than a day? Even if they’ve had weeks?

I love my job so very much but sometimes it makes my brain hurt.