Explore why a people-focused approach is key in software development. Learn about the balance between meticulous coding and understanding end-users needs.
Many people choose software or web development as a career because they think they won’t have to deal with people. This certainly can be true, but it overlooks the fact that in some way, everything you will make is for people.
It sounds silly to say this out loud, but it’s true. As a web developer, it’s easy to be focused on the obvious parts of your job. The nuts and bolts are important to get right and a meticulous focus on them will set your product apart, no doubt — but it’s easy to forget where this code will end up.
Expertise
I love seeing people in their zone! When somebody is tearing it up on a mountain bike, giving a compelling performance in a movie (Hello Dwayne Johnson!), Kanye at the Grammys… It’s inspiring. Our favorite partners are the ones who are awesome at what they do and who know that we’re awesome at what we do. Everybody’s awesome and everybody understands that this is a two-way relationship. Besties? I think so!
Partners come to us for the best possible products to help them succeed; and that’s a big responsibility. They’re coming to us because they’re really good at something else and need us to be really good at what we do. And It takes more than the best code of all time to make a successful product.
Code is the easy part
Being thoughtful throughout the process, listening well to gain a deep knowledge of the problem at hand, and empathy for the people that we’re serving are key to getting the best solution in front of users.
Certainly this all starts before any code has been written with requirements gathering and continues through a process designed to pull out the best plan to solve the most important problems. And that doesn’t end when we start writing code.
We love people
I get to work with some really talented people and I love to see our team doing what they do best, day in and day out. They’re always up for any challenge and have the chops to get it done. Beyond the skill, though, beyond the collective wisdom and emotional physical technical prowess, is something special about this team.
Our developers are people-focused in their work. There is a lot of value when diverse perspectives lend their talents and insights to come up with a solution to a problem, and engineers are no exception to the rule.
We all want the same thing
We are all customers in some capacity, right? We all want experts to floss their talents and abilities to give us the best [cup of coffee, sushi, guitar solo, surgery(!!)] of their careers.
Keeping the user in mind throughout the entire life of the project will push the product across the finish line as the best it could be. Locking arms with the UX and Design teams that already put work into making this a pleasant and useful experience for people will bring more value to the product, and to your clients.
As fellow humans, we as developers should hold this view as a core tenet of programming; Great code does not make a great product — the customer’s delight and satisfaction truly is the best measure of our success.
