Posted on by Paurian

Know the Role You Serve

The interviewer vaguely described the typical messaging network: Messages are sent. Some server exists. Some apps exist . Message somehow get to users. “What does that look like?” He asked.

I asked “what do you want me to design?” then asked questions about the overall system, then started approaching the entire system. I talked about how more dire systems, like ambulance dispatches, would need to have priority while less critical systems could have messages dropped completely. Then started drawing on the whiteboard…

Partway through, he stopped me. “But what does the system look like?” I was confused. Why would he ask that unless I was off the mark. I thought I heard him say something like “If you’re a news provider and sending out a message, what goes on?”

So I thought he wanted to focus on just the responsibilities of the news provider. I started sketching how the app would work… Again he stopped me.

I asked a third time, “What is it you want me to design?” but then I added. “Am I you? Am I your company taking in the requests to send out messages or am I this news company? Am I your company trying to make a relationship with the news company? What is my role here?”

“You’re my company. What does it take for my company to deliver messages to any of my company’s devices?”

The correct course of action to any problem begins with knowing the roles of everyone involved – especially your own. Click To Tweet

The light came on. I was listening, but I wasn’t listening to the right clues. The context was mixed up in my head. I didn’t know who I was supposed to be.

But what I didn’t know for half the interview – what kept me from addressing what my customer, the interviewer, really wanted to know was that I didn’t know myself; I didn’t know my role in the whole matter.

It was his job to make the question as vague and ambiguous and confusing as possible, and it was my job to ask the right questions to get down to the customer need. I asked many questions, but not the right ones. I heard his reply, but wasn’t listening correctly.

The first question should simply be – who are you in this system and who am I in this system? Without knowing the context of our identity, the work is either wasteful or irrelevant.

How often does this happen in our personal relationships? Someone comes to us: “My problem is yadda yadda.” What is our role here? Are we supposed to be a shoulder to cry on? A heart to just listen? An expert to offer advice? A person who takes charge to resolve the issue? So many different roles… but only one is the best role for the situation. Figure out your role first, then you’ll know how to tackle the situation.

This article is from the “Raw Talk on Failure” series.

Photo by Daniil Silantev on Unsplash