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3 lessons on effective communication for engineers

3 lessons on effective communication for engineers

Effective communication is one of the most important skills we need. It greatly improves our productivity. And multiplies the positive impact that we have on the products we build and the people we work with. In this talk, we are going to explore three lessons on better communication. First, we’ll start with key principles for building trust and good relationships with the people around us. Then, we’ll see why and how to manage expectations. And we’ll explore how requirements facilitation can make our work easier. We are also going to see how to apply code reviews to our communication and scale it to amplify our impact. And most importantly, we’ll go over some real-world examples of how to apply these lessons in our everyday work to become better engineers.

Nikolay Stoitsev

December 11, 2019
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  1. 3 lessons on effective communication
    for engineers
    Nikolay Stoitsev, Engineering Manager at Halo Diagnostics

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  2. We communicate a lot

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  3. We communicate a lot
    … with each other

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  4. We communicate a lot
    … with each other
    … with our managers

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  5. We communicate a lot
    … with each other
    … with our managers
    … with non-tech people

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  6. We communicate a lot
    … with each other
    … with our managers
    … with non-tech people
    … with clients

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  7. What’s up?
    What is the progress?
    Can you give me a quick update?

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  8. #1 Building
    Trust

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  9. Transparency
    is the key

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  10. Frequent
    status updates

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  11. Overcommunicate

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  12. Something you don’t
    know?

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  13. 1. Admit you aren't certain.
    2. Own the follow-up to determine the answer.
    3. Give a timeline for when you will follow up.
    4. Deliver a correct, concise, and thoughtful
    response.

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  14. Be proactive

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  15. … please, improve the quality of
    the product

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  16. #2 Manage
    Expectations

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  17. What is expected
    from you?

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  18. Explain how you are
    going to achieve it

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  19. Example:
    Please, improve the
    quality of the product

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  20. Requirements
    facilitation

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  21. Example:
    Please, implement a
    feature to search
    for photos

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  22. #3 Improve and
    scale your
    communication

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  23. Code review
    your communication

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  24. Write documentation

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  25. Filememos

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  26. Thanks!

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