Itâs tempting to jump straight into action when a problem lands on your desk. But Iâve learned that taking a step back to see the big picture isnât just helpfulâitâs essential.
When faced with a challenge, I always start by zooming out. Itâs not about delaying action, itâs about understanding the terrain before we start our journey.
The Power of âWhyâ
This three-letter word is more potent than any line of code Iâve ever written. Hereâs why:
What seems urgent at first glance might not be that important in the grand scheme. I once had a CEO insist we needed to rewrite our entire codebase in a trendy new language. When we dug into the âwhy,â we realized our actual pain point was slow feature development.
We initially thought we needed to rewrite our entire payment processing system to handle increased transaction volume. But by asking âwhy,â we realized the real issue was database bottlenecks. We ended up optimizing our database queries and implementing caching, which boosted our capacity by 300% at a fraction of the time and cost of a full rewrite.
Understanding the âwhyâ behind a project can ignite passion and drive in a team. I witnessed this firsthand during a hackathon where our devs were tackling a problem for a local non-profit. Once they grasped how their code could directly improve lives, the energy shifted dramatically. They werenât just writing algorithms; they were creating real-world impact. Without any prodding from me, the team voluntarily pulled an all-nighter, fueled by the knowledge that every line of code mattered.
This shared sense of purpose became our secret weapon, transforming a routine coding sprint into a mission that the team poured their hearts into.
A seemingly small fix might actually be the key to unlocking a major company initiative. By understanding the âwhy,â you might realize that refactoring that old authentication system isnât just technical debtâitâs the blocker for a huge partnership deal.
When a problem lands on your desk, fight the impulse to jump straight in. Instead, pause for a moment. Step back and look at the whole landscape. Then ask yourself, âWhy are we doing this?â