Stop trying to engineer your way out of listening to people

2026-04-19 | original

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Why This Matters

This article emphasizes the importance of genuine listening over superficial frameworks or engineering solutions in the tech industry. It highlights that truly understanding users and colleagues requires effort, empathy, and recognizing diverse perspectives, which is crucial for creating effective products and fostering better communication. Ignoring these aspects risks building solutions that don't meet real needs or misinterpret stakeholder insights.

Key Takeaways

Listening is more than just following instructions; it requires genuine engagement.
Understanding others' expertise and resources is key to effective communication.
Avoid oversimplifying 'technical' knowledge; appreciate its diversity for better insights.

I spend a lot of time negotiating this in the software world:

Probably don't want this road

And if you're wondering why this happens, it's normally because:

people aren't talking to people people aren't listening

So lots of designers and product people have leapt onto 1, basically trying to turn talking to people into terms engineering people find more cuddly. Like "framework". Or "system". Or even that term that's in vogue, socio-technical system.

Stop. The problem isn't that you need a better system. The problem is you're avoiding doing the work.

Rimmer doing everything apart from studying

The problem is, 2 is much harder than 1. So how do you listen to people?

The most common pitfalls:

Listening is not the same as just doing what someone tells you they want

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Explore topics: software empathy mapping socio-technical system jobs to be done outcome driven innovation