Crikey! What a sight we have here! We have a flock of software consultants at a common meeting ground for them in their ecosystem, the communal whiteboard. Many moons ago, this was not a particularly common meeting ground for them, but now it’s a place of rigor and banter and full of life. They seem to be discussing and debating something… but what is it? Let’s take a closer look and see if we can make anything out. We don’t want to get too close and risk being seen. I can make out some words: “What about…? Does this mean…? What constitutes…? I don’t think they thought about…” Fascinating. It seems to be more than just camaraderie; they seem to be working towards a common goal together.
Weekly Wacky Question
Some context: a few months ago in our accelerator program I was given the challenge to leave a stamp on our office to try and have a little bit of fun. What I came up with was the “Weekly Wacky Question“, which is exactly what it sounds like. Typically there are “would you rathers,” but also some “pick your poisons.” Some examples include Newcomb’s problem, “Would you rather have a replicator or a transporter from Star Trek?” and, “If you could only eat one meal the rest of your life, what would it be?” These questions became a hit! These became something people in the office started to look forward to. That random whiteboard has become a meeting place to discuss the weekly question. In having to come up with these interesting questions, it was natural to ask my friends and family these questions too. I got an answer and maybe some laughs. In the work setting, the same was true, with a big addition.
What Constitutes a Meal?
The amount of problem framing, scoping, edge cases and follow up questions was an initial shock! There became a pattern of every morning I would come back to a, or often times, many, clarifying questions, or a tongue-in-cheek answer, or an edge case someone brought up the previous day. Sometimes my answers to their inquiries would then make people’s answers flip, and the cycle repeats. If you know any software developers, or consultants, or both, this should not be a surprise. Such a big part of the job is problem framing, scope definition and edge case sniffing out. These simple questions of the week, I found out, were not exempt from that! It goes to show the type of person who finds themselves in this career.
A couple of my favorite examples:
- The question was: If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? I was expecting the board to say pizza. What I got the next morning was “what constitutes a meal?” Then: can it be prepared different ways? Can I just give you an ingredient list? Is scurvy a concern, are vitamins allowed? Nobody had answered the question yet, they were writing the spec definition.
- The question was: Would you rather have to camp permanently in a tent for a year, or have to be inside your home 24/7 for a year except for walking into and out of buildings that you have to go to (work, 1x a week for groceries, etc.)? The follow-ups came in fast. Can I park far away so I get a walk in? Can the tent have internet and a kitchenette? Does it have to be a tent? Can the tent be in California? (We are in Michigan.) And my personal favorite: one person picked inside, with an asterisk, their building would be constructed inside out, so that the outdoors is technically within the walls.
What Constitutes an Active User?
It’s not a big stretch to get from “what constitutes a meal?” to “what constitutes an active user?” One of those costs thirty seconds in a kickoff meeting. The other costs a sprint when it surfaces in QA instead.
So, back to the bush. What I took for recreational arguing was the flock doing what it knows how to do. Circle the problem, prod it for soft spots, find a loophole, and commit to an answer only once the terms are nailed down. On a whiteboard that produces a guy who lives in an inside-out building. On a project it produces software that doesn’t fall over in month four because somebody asked what “active user” meant back in week one. This also happened because we are co-located at an office, you don’t get this kind of collaboration on a slack channel. I don’t think these instincts can be switched off, and I wouldn’t want them to be.