3 challenging questions to ask as a software engineer
Discover three crucial high-level questions that software engineers often overlook. Learn why understanding the problem, timing, and worst-case scenarios are key to impactful solutions.
As software engineers, we love solving problems.
We love diving into the technology, the specifics of the details.
But that narrow focus can make us miss important high-level aspects.
Perfect work in the wrong direction doesn’t create the impact we intend.
It’s often the most tenured person who can step back and ask challenging high-level questions.
The question all the other engineers haven’t stopped to think.
Here are 3 of these questions
#1 What is the problem we are trying to solve?
We focus too much on the solutions. The technology. Solving obstacles when they appear.
But in the end, we are trying to solve one particular customer problem.
That’s your essence. Picture your team solving that problem and work backward from it.
When I involve a Senior engineer in some review, it’s not to get an expert opinion on a technology. But to validate the solution I propose is adequate for the problem we have.