Developers who ask the right questions in the right way are getting things done, while others struggle.

During my over 10 years of experience as CTO, I've worked with hundreds of developers from many countries and cultures. For a long time, I was wondering why some are easy to mentor and help and are making rocket-speed careers, while others are stuck.

Both juniors and senior developers will face problems that are new to them.

What makes seniors resolve problems faster is often how they are able to communicate the challenge and ask for help so others understand the problem too.

How to describe a problem so it's easy to get help:

• don't be afraid of asking for help,

• be brief, describe the problem from top to bottom, starting with what are you trying to achieve and why,

• describe the challenge and not your "history of struggle" and emotions,

• give context: e.g. which project or technology, code fragment, error message,

• share what have you tried but didn't work,

• be precise on the language level - e.g. replace pronouns (it, this, stuff, something, ...) with relevant words, and on the technical level - e.g. show the exact command you run

• avoid ambiguous words e.g. when saying "backend" do you mean server behind a proxy, portal admin panel, or something else?

• use the right channel depending on the situation (e.g. start with project chat or technology chat before DM'ing your boss)

• format message for readability e.g. use lists and code highlighting, and re-read the message before submitting it in chat.

if you know how to frame the question, even a rubber duck can aswer you ;)

Explaining problems and asking for help are key communication skills. It becomes even more important when working remotely and communicating asynchronously.

After all, googling or checking Stack Overflow is also about framing the correct question.