Vernon Richards | Writer | Coach

It's January 11th 2024 and life is motoring ahead full throttle.

With all the challenges ahead this year, here are 3 books I have queued up and ready for me to dive into

I thought I'd share them with you here.

Book #1: Same As Ever by Morgan Housel*

If you do knowledge work of any kind, I think this book is a must-read. Morgan has a way of weaving stories with facts in such an illuminating way.

I especially recommend the last chapter "Wounds Heal, Scars Last". It's specially relevant if you ever find yourself in severe disagreement with someone else (programmers vs testers anyone?!).

I definitely need to do a more thorough review of this one.

Book #2: No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work and How They Help Us Succeed by Liz Fosslien & Mollie West Duffy

I'm always trying to level-up my interpersonal skills and increase my emotional intelligence.

I was thinking the other day, that software development is humans working together, to create a product or service out of bits, for other humans to use to solve a problem in their life (look at me going all Jerry Weinberg!).

In other words, if I ignore the humans building and using the technology, I can't be effective

Book #3: The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by Michael Watkins

This one is a bit of a gamble.

Why? Because it wasn't recommended by a human but an algorithm! I like learning how to get up to speed quickly so you can start adding value as soon as possible.

I'll let you know how I get on with this one!

* Confession time: I've listened to the audiobook already! But this will be an annual read/listen now. It's that good.

Compare and Contrast

"It doesn't work."

VS

"I'm seeing some behaviour I don't understand. Can you help?

I checked the configs in dev, and they looked okay. So I went to the front end, opened the dev tools, clicked the thing and checked the traffic. I didn't see what I expected.

So I checked the other environment and couldn't recreate the problem, which I thought was weird 🤔.

Is it working and I've messed up, or is it broken?"

What's the difference?

In the first example, we deliver our conclusion. And nothing else.

In the second example, we share our conclusion, explain how we arrived at the conclusion, how we tried to get ourselves unstuck, and then asked for help.

What's the impact?

The first way reduces your credibility.

The second way builds allTheCredibility.

What's so different about leadership positions anyway?

I recently chatted with my friend Melissa Eaden, and she shared this Toni Morrison quote with me.

“I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.”

That hits the spot for me.

My name isn't Spock and neither is yours!

Instead of trying to suppress our emotions while we're testing, as our Vulcan friend might do, we can try something different. We can use them as signals to ask deeper questions about what were doing.

Let me give you some examples!

• Frustration: I tend to feel like this when something isn't going well for some reason. When this happens, I get explicit the source of the frustration. The UX? Is something taking too long?

• Surprise: Articulate what your expectations were, where they came from and how they were violated and stay in touch.

• Fear: What are you worried about? Losing data? Having to start a process again? Find the answer to that, and there's your bug!

When is a senior, not a senior?

Let's say I've been testing for 20 years, mainly focused on technical exploratory testing work. Some folks might call this "manual testing" (not me mind you 😉).

Then I catch the coding bug (pun intended).

After a year of mentoring, I learn how to use GUI automation tools like Watir and Selenium. I feel pretty confident helping my team, so much so that I move team.

And that's where the trouble begins!

Now I'm feeling a little out of my comfort zone. Unsure of the tech stack. Unsure of the problem domain.

So, I'm a senior teammate, with a junior skillset.

That's a discombobulating situation!

My 20 years experience will make me feel like a should be doing "better" but my junior skillset means I won't necessarily know what that looks like or how to do it.

So what can you do as their EM?:

1. Explore goals: What do they want to achieve?

2. Understand reality: Figure out where they're stuck?

3. Capture the options: List the possibilities.

4. Decide next steps: Choose a path of action.

In other words, help them GROW.