The importance of forming opinions in the engineering industry
The importance of forming opinions in the engineering industry
Just 1 person saying and everyone agreeing to it is not the best way to make decisions!
Intro
We are making so many decisions every day in our great engineering industry. A lot of these decisions are team decisions.
To effectively make them, it’s important to have discussions that are as efficient as possible. Just 1 person saying what’s the best way to do it, would often not provide the best outcomes.
The best way to do it is that every person provides their opinion and a suggestion → then we swiftly decide based on set parameters, what is the best way to go.
And remember, even if “your opinion” has not been accepted, you’ve contributed to the discussion with your view. Which is huge. So don’t feel bad about it. The concept of disagree and commit is very powerful → make sure to do that.
I have asked Abhinav Yadav, a seasoned Engineering Leader and a Staff Engineering Manager, to tell us a bit about his experience of why forming opinions is so very important!
We are exchanging a LOT of opinions in our day-to-day work
A lot of the development work involves debating ideas, designs, priorities and options. These can be team discussions about technology, tech debt or team norms. These could also be cross-functional conversations with your Product Manager or the Designer.
All these discussions are fruitful only if everyone has some opinion to share on the topic. This might seem odd early in your career, but can become a hindrance to your career growth if you don’t address it.
Let’s take a look at what it is, why it is important and what to avoid.
Every opinion matter
Most teams want to have a broad agreement and make sure everyone feels comfortable with the end decision. In order to come to that ‘broadly acceptable’ decision, the team needs to have a debate. And that debate is only possible if everyone comes to that debate with some opinions formed.
Early in my career, it was not clear what opinion a junior developer could share. In fact, most of us would just listen in and didn’t have much to contribute. But as we noticed the more experienced developers in the room, it quickly became clear that they had put in some thought before coming into meetings.
As I reflected back, one template was clear. They shared their opinions in the form of <I think this> because <of some supporting evidence>. This was a simple way to articulate their opinions about a topic and helped others to either support or oppose their viewpoint.
Another mistake is to think about team decisions as right or wrong. A team that can have constructive debates can weigh in the options, assess the risk involved and dilute any assumptions.
Why is it important?
With more experience, it became clear to me that core decisions on the team are made from discussions.
You might not be part of all the discussions, but active participation in debates and sharing thoughtful opinions is crucial to your career growth. The ability to contribute opinions demonstrates one's capacity to shape discussions and make meaningful contributions to the team.
Soon, you’ll be able to not only present your opinions but also hold meaningful discussions. Long term, you’ll be trusted to own outcomes from these discussions.
It’s hard to find success as an engineer without active contributions to team discussions.
How do you develop it?
Like most things at work (& in life), this is a skill you can develop. In my career, I have been lucky to have mentors and senior developers to see how to debate ideas.
But I have also hesitated in meetings and not shared my thinking when in retrospect, holding back was a mistake. So it’s a muscle to work on.
My advice to start is:
Pick topics you really care about – specific project, technology or team norm.
Do some prep work before the meeting – think about why you support or oppose an option.
Test out your thinking with a smaller group – I find that it's easier to get feedback from 1-2 teammates first rather than directly debating something with a larger group.
Before you know it, your brain will start forming opinions and influencing team outcomes.
What to watch out for?
Don’t make it personal
Everyone needs the room to share their not-fully baked opinions or oppose someone else’s. This isn’t about one person always opposing someone's views. If that happens often, then the team needs to address it.
Don’t get attached to your idea
Follow the “strong opinions weakly held” or even better “strong opinions held with probability”. This is another thing that comes with experience, but as you start coming into debates with opinions, you start to love your ideas.
It's not about whose ideas win or being right, it’s about making the best decision for your team.
Be honest about your opinions
As your influence grows, you’ll be asked about your opinions on more topics. You’re not expected to have an opinion about everything under the Sun. Be open about how much you have thought about or bring up any existing biases.
Bias towards metrics over gut reaction
It’s usually ok to share your initial/gut thinking with that caveat. But numbers and examples can really make the point you’re trying to make.
Forming opinions is not only important in your day-to-day work but also for your personal brand
Gregor here again: As we noted down already in the article: The importance of personal branding in the engineering industry. Your opinions and beliefs not only help with your day-to-day work, but they also help with your personal brand.
People can resonate much more easily with you when they know and understand your opinions and beliefs! If you haven’t read the article yet, I have noted down my personal beliefs, that are connected with the engineering industry.
I would highly recommend you think about your opinions and also note them down! It will be so much easier for you to have them ready, when you need them and start contributing to team discussions or discussions on social media as well!
Last words
Thanks to Abhinav for his insights and for sharing his experience on this very important topic! One interesting thing before we end.
Abhinav is not only interested in great management practices. His passion is also Astrophysics. If you are interested in this topic as well, he is writing a great newsletter about it. You can find it here:
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The importance of forming opinions in the engineering industry
Our personal brand as engineers is more important than we can imagine.
Nobody trusts someone who never has an opinion of their own. Even if we think management would prefer someone who always agrees with them, that means when they are wrong they'll also agree with them.
In the frenetic day-to-day work, we are tempted to prioritize fast decision-making involving a reduced number of people.
And that's fine, as long as
1. The decisions are openly communicated later to all team members
2. In the not-so-high-stakes decisions, you are involving other people so they can grow.
It's a fine balance between growing the team and moving fast. Push too hard into moving fast and you'll realize you don't have a team.
Great post from Gregor and Abhinav!
I enjoyed the article, Gregor and Abhinav! Publicly sharing your personal opinions is one of the best ways to establish authority on a topic. Many of us are afraid of being judged, and indeed, it's part of the process. However, it's also the only way to foster the growth of new ideas and opinions through discussions.