{"id":7,"date":"2003-01-15T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-15T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/?p=7"},"modified":"2003-01-15T16:34:00","modified_gmt":"2003-01-15T16:34:00","slug":"7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/01\/7\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Interviewing the Techies<\/h3>\n

My current project involves interviewing the architects, programmers and other experts. Here are some observations:
\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Open ended questions like ‘tell me about the security infrastructure’ yield more information than topic-specific queries\n
  2. They may have documents, but what’s on their mind, or in those post-its in their cubicle, those little snippets that are crucial for the user, seldom reaches those documents. So dig, probe and be patient\n
  3. Be courteous, smile, be a friend. They are the experts. Always mention this ‘It’d be great if you can offer your expert opinion’ who doesn’t like a little acknowledgement?\n
  4. LISTEN. Don’t interupt when the expert is talking\n
  5. Give cues. ‘hmm hmm?’ ‘that’s right’ ‘ah-ha’ you know?\n
  6. Write less and say more in your e-mails. They don’t normally read through your short stories \ud83d\ude00 <\/ol>\n

    Maybe there’s more. Why don’t you add it? Got your content provider id yet?<\/b> Mail me suman1973kumar ‘at’ yahoo ‘dot’ com to be a part of this site. And showcase your ideas to the world.<\/p>\n

    \n\n\n<\/map>\n

    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Interviewing the Techies My current project involves interviewing the architects, programmers and other experts. Here are some observations: Open ended questions like ‘tell me about the security infrastructure’ yield more information than topic-specific queries They may have documents, but what’s on their mind, or in those post-its in their cubicle, those little snippets that are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[195],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Interviewing the Techies My current project involves interviewing the architects, programmers and other experts. Here are some observations: Open ended questions like ‘tell me about the security infrastructure’ yield more information than topic-specific queries They may have documents, but what’s on their mind, or in those post-its in their cubicle, those little snippets that are…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2Gbk8-7","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/08\/re-twin-course-content-for-technical-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":0},"title":"Re: [twin] Course Content for Technical Writing","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"August 19, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"HiYour hard skills are okay. But you are not specific when you say 'team skills' I mean today everyone is expected to be a team player so it is not necessarily a skill you know? I'd rather focus on specific skills like 'interviewing skills' and 'survey skills': a tech writer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/09\/40\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":1},"title":"Joel on Software - The\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"September 18, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel on Software - The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing How to weed out the 'unwashed masses'? How to discover and hire the brilliant superstars? Read on: Joel on Software - The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":773,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/07\/how-to-become-a-guru-in-30-days-minutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":2},"title":"How to become a guru in 30 days minutes","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"July 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"In the recent past I have observed quite a few gurus and experts springing up from all over the place. A closer scrutiny revealed some great insights. Based on our insights we are going to make you an expert in animal psychology. 1) Google for animal psychology.2) Read at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/08\/34\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":3},"title":"How to hire a 'Future-Proof'\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"August 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"How to hire a 'Future-Proof' Technical Writer I came across quite a few recruitment ads in the papers and job announcements in mailing lists that ask for a technical writer. It is good to see that the demand for my ilk has shot up. What\u2019s appalling though is the emphasis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/02\/23\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":4},"title":"The Seven Deadly Assumptions of\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"February 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The Seven Deadly Assumptions of Technical Communication - William Rice Years ago, as a young programmer\/analyst on a project leader\u2019s course, I made an assumption during a team exercise. Not a crucial mistake, you would think. I assumed that I had all the information I needed to complete the exercise.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/top-ten-documentation-heuristics-by-vesa-purho\/","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":5},"title":"Top Ten Documentation Heuristics by Vesa Purho","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"October 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"For example, people working on a rooftop installing some hardware would not necessarily be delighted with nice multimedia CD-ROMs but prefer a laminated quick reference card.\" That statement pretty much sums it up for me. Read on! 1. Match between documentation and the real world The documentation should speak the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}