![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
When Bikesheds Attack
Jul. 26th, 2012 11:26 pmToday was a long day full of meetings.
My third meeting of the day (which could well have been my fourth, except I was still doing other things when the one that would have been third started) included, among other things, one of the little interns steadfastly presenting the art for the mockup she'd been doing for a spec of a thing.
Now, this particular meeting is not for the faint of heart. This meeting is where you go to present the thing you're working on, and then the detail-oriented, lovingkindly people you work with look at it, and give you feedback. If you don't give precise guidance otherwise, this means that everyone will descend upon every last goddamn flaw they can find, and interrogate you until you're wrung out, about exactly what happens in every adverse circumstance they can imagine.
I saw that look pass over the intern's face a few times, and I realized that perhaps no matter how well-prepared she thought she'd been to present, just perhaps she'd been unprepared for that level of detailed critique. (It also is relevant that the topic was something that has camps as hotly divided as Microsoft vs. Apple, and also that at least one of the senior people in the room wasn't familiar with basically at all, and was therefore asking incisive neophyte's questions, and furthermore that just about everyone else in the room has been working together on various things for 6+ months and have been getting used to/wearing down rough edges.)
I caught up with her afterwards, and observed that this particular meeting can feel overwhelming and discouraging, but that I thought she'd done a good solid job (and I had been far from silent in pointing out the potential issues I noticed), and recounted that time when a mere three checkboxes from one particular designer had resulted in a 10-minute shouting match. She looked like she was feeling a little less shaky after that. I hope it was the sort of encouragement that she needed. (Thank you, Dreamwidth.)
Then I showed back up to the interns' office a little later with chocolate. Gluten-free chocolate, as when you give chocolate to one intern, it's to all of them.
My third meeting of the day (which could well have been my fourth, except I was still doing other things when the one that would have been third started) included, among other things, one of the little interns steadfastly presenting the art for the mockup she'd been doing for a spec of a thing.
Now, this particular meeting is not for the faint of heart. This meeting is where you go to present the thing you're working on, and then the detail-oriented, lovingkindly people you work with look at it, and give you feedback. If you don't give precise guidance otherwise, this means that everyone will descend upon every last goddamn flaw they can find, and interrogate you until you're wrung out, about exactly what happens in every adverse circumstance they can imagine.
I saw that look pass over the intern's face a few times, and I realized that perhaps no matter how well-prepared she thought she'd been to present, just perhaps she'd been unprepared for that level of detailed critique. (It also is relevant that the topic was something that has camps as hotly divided as Microsoft vs. Apple, and also that at least one of the senior people in the room wasn't familiar with basically at all, and was therefore asking incisive neophyte's questions, and furthermore that just about everyone else in the room has been working together on various things for 6+ months and have been getting used to/wearing down rough edges.)
I caught up with her afterwards, and observed that this particular meeting can feel overwhelming and discouraging, but that I thought she'd done a good solid job (and I had been far from silent in pointing out the potential issues I noticed), and recounted that time when a mere three checkboxes from one particular designer had resulted in a 10-minute shouting match. She looked like she was feeling a little less shaky after that. I hope it was the sort of encouragement that she needed. (Thank you, Dreamwidth.)
Then I showed back up to the interns' office a little later with chocolate. Gluten-free chocolate, as when you give chocolate to one intern, it's to all of them.
