When Bikesheds Attack

[azurelunatic]

Today 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.

Comments

[ankaret]

That poor intern. I married someone who does the 'latch onto one small flaw, complain for hours that we don't have a strategy for what if Martians invade without actually doing a damn thing towards creating said strategy because that's someone else's job, move onto the next small flaw, wonder why I am telling him loudly to fuck off' thing and I can only bear it because I do actually love him: putting up with it from people I don't love and have to be polite to is one of those things that brings me out in psychosomatic rashes. It sounds like a good thing you were on the case with reassurance and chocolate.

[elf]

The more I hear about your job, the more I want to work for your company.

Every time my former job had a "meeting to go over plans for [project]," if I offered specific questions, nevermind critiques ("who's going to manage this website? which people will get what permissions? how long will we keep this data? whose job will it be to track the changes in this kind of project?"), I got told I was being "too negative" and I really needed to be more supportive.

When I actually had critiques, like, "if I can't figure out what kinds of files you want included/exchanged, and I've been hearing you talk about this for weeks, none of the other people you want involved are going to have any idea how to participate," I got shut out or ignored entirely. Which, I suppose, makes it not surprising that the department eventually shut down. (Why I never bothered writing up a 5000-word paper noting the weaknesses in the dep't structure and focus: I got ignored when I pointed out that we couldn't figure out who was supposed to be manning the phones.)

[azurelunatic]

I think you would be a good fit here.

[azurelunatic]

Happily, this meeting is good about creating strategies in case of Martians landing. You will find yourself with twenty if they're particularly interesting Martians.

It's still incredibly intense, and then there's the sorting through to see what is going to need to be substantially changed, what is a needed aesthetic change, and what is actually extended bikesheddery .

[ankaret]

The bikeshed is now part of my vocabulary.

[azurelunatic]

It is very useful.

[siderea]

Did someone warn the intern in advance and advise her how to manage that crowd? That can also make a big difference. Also knowing about bikesheddery.

[azurelunatic]

I don't know whether anyone did. I know she's been to this meeting just about every week, but this is one of the things where watching the meeting may not be sufficient preparation.

[pauamma]

In a previous life, my contribution (and participation) to similar meetings petered out after a few rounds of the following:

Someone: We have $spec and we're going to implement $design
Me: That won't work because $reason. You need to use $other_design instead.
Someone: We don't like your idea because $excuse. We'll stick to $design.

Fast forward a few months, and I would more often than not find out they went with $other_design, But by then, no one remembered I suggested it.