> you’ll definitely look dumb if you do the totally wrong thing because you didn’t ask a question.
> Do not, DO NOT, assume they are too busy to answer clarifying questions as you work on the [t]ask.
Any tips for this when you're working remotely and online chat isn't an option?
In-person, it feels easier to ask lots of small, quick, imprecise, and half-baked questions because you get a quick reply then can follow-up. Over email though, I end up spending more time articulating what I'm confused about and trying to pre-empt possible replies because it feels more formal and interruptive. Video calls can take time to arrange and have a lot of overhead.
One trick I use for client projects is to have a Google Doc that I append small questions to as they crop up, I ping the client occasionally to check the doc (or they subscribe to edit notifications from the doc), the client writes the answers directly into the doc, and this repeats as the task goes on.
Pros: the client doesn't have to answer everything in one go, client gets less notifications, feels like less formal writing is fine on both ends, feels more collaborative, it's easy to add follow-up questions next to the relevant snippet, you can add comments to the doc for quick discussions and to assign/track small tasks, easy for others to read and contribute to.
(Edit: I'm thinking contract work here with non-techy people where you don't know them or their business well, and you'll have lots of little questions)
> Do not, DO NOT, assume they are too busy to answer clarifying questions as you work on the [t]ask.
Any tips for this when you're working remotely and online chat isn't an option?
In-person, it feels easier to ask lots of small, quick, imprecise, and half-baked questions because you get a quick reply then can follow-up. Over email though, I end up spending more time articulating what I'm confused about and trying to pre-empt possible replies because it feels more formal and interruptive. Video calls can take time to arrange and have a lot of overhead.
One trick I use for client projects is to have a Google Doc that I append small questions to as they crop up, I ping the client occasionally to check the doc (or they subscribe to edit notifications from the doc), the client writes the answers directly into the doc, and this repeats as the task goes on.
Pros: the client doesn't have to answer everything in one go, client gets less notifications, feels like less formal writing is fine on both ends, feels more collaborative, it's easy to add follow-up questions next to the relevant snippet, you can add comments to the doc for quick discussions and to assign/track small tasks, easy for others to read and contribute to.
(Edit: I'm thinking contract work here with non-techy people where you don't know them or their business well, and you'll have lots of little questions)