Steal These Thoughts 08.03.22 | Performance Engineers Cheatsheet

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From orders to outcomes...

As performance engineers, our goal is to get to the root cause of the problem, remove barriers and enable improved performance.We do this by asking the right questions to unlock a conversation and reflection in our stakeholders.To move from order takers at a drive-thru to performance consulting, we want conversations to look less like…“Can you run a 3 day workshop for my team on collaboration because they need some training and it’s one of my performance objectives for this year.” To…“Hey, we’ve got this problem and we’d like your help at looking at some possible solutions.”Remember, just because someone tells you they have an L&D problem, doesn’t mean they do. It’s our job to help them unpack their problem and diagnose what they actually need.Let’s look at some essential questions to ask during the discovery phase of any learning/education related project to diagnose that need:👉 What are we trying to solve?👉 Why is this important?👉 Do you have any data on that?👉 What’s your evidence?👉 How will you measure x?👉 What’s your metric of success?👉 What exists today?👉 Are your audience aware of x problem?This is the complete reverse of what most stakeholders envisage when they’re looking for L&D support. What they expect you to say is “Yes, I’ll find a course for you on that and we’ll get people signed up asap” – the classic box ticking scenario.Why not give this a try next time you're in a discovery conversation? You can explore more on this thread in an article I wrote earlier on the full performance engineering approach too.

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One more thing...

"Always ask: What am I missing? And listen to the answer" Strauss Zelnick

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