Why Your Brilliant Ideas Fall Flat (And How to Fix It)

We all know the drill: refactoring makes our code easier to understand, static analysis points out complex areas and code smells, tests help us track and improve our code's coverage, and Domain-Driven Design lets us build code that directly reflects the business rules. Sounds logical, right? Yet, we often find it tough to convince managers, product owners, and other stakeholders of the value in these practices. What's even more puzzling is that we usually have no problem getting fellow developers on board.

You might wonder, "What's going on here?" We use the same language, list the same problems and solutions, and back up our points with the same arguments. So, where's the disconnect? Well, it's right in how we're presenting it. 

Think about it: do you use the same language when you explain your work to your boss that you do when talking to a friend, child, or partner? No, you adjust your message based on who you're talking to. You know their level of understanding might be different from yours. So why do we forget this basic principle when we're trying to make changes for the better at work? Sure, everyone works at the same company, maybe even on the same project, but their roles and responsibilities can be very different. This means they might use different language, some terms might be completely meaningless to them, and things that seem obvious to you might not be clear to them at all.

When you're trying to introduce a new idea, solution, or technique, getting your audience to buy into it is crucial. You need to shift your focus from what you want to share to what matters to your audience and how your proposal helps them achieve their goals.

That's easier said than done, right? So, how do you prepare effectively?

• Clarify Your Goal: This might seem obvious, but it's important to know what you want to achieve from the meeting. You'll prepare differently if your goal is just to share knowledge versus asking for support, permission, or budget. Without a clear goal, you won't be able to prioritize what you need to share and how deep you need to go into each topic.

• Document Your Rationales: Write down why you think your proposed solution is important and worth implementing. This is your perspective, and once you have it written down, you can do a lot with it. You can prioritize your points, group them together if possible, and prioritize within those groups. This helps you build a better narrative around your proposal. Plus, having your priorities clear is especially helpful when you don't have a lot of time. You don't want to spend most of the meeting talking about the least important aspect of your solution.

• Understand Your Audience: Describe who's invited to the meeting: who they are, why they're invited, why the meeting is or should be important to them, what's important to them right now, and what their high-level priorities are. To make this easier, you can list a few possible values on the side as inspiration: growth, promotion, recognition, visibility, risk reduction, saving money, earning money, and so on. You can describe each person invited if the group is small, or describe types of personas if the group is large. And there's no problem mixing both approaches if needed.

• Develop Audience-Oriented Arguments: You know why you think your proposal is beneficial, and you know what's important to your audience. Now, go through your reasoning and arguments with their values in mind. What aspects will be most important to them? What arguments need to be adjusted? What arguments are irrelevant? The best part of this exercise is that you'll likely come up with new arguments to support your solution, just by looking at it from their perspective. Of course, it can also show you aspects you hadn't thought of before. This usually helps you prepare better for the meeting. But in some cases, it might become clear that you don't have enough strong arguments to convince the person or group. While this isn't ideal, it's better to know before the meeting than during it. This information can also help you decide whether to continue or stop pursuing the idea. It depends on whether this person or group is your main target and whether you need their approval to move forward.

• Eliminate Domain-Specific Terminology: Everyone has different knowledge, models reality differently, uses different words, and has their own set of "obvious" information. Remember this when preparing for conversations with people who might not be from your "world." Once you have a list of who they are, it's easier to figure out which terms need explaining, which phrases need replacing, and which details are completely irrelevant. You don't want to sound smart; you want to convince them. Technical jargon will confuse them, and going into too much detail will bore them and lose their interest.

• Anticipate Challenges: Building understanding is one thing, but addressing their concerns is equally important. Look at what matters to them, look at their goals and priorities, and then go back to your arguments. If you were them, would your arguments contradict their priorities in any way? If not, explain why. If yes, prepare answers for the questions or challenges they might have.

• Manage Time Effectively: By this point, you know what to say and how to say it. Now, you need to know how much time you have and how quickly you need to get your point across. Do you have 30 minutes or 5? Whatever the answer, accept it. You might have a story you could tell for hours, but this isn't about you or even them; it's about getting them to follow or accept your solution. Remove all unnecessary details, start with the key arguments, and address their biggest concerns. The less time you have, the more important it is to have a well-structured plan.

• Create an Engaging Agenda: It's worth creating an agenda that keeps your audience engaged. Don't just throw arguments at them randomly. Build a story and a proper narrative. Start with a problem that's important to your audience to grab their attention from the start. If you have more time, you can go into the details of the problem. This can remind them why the issue affected them and why they wanted it solved. Once you have their attention and remind them why the meeting is important, you can move on to your proposal. Depending on the time, include more or fewer details. Make it clear that you're aware of the challenges (no solution is perfect) and describe how you plan to tackle or compensate for them. Leave time at the end to remind them of the problem and finish with the benefits of your proposal. End with a positive message and the benefits, leaving them with a feeling of all the great things that will happen once your solution is implemented.

• Leave Room for Questions: This depends heavily on how much time you have, but if there's enough, plan for questions upfront to strengthen your narrative. You can plan your presentation and leave time for questions at the end. If you do this, remember to control the situation. There might be challenging questions you don't know the answers to right away, and you don't want to leave your audience uncertain about the quality of your solution. That's why you should summarize the benefits after the Q&A. Another approach is to let them ask questions after each "part" of your presentation. This prevents you from being bombarded with questions from various areas at once, but it requires better control over the audience. You have an agenda, and you need to make sure you cover everything you planned.

In most cases, you won't be able to use all of these recommendations. Everything depends on your audience, the time you have, and your goal. And of course, on the importance of the topic. The more important the discussion, the more time you'll need to prepare carefully.

And one last thing to remember: you can be really well-prepared, but you won't "win" every discussion. However, the more comfortable you are with these techniques, the more you'll learn from each experience. You'll notice more things, not just the words spoken during the discussion.

I wish you good luck in all your important conversations! And if you have any other techniques for preparing well, please share them!