Every Developer Needs To Know How To Do This

Summary

In this video, Kyle from Web Dev Simplified emphasizes the critical skill of understanding the 'why' behind writing code, which can significantly enhance a developer's career. He shares a personal anecdote about a project for Disney's financial department that initially led to wasted effort and cost due to a lack of deep understanding of the client's needs. Kyle advises developers to delve into the root of client requests to write more efficient and effective code, leading to client satisfaction and professional success.

Takeaways

• 💡 Understanding the 'why' behind the code you write is crucial for a successful developer career.
• 🚀 Early adoption of this skill can set you apart from junior developers and lead to significant career advancements.
• 🤝 Client satisfaction is often a result of developers comprehending the true needs behind the features they are asked to implement.
• 💼 This skill is not technical but is about diving deep into the purpose of the code, which can lead to more efficient and effective solutions.
• 📈 The speaker's personal anecdote illustrates the cost of not fully understanding requirements, leading to wasted effort and resources.
• 🔍 It's important to question and clarify the purpose of tasks, even when they seem straightforward, to ensure they align with the user's actual needs.
• 🗣️ Direct communication with end-users, when possible, can provide invaluable insights that lead to more accurate and efficient coding.
• 🔄 Iterative development with client feedback is essential, but starting with a deep understanding of the problem can reduce the number of iterations.
• 🛠️ Knowing the domain and specific sections of a project well can help in identifying the true needs and delivering more targeted solutions.
• 📈 This skill can lead to better job performance, increased client satisfaction, and potentially better opportunities such as raises and promotions.

Q & A

What is the key skill that can catapult a developer's career to new levels according to Kyle?

The key skill is understanding why you are writing the code that you are writing and getting down to the nitty-gritty level of the purpose behind the code.

Why did Kyle's early career benefit from understanding the 'why' behind the code?

Understanding the 'why' behind the code set Kyle apart from Junior developers, made clients incredibly happy, and led to multiple raises at his job.

What was the story Kyle shared about his experience working with Disney's financial department?

Kyle was asked to add functionality to financial software to create charts and export data, which led to weeks of work and multiple iterations before realizing a simpler solution was available.

How did the initial misunderstanding of the client's needs lead to a loss of tens of thousands of dollars?

The loss occurred because Kyle spent weeks developing complex features that were not needed, when a simpler solution involving adding a single column to a table would have sufficed.

What is the importance of diving deep into the root problem when a client or user requests a feature?

Diving deep into the root problem ensures that the solution provided is the best fit for the actual need, which can save time and resources, and lead to higher satisfaction from clients or users.

Why is it crucial for developers to understand the domain of the project they are working on?

Understanding the domain provides a high-level overview of the project, which is essential for writing code that aligns with the business needs and objectives.

How can developers ensure they are writing code that conforms to the client's or user's expectations?

By asking clarifying questions, understanding the intent behind tasks, and getting as close to the source of the problem as possible.

What is the value of talking directly to the end-users of the software when developing features?

Talking directly to end-users can provide insights that help developers understand the real needs and use cases, leading to more effective and efficient solutions.

How can developers improve their ability to understand the 'why' behind the code they are writing?

Developers can improve this skill by familiarizing themselves with the project domain, specializing in certain sections of the application, and asking questions to clarify the intent behind tasks.

What are the potential benefits of mastering the skill of understanding the 'why' behind code for a developer's career?

Mastering this skill can lead to better job performance, client satisfaction, reduced need for revisions, and potential for raises, promotions, and more clients.

Outlines

00:00

💡 Understanding the 'Why' Behind Coding

This paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding the rationale behind the code one writes, which is crucial for a successful developer career. The speaker, Kyle, shares a personal experience where he underestimated the necessity of this skill, leading to a significant loss of time and money. He was tasked with enhancing financial software for Disney, adding features like custom charts and data exports based on initial client requests. However, through iterative development and deeper questioning, Kyle discovered a much simpler solution that would have met the client's needs more efficiently. This story illustrates the value of delving into the core purpose of the code and the business domain, which can lead to more effective and efficient solutions, client satisfaction, and career advancement.

05:00

🔍 Digging Deeper for Better Solutions

In this paragraph, the speaker advises developers to delve deeper into the root problems clients face rather than just addressing the symptoms. He points out that non-technical clients may not always know the best way to achieve their goals or may not fully articulate their needs. Kyle suggests developers should ask clarifying questions to understand the underlying issues and consider the broader context of their work. He also recommends getting as close to the source of the problem as possible, which might involve talking directly to end-users or project managers. This approach not only improves the quality of the code but also saves time by reducing the need for revisions. The speaker concludes by encouraging developers to apply this skill to enhance their work, regardless of whether they are working on freelance projects or in a traditional job setting, as it can lead to better job performance, client satisfaction, and professional growth.

Keywords

💡Developer

A developer, in the context of the video, refers to a professional who creates and maintains software applications. The video emphasizes the importance of a specific skill for developers to excel in their careers. The speaker, Kyle, uses his experience as a developer to illustrate the significance of understanding the 'why' behind the code they write, which is crucial for delivering solutions that meet client needs and avoiding unnecessary work.

💡Skill

The term 'skill' in the video is used to denote a proficiency or ability that a developer can acquire to improve their performance and career prospects. The video suggests that the skill of understanding the rationale behind writing code is more impactful than technical skills alone. It's about knowing the purpose of the code, which can lead to more efficient and effective solutions.

💡Code

Code, in this video, refers to the source code that developers write to create software applications. The speaker discusses the importance of understanding why one is writing a particular piece of code, rather than just focusing on the technical act of coding. This understanding helps in creating more relevant and efficient software features, as illustrated by the speaker's anecdote about developing financial software for Disney.

💡Career

The 'career' in the video is used to describe the professional journey of a developer. The skill of understanding the underlying reasons for writing code is portrayed as a key differentiator that can propel a developer's career to new heights. It's about moving beyond just being technically proficient to becoming a problem solver who can deliver high-value solutions.

💡Technical Skill

Technical skill, as mentioned in the video, refers to the specific abilities and knowledge required to perform tasks in software development, such as programming languages or frameworks. The video contrasts this with the non-technical skill of understanding the purpose of the code, suggesting that the latter can be just as, if not more, important for a developer's success.

💡Client Satisfaction

Client satisfaction is a central theme in the video, where the speaker discusses how understanding the 'why' behind the code can lead to solutions that meet client needs and result in happier clients. This is exemplified by the story of the speaker's work with Disney, where initially, the lack of understanding led to a costly and time-consuming development process.

💡Raise

A 'raise' in the video refers to an increase in salary, which is suggested as a potential outcome of mastering the skill of understanding the purpose behind the code. The speaker implies that this skill can lead to better job performance, which in turn can result in financial rewards such as raises.

💡Project Budgets

Project budgets are mentioned in the context of the speaker's experience working on financial software for Disney. Understanding the intricacies of project budgets and how the software can assist in managing them is crucial for writing relevant code. This example from the video underscores the importance of diving deep into the domain knowledge to write effective code.

💡Root Problem

The 'root problem' in the video refers to the fundamental issue that a client or user is trying to solve with the help of software. The speaker stresses the importance of identifying and addressing the root problem rather than just implementing the solution that the client initially suggests. This approach can lead to more efficient and effective software development.

💡Domain Knowledge

Domain knowledge is the understanding of the specific field or industry in which a developer is working. In the video, the speaker highlights the importance of having a good grasp of the domain, such as finance in the case of the Disney project, to write code that aligns with the business needs and objectives.

💡Revision

Revision, as used in the video, refers to the process of making changes or improvements to a piece of software after it has been initially developed. The speaker suggests that by understanding the 'why' behind the code, developers can reduce the need for revisions, leading to more efficient development and higher client satisfaction.

Highlights

The importance of understanding the purpose behind the code you write for a successful developer career.

How early realization of this skill can set you apart from junior developers and lead to job raises.

The skill is not technical but involves realizing why you are writing specific code.

The author's personal experience and how this skill catapulted his career.

The story from the author's career about not using this skill and the resulting financial loss.

Working on financial software for Disney and the request to add charting and exporting features.

The iterative process of adding features and the realization that a simpler solution was possible.

The lesson learned from the Disney project about understanding the root of a client's needs.

The importance of knowing the domain of the project you're working on.

The value of diving deep into the specific features you're implementing to understand their purpose.

How non-technical clients may not know the best way to achieve their goals.

The need to ask clarifying questions to understand the root problem a client is trying to solve.

The impact of this skill on writing better code and saving time.

How understanding the 'why' behind tasks can lead to more efficient and effective coding.

The benefits of this skill for both freelance work and everyday job tasks.

Tips for improving this skill, including understanding the project domain and talking to users.

The potential for this skill to lead to better job opportunities, raises, and promotions.

How this non-technical skill can give you an edge over more technically skilled developers.

Advice for job seekers on implementing this skill to increase their chances of getting hired.

Transcripts

as a developer there are a million

different things that you could be

learning right now but there's one skill

in particular that you need to learn if

you want to have a successful career

this is something I learned early on in

my career and absolutely catapulted my

career to new levels it set me apart

from a lot of Junior developers and it

made the clients that I was working with

incredibly happy and led to me getting

multiple raises at my job this one skill

may sound like it's got to be something

crazy complicated and Technical but it's

not even a technical skill all that you

need to do is to learn how to realize

why you are writing the code that you

are writing and to get down to that

nitty-gritty level of why you're writing

that code this sounds like an easy skill

that you're probably already doing but

in reality you're not going far enough

in this video I want to talk about

exactly how you can hone this skill

figure out what you need to do and how

you can use this skill to catapult your

career to new levels or even land your

first

job welcome back to web dev simplified

my name is Kyle and my job is to

simplify the web for you so you can

start building your dream project sooner

and in order to really show you the

reason why this skill is so important I

want to tell you a story from my

developer career by a time I didn't use

this skill and how it led to tens of

thousands of dollars of lost money so

we're going to rewind all the way back

to when I was working at an agency and I

was working with Disney and I was

working on their financial department so

I was helping write Financial software

for them to manage like budgeting and

stuff for new projects not super

exciting stuff but it was you know code

and it was working and at the point I

got a request from a person I actually

talked with them one-on-one and they had

a request they said hey I have a lot of

excel sheets that are running all this

different budgeting software and doing

all these different things can you add

in the functionality for me to create

certain charts and Export certain data

from your software so that I don't need

to write all these complex Excel sheets

to do all this and I was like yeah

that's a pretty easy thing to do I can

add some charts to the data so you don't

have to write your Excel charts for it

and I can make it so you can export

certain data that you need for certain

things that's a relatively easy feature

now easy doesn't really mean quick it

still took quite a while to develop this

feature because adding in all these

custom charts and stuff was not super

easy to do because there's a quite large

and complex code base so I spent a

significant amount of time working on

this feature I wasn't working on other

features I was working on this feature

for adding new charts and adding new

things and even at the time when this

guy came to me with this request I asked

him multiple questions about okay why do

you need these charts and why do you

need these exports and he explained to

me why he needed them and I asked him

okay you know what are you doing in

those PowerPoint or Excel sheets and he

told me exactly what he was doing so I

got a pretty good idea of why I thought

I was writing this code so I thought

that I was following this Rule and

making sure I knew why I was writing my

specific code but I didn't dive deep

enough it wasn't until I was most of the

way through writing my code and I was

giving it back to this guy to say hey

can you test this and let me know if

this gives you exactly what you're

looking for and he started playing

around in the you know code that I wrote

and he was looking at it and he said you

know what it's actually doing a lot of

the things I wanted to do I'm getting

the charts I want I'm getting some other

things but hey can you add this one

extra feature to it that i' forgot about

I'm like okay sure that's not that bad I

spent a little time added that extra

feature gave it back to him and he's

like oh you know know what can you

actually add this extra feature as well

I added that extra feature gave it back

to him and we went back and forth with

like this for a little while adding

extra features and doing extra things

and it was taking significant amount of

time to add a feature give it back to

him come back add a feature give it back

to him and so on it wasn't until after

multiple iterations of making a feature

and giving it back that I finally sat

down again I'm like okay we need to

really go through and figure out exactly

what the use case you're using this for

is and as he started to really get in

depth with exactly what he was doing

inside these Excel sheets and all the

different charts he was trying to export

I realized that he really didn't need

all these complicated charts and exports

and everything and that the actual data

that he needed could be implemented much

easier I could essentially just add an

extra column to the table of data that

we're already displaying that would give

him 99% of all the information that he

needs I don't need any of these fancy

charts or exporting all I needed to do

was add one single column which required

me to write one extra little bit of SQL

code so the amount of work that I spent

was weeks and weeks of work building out

all these additional features and

charting and in reality all I needed to

do was spend a couple hours adding an

extra you know chart column to this

table it was that easy and this is why

it's so important to understand why

you're writing the code that you're

writing not only do you need to

understand the entire domain of the

business that you're working in so in

that particular case I was doing finance

software for managing project budgets I

had a pretty good understanding of

exactly why I was writing my code it was

to help people in the accounting

department finalize and do estimating

for budgets and so on I knew the

overview high level of what the code was

doing but I didn't know exactly what

every single feature I was implementing

was doing for example I thought these

charts were going to be helping with you

know doing estimates and en counting and

so on but really the actual data they

needed for that particular thing was a

much simpler piece of data I could have

got in a much better way and it's

important that you know this skill

because a lot of times if a

non-technical person is coming to you

and telling you what they want they

generally don't know the best way to get

there A lot of times they'll say hey can

you make this feel better or look better

or act better or maybe they're like hey

this thing doesn't quite feel right when

you do this particular thing can you

change how it works and they give you

kind of fuzzy language for exactly what

they want and even if they are giving

you specific language on things that you

need to fix and change they may not know

that there are better ways to do that

based on what they actually want deep

down so it's always important especially

when working with clients and doing

freelance work to really dive in and try

to figure out okay what is it that they

actually want at the root level they're

telling you what they think that they

want you to implement to fix their

problem but you really want to figure

out what is the problem that they're

running into because maybe the solution

they're telling you is not actually the

best solution to solve that problem and

even if they are coming to you with just

a problem and no solution make sure you

try to dig a little bit deeper to figure

out what the root of that problem

they're running into is because it may

actually impact how you write the

solution for it and I know it may sound

like this is something that's only

applicable if you're doing like

freelance work and so on but it's even

applicable at a normal everyday job

while I was at this exact same Agency

company I was working on some internal

projects at one point where is only

going to be used for the particular

company I was working at so very similar

to writing software at a normal company

and even then I still ran into these

problems where I had to make sure I

really dove in and figured out okay what

is the use case for this why do you want

this what is the underline root problem

that you're trying to solve digging

deeper and deeper into every single

thing that you're told to do will really

help you with writing the best possible

code also it'll save you tons of time

because like as you can see in the

example I told at the beginning of this

video I spent weeks and weeks writing

out this code when I probably could have

done the same exact thing in a single

day to solve the problem in a better way

so usually if you're writing code that

doesn't actually solve the underlying

problem they're going to come back to

you and say hey you know what I love

this code that you wrote but I still

need you to make changes because it

didn't actually solve the thing they

want even though they thought it would

so how exactly do you improve this skill

cuz it's easy for me to tell you to do

this but how exactly do you go about it

well the first thing that you're going

to want to do is to figure out the

domain of the project you're working on

the higher level like I said the

accounting that I was working on inside

that financing project figure out what

the high level overview of the project

is the next thing that you can work on

is if there's like a certain section of

the that you specialize in maybe more so

than other sections try to figure out

really good and in-depth what that

section of the application is doing so

if you're only working on like six

different pages of an application figure

out exactly why those pages are being

used and even if you have the ability

talk to the people using those pages if

I had the ability to talk to the

accountants and so on that were using

these Pages it may have helped me see

exactly what they wanted from these

pages instead of trying to guess from

you know being three levels removed if a

project manager is talking to them and

then telling the Project Lead and then

the project lead makes you know some

story for me to follow it's a lot of

steps removed so trying to get as close

to the source as possible will really

help I know this isn't always possible

at every company but even if you can

talk to like the project League or the

project manager and ask them hey can you

go back to the actual people that

created this issue this problem and ask

them a few additional clarifying

questions so I can figure out what the

root of that problem is this will again

help you with writing better code now

another thing you can do is a lot of

times in a software company you're going

to be having a board of different tasks

that you can accomplish and a lot of

times these tasks are pretty well

spelled out it'll be like hey go to this

particular page add this particular

button that does this particular thing

they're very easy do this do that do

this done but a lot of times they don't

really have any intent behind them it

may say hey create this button on this

page that does this thing but you don't

really know why people want that button

added to that page and often times if

you run into a task like this that has a

lot of steps on what to do but not

really why you want to do this I would

again go back and ask the Project Lead

project manager whoever put that task in

there ask them hey why are we adding

this button to the page I understand

that it's supposed to do X Y and Z but

what is the reason we want to add this

button you may realize the button isn't

even needed because you already have

something on a different page that does

exactly what they want or you may

realize hey this button actually should

probably do an additional two or three

things that it's not listed in the task

based on what they want or you may just

find out that you can just do it exactly

as is and it won't matter the nice thing

about this technique though is it

doesn't matter if you go back and you

find out you don't need to change

anything or you go back and you find

that you do need to make a lot of change

either way you'll know at the end when

you finish building out this project

it's going to most likely conform

exactly to what your client or your user

wants which means that they're going to

be incredibly happy with your work

because instead of constantly having to

go back and do revision after revision

they're getting what they want on the

first or maybe even the second attempt

which is much better than a lot of

companies and people can do project

managers project leads clients and even

employers are going to notice that you

have these skills and notice how you are

able to effortlessly complete projects

that don't need tons of changes and that

will lead to you getting better raises

promotions more clients more hours

whatever it is that you want you're

going to be able to obtain that by

implementing just this one single skill

and it's not even a technical skill so

it doesn't matter how bad you are at

programming this can put you a league

ahead of people that are 10 times better

at programming than you because you're

able to do things that the company

actually wants instead of just writing

good code now you may not have any good

places to implement this skill yet

because you're still looking for your

first job and if that's the case I

highly recommend checking out this video

linked right over here cuz it goes over

my top tips how to get hired right now