Effective communication is one of the most important skills we need. It greatly improves our productivity. And multiplies the positive impact that we have on the products we build and the people we work with. In this talk, we are going to explore three lessons on better communication. First, we’ll start with key principles for building trust and good relationships with the people around us. Then, we’ll see why and how to manage expectations. And we’ll explore how requirements facilitation can make our work easier. We are also going to see how to apply code reviews to our communication and scale it to amplify our impact. And most importantly, we’ll go over some real-world examples of how to apply these lessons in our everyday work to become better engineers.

1. 3 lessons on effective communication
for engineers
Nikolay Stoitsev, Engineering Manager at Halo Diagnostics

2. We communicate a lot

3. We communicate a lot
… with each other

4. We communicate a lot
… with each other
… with our managers

5. We communicate a lot
… with each other
… with our managers
… with non-tech people

6. We communicate a lot
… with each other
… with our managers
… with non-tech people
… with clients

7. What’s up?
What is the progress?
Can you give me a quick update?

8. #1 Building
Trust

9. Transparency
is the key

10. Frequent
status updates

11. Overcommunicate

12. Something you don’t
know?

13. 1. Admit you aren't certain.
2. Own the follow-up to determine the answer.
3. Give a timeline for when you will follow up.
4. Deliver a correct, concise, and thoughtful
response.

14. Be proactive

15. … please, improve the quality of
the product

16. #2 Manage
Expectations

17. What is expected
from you?

18. Explain how you are
going to achieve it

19. Example:
Please, improve the
quality of the product

20. Requirements
facilitation

21. Example:
Please, implement a
feature to search
for photos

22. #3 Improve and
scale your
communication

23. Code review
your communication

24. Write documentation

25. Filememos

26. Thanks!