How to Introduce New Ideas

How do you introduce new ways of working? We want to bring a new idea to our engineering teams, such as a new command-line configuration, testing tool, or design pattern. But engineers can be discerning and stubborn customers. The idea needs to stand on its own. And, you have to sell it.

Here are some approaches that I’ve tried to introduce new ideas to a team. Combine them all, and you’re on a good path.

“What’s the Why?”

Before pitching an idea to your team, figure out why you want to do it.

What problem is it solving? Who is it helping? What’s lacking that this idea addresses?

If you solidify the “why” and can explain it, you might even start to get advocates for it.

Try It Yourself

One of the best ways to refine an idea is to try it yourself.

A new command-line function? Add it to your dotfile and leave it for a week. A new testing tool? Write a real test and prove why it’s great. A new design pattern? Build something small and open the code up for critique.

When you try it yourself, you’ll learn firsthand what works and what doesn’t. You’ll raise counterarguments, and if it’s a good idea, find ways to address them. When you pitch the idea to others it will be stronger.

Poke Holes In It

“If, instead of seeking approval, you ask, ‘What’s wrong with it? How can I make it better?’, you are more likely to get a truthful, critical answer.”― Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be

One of my favorite questions to ask is “What’s wrong with this idea?” People don’t want to criticize. They’ll withhold valuable feedback unless they are invited to share and feel comfortable doing so.

This is similar to Paul Saffo’s “strong opinions, weakly held.” If you assume that there is an ideal solution to your problem, then finding flaws in your idea is good, because abandoning it gets you closer to the ideal.

Experimental Mindset

In the spirit of The Lean Startup, treat ideas as experiments and make them easy to try, keep, or abandon.

For that command-line function, try it yourself. The testing tool, write a small test and use CI to share its results with others. For the design pattern, build something small and think about how you would maintain it.

Celebrate innovation, even when it fails. Convince yourself that it could be better and that a great idea can come from anyone.

Wrapping Up

I hope these approaches help you introduce new ideas to a team. How do you bring change to your organization?

• Ideas