Scripts for Tough Conversations with Developers
3 min readNov 12, 2020
How to respond to engineers’s tough questions when you don’t know how to code?
As a non-technical person working in a tech company, there will be situations when you need to understand the basic technical details to better do your job. However, that ask may not be welcomed by all developers. Here is a quick and dirty list of responses that you can use so you have a sharp response.
Comment below if you would like more sample responses for other situations.
Developers say: “You don’t need to know the technical details.”
When this tends to happen
- Give a walkthrough on a new feature.
- Understand why a bug happens.
Why they say this
- They don’t see the value of explaining it to you.
- They are worried that you will tell them how to do their job.
Your responses
- “I need to understand it at least at a high level. So I can explain the risks to the stakeholders — and why this feature will take longer to build than we think. If you can help me figure out the dependencies, then we can come up with incremental steps to get to the final solution.”
- “I need to understand how this works. So I can ask the user for all the right information to help you debug this faster. Our client and CEO keep asking for an update. If I can explain the complexities and what actions we are taking, you will be able to focus on fixing the bug.”
Why the responses are helpful
- The keyword is “understand”. It shows that you come from a good place — so they will take their guard off.
- Explain “help me help you”.
Developers say: “I need to talk to another developer right now”
When this tends to happen
- Your user is a developer — especially when your product has public APIs that other third-party companies can use.
Why they say this
- They think you don’t have the technical knowledge to solve their problem.
Your response
- “I’ve escalated this to our engineering team. In order to investigate, the engineers asked for {insert the information they requested. For APIs, this often includes error code, request and response}. So they can look at the logs. Examples are provided here”
Why the responses are helpful
- Show them you have relayed the information to the people they asked for.
- The keyword here is “the engineers asked for” — not you.
- Using terms frequently used by engineers, such as logs and requests, puts you on the same level playing field. Ask your engineers to proofread your response to ensure the terms you used are correct.
- Provide examples of the technical details your engineer needs. Having to ask for more information will further the belief that you don’t have the technical knowledge to help them.
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