The time period ‘Shared Understanding’ has doubtless grow to be irrevocably enshrined into the lexicon of software program and product growth. As product designers, homeowners, engineers, and supply groups, we will typically use the time period with reckless abandon, day by day. Collectively, as product builders, we most definitely all agree that we now need to create some kind of shared understanding amongst our groups earlier than we decide to any motion.
The thought is that in doing so, all of us agree as a staff as to what the proper ‘factor’ to construct is, and extra importantly, exactly why we’re spending our restricted time on this earth constructing it within the first place.
Constructing Shared understanding then, we hope, can present a mechanism by which summary and ambiguous issues grow to be understood mechanisms by which we will create worth for our prospects. It’s meant to create a context inside which the answer that instantly addresses the specified consequence is found. Sadly, one thing that we all know all to effectively nonetheless, from our efforts to create it, is that it isn’t all the time a easy endeavour.
Creating shared understanding is just not as straightforward as spending an hour studying documentation, regurgitating our buyer requirement from a dusty post-it word (jotted earlier than the primary espresso of the day after an early morning telephone name), apathetically punching acceptance standards right into a venture administration device, and drawing fanciful implementation diagrams on the wall to wall white house that we insist on being supplied with as product groups, however can’t be bothered to learn to use successfully.
This can be a miserable, course of oriented, ‘tick-box’ manifestation of product growth, and it may place an excessive amount of emphasis on constructing the mistaken product as a result of it may be laden with each dangerous assumptions and, worse nonetheless, a continual lack of empathy. Moreover, it additionally locations the staff and it’s processes earlier than the client and their want; that’s, the issue that we’re [hopefully] being paid to unravel. This course of is just a of a room full of people that have taken in turns to say, ‘sure, I perceive’. The truth is that if you happen to requested every to repeat their understanding, you’d be left with a sequence of wildly completely different interpretations.
So, what the hell is Shared Understanding?
Jeff Patton’s fantastic illustration of the issue (above) is well-known, however with out context or rationalization, it doesn’t assist us perceive precisely what the shapes characterize. Are they options, backlog gadgets, design artefacts, outcomes; all of those? The issue is that the curious, outstanding and fantastic means during which as people we’re various and distinctive, makes defining shared understanding nearly unattainable. Semantic uncertainty leads us, as people, down completely different paths. For instance, let me offer you two definitions of ‘understanding’, in accordance with Google;
noun;
1. ‘the power to grasp one thing; comprehension’
and
2. ‘ sympathetic consciousness or tolerance’
So, there’s a definition which might have us optimise in the direction of comprehension, and one other in the direction of compassion. Optimising to at least one might drawback the opposite, and so as a result of our understanding of ‘understanding’ will invariably differ from particular person to particular person, shouldn’t we agree, as groups, which definition it’s that we’re working in the direction of, if we select to work in the direction of it in any respect?
Attempt asking your groups what they assume shared understanding actually means, and see how diverse the responses that you just obtain are. Your engineer could say one thing like ‘Understanding what we’re going to construct subsequent’, however your designer could say one thing extra like ‘Understanding how our consumer will work together with our product’; and these two responses clearly fixate on completely different facets of the merchandise growth. The reply is, it’s each of these items, and extra.
