Jannah Patchay

My undergraduate degree was in computer science and math, and the first few years of my career were spent working as a Java developer. I really enjoyed my time as a developer. Like many mathematicians, I had an obsession with writing clean and elegant code, and I would refactor my code for ages until it was as near to perfection as it could get. I was aware of the end users, but only to the extent that they provided the requirements that created the challenges that I would then have to solve.

Fast-forward to 20 years after I graduated, and I’m now on a completely different path, consulting on financial markets regulation and market structure, with a particular interest in financial innovation, which also keeps me in touch with my techie roots. I’ve worked with many developers over the years, from the other side of the fence as the person who provides and clarifies the requirements. And over time, I’ve developed a greater appreciation of certain traits that really, really good developers have that go beyond technical ability.

The first and most important is curiosity. The same drive that causes you to want to solve problems, to understand how things work, and to build new things, can and should be applied to your interactions with your clients and stakeholders. It’s great when developers ask lots of questions about the business domain because it shows that they really want to understand and to learn. It also leads to a better understanding of the business domain and the ability to address the problems of end users more effectively. I’ve encountered loads of development managers who actively dissuade their teams from “bothering” the business too much with questions. That’s so wrong.

The second and third are empathy and imagination. It’s about the ability to put yourself in your end user’s shoes and try to understand their priorities and experience of using your software. It’s also the ability to then come up with creative solutions to the challenges that they face, using your technical expertise. Many developers tend to dismiss a lot of this stuff as unimportant or to assume that it’s for someone else to deal with. But it’s much more effective, and makes you a better developer, if you are able to communicate directly with the business yourself.

These might sound like obvious things. But they are so important. I recently attended a conference on tech and innovation that focused on the importance of collaboration between technology and the business in order to best leverage emerging technologies like the cloud, distributed ledger technology, and artificial intelligence/machine learning. Many speakers emphasized the importance of breaking down walls between developers and end users. Some now embed developers into their business teams and expect them to know just as much about the business domain. So this is also about the future and about how to work smarter. If you can cultivate these skills, it can also open doors for you.