“With great power comes great responsibility” (Uncle Ben to Peter Parker, Spiderman-2002).
Cheesy opening line I know, but in a sense it is very true when it comes to the world of Information Technology. Exaggerations aside, I’m quite sure most techies (or even wannabes like myself) have had numerous mind-numbing experiences when speaking to a regular human about something as basic as “what operating system is your desktop running?”, or “how big is your hard drive?”. Before I delve into some of my personal encounters with friends and family, I want to state the obvious and point out that at one time we all were noobs, or is it newbs (or even n00bs)? I also want to remind – that if everyone was as interested in this geeky stuff as we are, well then we might find ourselves less employable, right?
Most times I have to remember that if someone is asking me a question about anything I.T. related, it is because they trust and respect me enough to hear what I have to say. It is not an opportunity for me to purposefully throw out a bunch of lingo that they clearly won’t understand just for the sake of insult. I’ve been on the other end of the spectrum, and still am more frequently than I’d like, and it’s not a good feeling. I try and visually place myself in an auto garage being talked into purchasing an upgraded flux capacitor, when all I wanted to know was if the squealing noise my car makes is a good or a bad thing.
The point I’m trying to make is this: yes it can be annoying and even somewhat excruciating trying to walk your aunt through the process of scheduling an anti-virus boot scan, or showing your daughter how to change her desktop wallpaper; just don’t be a jerk about it! Instead, try encouraging them to at least attempt on their own. Most times when people call me with a question – I either don’t know the answer, or have completely forgotten. I like to see this as an opportunity to dust off the rust or even learn something new. A new tactic that I’ve been using is http://lmgtfy.com/ , exclusively reserved for people with a good sense of humor. The best method IMO, is to keep things very simple when explaining and find a suitable comparison that is understandable to common folk. An example: I was struggling with some basic networking concepts and it was described to me very simply, to look at it like roads/bridges/homes rather than IP addresses & devices; and for the first time it made much more sense to me. I’ve taken that experience and tried my best to use similar strategies whenever possible.
A few sites I use when attempting to educate the computer illiterate:
http://www.ehow.com/guide_5-computers.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/
Filed under: Uncategorized
Guess what? Working with “noobs” is a GREAT opportunity.
It allows you to see problems through fresh eyes and work on your communication skills.
I know we’ve all met IT folk who have bemoaned “clueless” users. Some truly seem to enjoy the feeling of superiority. Fact is, they have selected IT as their specialty, while others have selected convincing people to buy things, or helping others succeed, or making the bathroom faucet turn on. These people do not care about bits and bytes. The bits and bytes are just like a pen or office chair – a tool in getting work done.
Realizing this helped me learn to better communicate with noobs. Here are my personal rules.
1. Always be accurate.
2. Tell them only what they need to know to do their job, unless they ask for the techno-junkie details.
3. Use language they easily understand.
4. Do not make assumptions about what they have already done or what they know. (Hence the “reboot” catch-all.)
5. When you document the problem, be detailed and use all the technical lingo you like.
Above all, be polite, personable, and stay in contact. Keep users updated, even if you have little news to share. They will appreciate it, and it will improve the inter-department relationship. People often become dissatisfied with faceless service on the other end of a phone line, but are much less likely to be angry with “Joe”.
Thanks for this post! I know it will be helpful to many.
Think about how you sometimes feel when you take your BMW in for repairs or when you get the “bum’s rush” at the doctor’s office.