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Once Upon a Time…
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
What’s that exit name?
<sheb>
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Rules and Exceptions
Spanish
French
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Sounds like WHAT now?!?
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
Technical Empathy
$date = today();
Leon Adato
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Leon Adato
• Principal DevRel Advocate @ New Relic
• Started in tech ~33 yrs ago
• Focus on monitoring for ~20 yrs
• Tivoli, BMC, OpenView, Nagios, SolarWinds
Perl scripts, batch files,
and New Relic (duh)
• Built monitoring for small, medium,
and ludicrous size orgs.
• @LeonAdato
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
This is an Oyster Talk™
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Go home, Otis, you’re drunk
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Microsoft WHO??
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
My Maserati does 185 (but nobody will drive it)
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
The corner of “WTF” and “GetOutAndWalk”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
This is a portal to Hell, actually
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
No, really, MS Bob was awful.
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Design horror, redux
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
“Empathy” defined:
em·pa·thy
/ˈempəTHē/
noun
The ability to understand and share
the feelings of another.
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
“Empathy” explained:
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Technical Empathy is NOT:
“Does this sorting algorithm fill you with joy?”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Technical Empathy is NOT:
“I’m sure your data is in a better place now.”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Technical Empathy, explained:
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
Part One: Accessibility
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
The bare minimum:
• Screen readers
• Alt-text
• Closed captions
• Customizable colors
• Language localisation
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
There’s just not enough demand…
• Deaf / Hard of hearing - 430 million worldwide
• Receptive language disorders - ~1 million children in the US
• Visual impairment - 245 million worldwide
• Colorblind - 350 million people worldwide
• Neurodiverse - 1.2 billion
• English speakers - 1.35 billion (out of ~7 billion)
– 360 million as a first language
15% of the world population - 1.17 billion people - have a disability
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
Part Two: Assumptions
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Say my name, say my name
● William Test
● Christopher Null
● John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris
○ John Beynon
○ Lucas Parkes
○ John Wyndham
● J R R Tolkien
● Pieter van der Meer
● ‫עדטו‬ ‫יהודה‬
Obligatory XKCD reference
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Does time even matter?
● Samoa, 2011: Thursday, December 29
○ IMMEDIATELY followed by Saturday, Dec 31
● A day in Unix epoch time is always 86,400 seconds.
○ Ask your sysadmin if “leap seconds” are right for you.
● Same time zone, different name:
○ Eastern Standard Time
○ Tiempo del Este
○ Heure Normale de l'Est
● India std time is UTC +5 ½
● The G.D. international date line itself:
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Why your mail carrier drinks
● 0 Egmont Road
● -1 Priory Road
● Ten Post Office Sq
● Apartment 001
○ Apartment 1 is in the same building, on a different floor
● Gondel 2695
○ which is “The town of Gondel, street 26, building 95”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Assumptions beyond the tech
• If I know it, it must be simple and everyone knows it.
• We can learn everything we need to know by looking at the data.
• My experience is both complete and definitive.
• The senior dev *must* know something I don’t.
• If we solve 10% of the problem we can work out the other stuff as
we build.
• Users know our jargon, internal code words, or special definitions
for industry-standard terms.
• The blessed MTTI* of git blame
* Mean Time To Innocence
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
Part Three: Asking the Right Questions
Or: “Don’t sit in a room smelling your own farts.”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Interview technique
● Multiple staff on the call. One leads, everyone else takes notes.
● Write exact statements. No summarization.
● Start with a list of questions (script).
○ Prioritize it because you will run out of time.
● More listening, less talking.
○ “Before I share what that is supposed to do, I'd first like to hear what you'd expect to happen.”
● Debrief immediately after the call.
● YOU KNOW NOTHING!
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Get to the good stuff
“Johari
window”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Remain unbiased
Instead of Ask
Is that helpful? “How do you use that today?"
“How is that working for you today?”
Was that easy to do? “How do you feel about what you just did?”
Did you like ABC better than XYZ? “Compare ABC and XYZ.”
Do you think that is good? “So when you think about that process . . . “
It would work like XYZ. “How would you expect it to work?”
…and later…
“It would actually work like... What are your
thoughts?”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
How to understand
Situation Ask
If you’re trying to understand something a
user said.
“Can you give me a specific example?”
When you expected something different
than what the user said.
“I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing that
and helping me understand.”
When user talks about a solution or
something specific they want
“Why do you want that?”
“How would that help you?”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Other types of questions
Instead of Ask
Tasks “Can you show me how you determine what devices are on
which ports of your Cisco switch?”
Specific example “Tell me about the most recent time your network went down”
Sequence “Walk me through the steps you take to find the root cause for
an alert storm.”
Peer comparison “Do the other sys admins do it that way?”
Clarification “And when you say ‘it seems odd’, what do you mean?”
Exhaustive list “What are all of the tools you use to troubleshoot a problem?”
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Do you take requests?
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Final Thoughts
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Users are not “stupid”. They:
● …don't really care about your product. It's like UI #37 they use in their job.
If you make it hard, it's not worth their time to learn your product.
● …are working in a situation of high cognitive load. 95% of their mental
capacity is holding an intricate model of a problem. You're getting the
remaining 5% whether you like it or not.
● …are exhausted and just trying to complete a task as quickly as possible
so they can go home, go to lunch, or generally do the things in life that
matter.
Technical Empathy is getting out of the user’s way
when they’re trying to accomplish a task.
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
Assume the user is the expert and we know absolutely nothing.
Break that assumption only if doing so would build rapport,
and give the user permission to share their valuable insight.
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
@LeonAdato
The alternative is stark
© 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
ladato@newrelic.com • @LeonAdato
I’m ready
for your questions.
Thank you!

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Technical Empathy_v2.pdf

  • 1. Once Upon a Time…
  • 2. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato
  • 3. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato What’s that exit name? <sheb>
  • 4. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Rules and Exceptions Spanish French
  • 5. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Sounds like WHAT now?!?
  • 6. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. Technical Empathy $date = today(); Leon Adato
  • 7. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Leon Adato • Principal DevRel Advocate @ New Relic • Started in tech ~33 yrs ago • Focus on monitoring for ~20 yrs • Tivoli, BMC, OpenView, Nagios, SolarWinds Perl scripts, batch files, and New Relic (duh) • Built monitoring for small, medium, and ludicrous size orgs. • @LeonAdato
  • 8. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato This is an Oyster Talk™
  • 9. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Go home, Otis, you’re drunk
  • 10. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Microsoft WHO??
  • 11. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato My Maserati does 185 (but nobody will drive it)
  • 12. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato The corner of “WTF” and “GetOutAndWalk”
  • 13. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato This is a portal to Hell, actually
  • 14. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato No, really, MS Bob was awful.
  • 15. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Design horror, redux
  • 16. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato “Empathy” defined: em·pa·thy /ˈempəTHē/ noun The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
  • 17. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato “Empathy” explained:
  • 18. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Technical Empathy is NOT: “Does this sorting algorithm fill you with joy?”
  • 19. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Technical Empathy is NOT: “I’m sure your data is in a better place now.”
  • 20. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Technical Empathy, explained:
  • 21. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. Part One: Accessibility
  • 22. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato The bare minimum: • Screen readers • Alt-text • Closed captions • Customizable colors • Language localisation
  • 23. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato There’s just not enough demand… • Deaf / Hard of hearing - 430 million worldwide • Receptive language disorders - ~1 million children in the US • Visual impairment - 245 million worldwide • Colorblind - 350 million people worldwide • Neurodiverse - 1.2 billion • English speakers - 1.35 billion (out of ~7 billion) – 360 million as a first language 15% of the world population - 1.17 billion people - have a disability
  • 24. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. Part Two: Assumptions
  • 25. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato
  • 26.
  • 27. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Say my name, say my name ● William Test ● Christopher Null ● John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris ○ John Beynon ○ Lucas Parkes ○ John Wyndham ● J R R Tolkien ● Pieter van der Meer ● ‫עדטו‬ ‫יהודה‬ Obligatory XKCD reference
  • 28. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Does time even matter? ● Samoa, 2011: Thursday, December 29 ○ IMMEDIATELY followed by Saturday, Dec 31 ● A day in Unix epoch time is always 86,400 seconds. ○ Ask your sysadmin if “leap seconds” are right for you. ● Same time zone, different name: ○ Eastern Standard Time ○ Tiempo del Este ○ Heure Normale de l'Est ● India std time is UTC +5 ½ ● The G.D. international date line itself:
  • 29. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Why your mail carrier drinks ● 0 Egmont Road ● -1 Priory Road ● Ten Post Office Sq ● Apartment 001 ○ Apartment 1 is in the same building, on a different floor ● Gondel 2695 ○ which is “The town of Gondel, street 26, building 95”
  • 30. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Assumptions beyond the tech • If I know it, it must be simple and everyone knows it. • We can learn everything we need to know by looking at the data. • My experience is both complete and definitive. • The senior dev *must* know something I don’t. • If we solve 10% of the problem we can work out the other stuff as we build. • Users know our jargon, internal code words, or special definitions for industry-standard terms. • The blessed MTTI* of git blame * Mean Time To Innocence
  • 31. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. Part Three: Asking the Right Questions Or: “Don’t sit in a room smelling your own farts.”
  • 32. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Interview technique ● Multiple staff on the call. One leads, everyone else takes notes. ● Write exact statements. No summarization. ● Start with a list of questions (script). ○ Prioritize it because you will run out of time. ● More listening, less talking. ○ “Before I share what that is supposed to do, I'd first like to hear what you'd expect to happen.” ● Debrief immediately after the call. ● YOU KNOW NOTHING!
  • 33. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Get to the good stuff “Johari window”
  • 34. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Remain unbiased Instead of Ask Is that helpful? “How do you use that today?" “How is that working for you today?” Was that easy to do? “How do you feel about what you just did?” Did you like ABC better than XYZ? “Compare ABC and XYZ.” Do you think that is good? “So when you think about that process . . . “ It would work like XYZ. “How would you expect it to work?” …and later… “It would actually work like... What are your thoughts?”
  • 35. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato How to understand Situation Ask If you’re trying to understand something a user said. “Can you give me a specific example?” When you expected something different than what the user said. “I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing that and helping me understand.” When user talks about a solution or something specific they want “Why do you want that?” “How would that help you?”
  • 36. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Other types of questions Instead of Ask Tasks “Can you show me how you determine what devices are on which ports of your Cisco switch?” Specific example “Tell me about the most recent time your network went down” Sequence “Walk me through the steps you take to find the root cause for an alert storm.” Peer comparison “Do the other sys admins do it that way?” Clarification “And when you say ‘it seems odd’, what do you mean?” Exhaustive list “What are all of the tools you use to troubleshoot a problem?”
  • 37. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Do you take requests?
  • 38. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved Final Thoughts
  • 39. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Users are not “stupid”. They: ● …don't really care about your product. It's like UI #37 they use in their job. If you make it hard, it's not worth their time to learn your product. ● …are working in a situation of high cognitive load. 95% of their mental capacity is holding an intricate model of a problem. You're getting the remaining 5% whether you like it or not. ● …are exhausted and just trying to complete a task as quickly as possible so they can go home, go to lunch, or generally do the things in life that matter. Technical Empathy is getting out of the user’s way when they’re trying to accomplish a task.
  • 40. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato Assume the user is the expert and we know absolutely nothing. Break that assumption only if doing so would build rapport, and give the user permission to share their valuable insight.
  • 41. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. @LeonAdato The alternative is stark
  • 42. © 2022 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved. ladato@newrelic.com • @LeonAdato I’m ready for your questions. Thank you!