

Get To The Point First - jason_tko
http://blog.webnet-it.co.jp/2010/03/05/get-to-the-point/

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michael_dorfman
Of course, to get to the point first, you need to really understand what the
person is asking. And this is the great art: to read between the lines,
understand their concerns, and respond to the underlying context.

~~~
mikewest
Moreover, if you don't feel like you understand what the other person is
asking, don't be afraid of asking a question in return. Ensure that you're
clear on what's being asked of you before giving either a rambling answer that
covers all the basis, or a focused response to a question that wasn't asked.

~~~
raganwald
That's the key, thanks. If you don't understand the original question well
enough to give a succinct answer, ask clarifying questions until you can.

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jonas_b
I was a volunteer last summer at place which arranged a number of festivals,
and together with a professional sysadmin I helped maintain their booking
system, internet cafe, random stuff etc.

The atmosphere was pretty relaxed to start off with, but the sysadmin I worked
with suggested that we would take it to the next level: Every morning we would
walk around the office and give everyone sitting by a computer a five minute
massage. During this time we bonded with them physically, asked them about
their day and if there was anything we could help them with. The "results"
were amazing. I have never become friends with so many people so quickly, and
have never had customers so polite. Like the time when I accidentally erased
all emails from the IMAP server, they just smiled and said: Don't worry,
they'll just have to mail us again.

I guess my point is that I agree with the OP, but if you have made a strong
emotional connection, the words you chose are less important. They will love
you anyway.

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csomar
>> Client : “Will this USB drive be compatible with my 4 year old Dell
computer?”

I worked years ago, with a company providing IT services. I have learnt after
months of dealing with the client, that "Yes" and "No" are the best answers.

If the drive didn't work, you can simply justify it that something went
missing on Windows, or the drive didn't install correctly. It's easy for the
non-tech savvy users to understand "Yes", "No", "Windows badly installed",
rather than to open long discussion where the client comes up to me with all
his hardware and start asking if this work and this doesn't.

Telling the client "It should" is not professional; tell them "Yes" and if it
doesn't work and you fail to solve the problem, you can simply say that the
operating system is badly installed (None can prove it's well installed).
However, when you say "it should", the non-tech savvy client will become savvy
and will try to use his 3 words knowledge to install the device and will give
propositions, ideas... that are generally stupid and useless. This will make
him feel that he's as tech-savvy as you.

~~~
ehsanul
How about "Will the software you're writing be done within a month?" What's
the right answer there, when you really don't know?

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anatoly
While you're harnessing the power of simple and direct communication, it'll
help to not present your bad/good examples as fancily formatted "X" and "O",
so as to hopelessly confuse your readers into trying to parse what seems to be
an exchange between two fictitious persons named "X" and "O", yet makes no
sense at all.

~~~
jimbokun
This is a Japanese convention (O == correct, X == incorrect). The article is
on a Japanese domain, so I assume the original intended audience was people at
least somewhat familiar with Japanese culture.

~~~
anatoly
Yeah, I figured it out from context, but before I did, I was like O_x.

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tfinniga
This is great advice. One thing that I find that helps a lot is not to be
afraid to have a bit of metaconversation. Things like "Are you asking because
you're worried about X?", or after you've gotten to the point, asking "Do you
want to know more detail?". They can take a lot of the guesswork out of
communicating clearly, and don't have to be awkward.

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lotharbot
I used to worry that if I got to the point first, I wouldn't be able to give
enough detail or nuance to do justice to the subject. I had it exactly
backwards. By giving a quick, direct answer, I set myself up to follow it with
the necessary detail and nuance and I set the other party up to want it.

If I go into detail without giving the big-picture answer, I find the other
person ignores the detail as they wait for the big-picture answer, but if I
give the big-picture answer and immediately follow it up with detail, they
very often become interested in how the detail affects the big picture.

"Will this work?" "blah blah blah blah, so probably" is the wrong approach.
"Will this work?" "yes. To do it, we may need to blah, blah, blah" is much
more direct, and it gives the listener a reason to care about the details.

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csytan
A few weeks ago, I spoke with someone who contacted me through the co-founder
wish list. He would have benefited greatly from this article.

I spent over an hour listening to him over Skype, name dropping and extolling
the technical virtues of his business. During the conversation, he left
absolutely no pauses for me to speak. I ended up having to interrupt him mid-
speech after realizing that he was not looking for a co-founder, but trying to
sell his soon to be released platform to developers.

Looking back, I realize that I was the same way a little over a year ago. It
is easy to get caught up in the excitement of creating the _next great thing_.
But care should be taken to ensure that conversations do not devolve into
verbal masturbation over yet-another-victim.

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NIL8
That's some good medicine. I need to be reminded of that everyday. I've had my
share of embarrassing moments when my mouth provided a Wikipedia article when
all I needed to say was yes or no.

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j_baker
I think this is a truism. People want you to get to the point as soon as
possible. The problem is in knowing what the point _is_. Some people just want
the big picture. Others want all the minute details.

I think a more common problem is that when I _do_ get to the point, it's not
the point the other person was looking for. So I instead end up with a "why
don't you understand what I'm talking about?" feeling. Of course, nowadays,
I'm smart enough to know that this usually goes both ways.

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_mattb
I've done this.. The article hints at it: you've got to process the vague
question rapidly and, uh, with your mouth shut. Deliberately pausing and
pondering helps.

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jason_tko
My server died 5 minutes after submitting this. I migrated servers, everything
should be fine now.

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alecco
That's why it's great to place an abstract on top. I've been doing that for
every long email or blog post with great results.

And link to sections of the body or external references, if need to.

