3 ms·
I've found that these two tips help * Putting in time to learn the product as a user of it before trying to develop for it is time well spent. In my experience
by sebstefan 3y ago
I've found that these two tips help
* Putting in time to learn the product as a user of it before trying to develop for it is time well spent. In my experience it makes it easier to read the code afterwards
* When a codebase is old and you're reading a file where 10 to 20 developers have done a pass of bugfixes on it, it may not immediately be obvious what everything does and why some checks are being done. Going through the history and checking earlier versions of the file sometimes helps me getting the basics of it down
- tetris11 3y agoThe first point is one I strongly agree with. It is bewildering, trying to understand a codebase from the bottom up. The best part of learning it as a user, is that you can also make meaningful edits to the product page or user documentation that is often completely overlooked by devs.
- rco8786 3y agoOP is in marketing, not eng, FWIW.
- sebstefan 3y agoOop, nevermind then
- epr 3y ago> Putting in time to learn the product as a user of it before trying to develop for it is time well spent This should always be priority #1 when you first arrive. Not only is it beneficial for understanding your work, but you can never get back that opportunity to see through the eyes of a real user. Once you get used to a product, the warts will be less apparent. Put the product through it's paces, and take notes on what's confusing or unintuitive. You don't want to tell everyone their baby is ugly immediately, but you can slowly address at least some of the issues over time.