Focus on solving burning needs to spend happy engineering time

I joined Autify on January 1, 2022, and passed 1.5 months today.

[embed]I’m joining Autify, a no-code AI-powered software testing automation platform I’m excited to share that I’m joining Autify, a no-code AI-powered software testing automation platform, on January 1…medium.com

Since joining here, I have found that Autify’s company values are universally useful in engineering work.

This post will talk about Autify company values and share my thoughts on embodying essential values to perform well, especially in terms of software engineering.

Autify company values

Autify has three company values: “Solve burning needs,” “Aim high, stay grounded,” and “Be selfless.”

In my opinion, the most important one is “Solve burning needs.” Perhaps some of you have not heard of the concept of burning needs, so let me explain it briefly.

A burning need is analogous to the urgent need to of extinguishing the flames if your hair is on fire as you can see in this picture.

http://viewfrombehindhomeplate.blogspot.com/2014/01/putting-out-fire.html

In general, companies will only spend money to solve pressing issues such as this, so SaaS startups need to focus on solving burning needs.

[embed]Solving customer’s burning needs Based on my personal experiences, I wrote about solving customer’s burning needs, which is vital for B2B startups to…medium.com

The value “Solve burning needs” can be broken down into three elements: “Problem-first,” “Dig deeper,” and “The shortest path.”

https://speakerdeck.com/autifyhq/autify-company-deck-efd29263-1045-43c2-b2a0-17328638b0fe?slide=22

Problem-first

Significantly, the “Problem-first” mindset is crucial for software engineers to perform well.

In general, engineers tend to get caught up in detailed solutions such as better architecture, fabulous design, popular programming languages, etc. There is no end to developing better solutions if we don’t have an apparent problem.

For example, let’s say you will build a CI/CD pipeline for a new service. It would be best if you answered: “What is the problem? …What is the burning need?” You will find out whose burning need you want to solve with your task by answering these questions.

If they are non-engineers, the solution would be something like a chat-ops that doesn’t require deep technical knowledge. If they are familiar with infrastructure, it may be enough to use a cloud console provider service directly.

The “Problem-first” mindset helps us set a goal and find the shortest path to solve someone’s burning need.

Conclusion

Autify company values are universally crucial and beneficial not only for Autify members but also for all business people.

I hope you will check the values out in our company deck.

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