What can a NASA engineer teach the martech community? Many lessons, and the most valuable ones, go beyond technical expertise and emphasize the communication, leadership, and problem-solving strategies that lead to project success.
John Ruffaformer NASA engineer and my good friend, shares these ideas in his book “Nice Guys Finish Last And Other Workplace Lies,” available on Amazon. Drawing on his long and successful career, he offers lessons that resonate deeply with the technical projects I’ve been involved in – insights that will benefit the martech community.
Ready, shoot, aim
Some organizations like to foster an “proceeding inclination.” Question assumptions, they say. Break things. Be disruptive and see what happens.
This mindset works for some projects where experimentation drives progress – but it clearly fails when launching a spacecraft, which cannot be brought back for repair mid-flight (with rare exceptions).
My first takeaway from the book was the importance of understanding the type of project you’re working on. Does he have to work each time in difficult and potentially unpredictable conditions? If so, you can’t be cavalier about features and technical requirements. For example, if you’re developing tools for doctors, don’t hire people whose experience comes from building apps like Facebook or TikTok.
This “ready, fire, aim” attitude highlights a major challenge in aligning marketing with technology teams. Systems people need to create a stable product that works, while marketing often wants to try something different. These attitudes frequently clash.
In this area as in many others, it is not technical expertise that wins.
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General skills
The biggest challenges technical teams face are non-technical personnel issues, such as poor communication, internecine battles, conflicting agendas, different cultures, lack of team cohesion, poor leadership, and conflicting personalities.
While it’s easy to sell technicians on the need for documented procedures to diagnose and resolve technical problems, they are often slower to resolve people-related issues, which are the root cause of most errors.
For this reason, it is essential to assess the new soft skills of technical staff, including creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and emotional intelligence. This is easiest when promoting from within, where you can observe how someone handles adversity or gather insight into how they work with others. When recruiting externally, make soft skills questions a priority when checking references.
But that is not enough. Integrate soft skills training into employee onboarding, reviews, and ongoing development. It’s tempting to focus continuing professional development on technical skills, but it’s the soft skills that are most likely to trip you up.
Build a network
You don’t need to know how to do everything, and if you think you do, you’re probably flattering yourself. It’s crucial that technicians create a list of go-to resources for guidance on key issues. You will demonstrate your expertise more effectively by surrounding yourself with experts than by trying to be the expert at everything.
Managers of technical areas should not work in isolation. They need to build a network of trusted colleagues they can count on.
I heard that to get a job in the first Bush administration, you had to prove you had at least one friendship from high school. Although this may seem unrelated to professional life, it is not. The skills needed to maintain a friendship over time are valuable. This may be a better interview question than “What is your greatest weakness?” »
Also remember the lesson of Socrates and the oracle of Delphi. Socrates was considered the wisest man because he understood the limits of his own wisdom.
Communication
Ruffa was shocked to hear NASA’s chief engineer say that “virtually all of NASA’s failures could be traced back to a communications breakdown or failure.” Not the technology. No materials. Communication.
Engineers and technical experts are often not the best communicators. Whether it’s a problem affecting the right or left hemispheres, personality or culture, this is often how things play out. A key communication failure occurs when people do not share, question, or challenge assumptions. For example, assuming “they use the metric system”, the Mars Climate Observer crashed on the planet.
A remote work environment can make communication failures worse. John remembers wearing out the carpet between his office and his key colleagues. It’s harder to replicate this interaction on Zoom. Communication becomes even more difficult across time zones, languages and cultures. In such contexts, additional steps are necessary to ensure clear communication.
Systems engineering is not only a technical task but also a communication task. Systems must work together.
“The first thing an effective leader can do to set their team up for success is to create an environment characterized by clear, open, honest and effective communication.” But don’t assume your methods will work. Follow up with team members to ensure there are no hidden issues or concerns.
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Don’t tell the boss
A major communication problem is embedded within the hierarchy of an organization. Some people are reluctant to escalate issues, while others are too eager to do so. As a result, problems can escalate at lower levels, upper management is unaware, and resources are spent on solving the wrong problems.
I heard an interesting anecdote from a priest that seems relevant here. In the Catholic Church, if a bishop entrusts a task to a priest, the priest must comply with it. However, a wise bishop will want to know if the priest really wants to take on this task or if he is simply doing it out of obligation. He might send another priest to ask, “The bishop knows you have taken a vow of obedience, but before we get to that, what do you think of this work?”
The key here is to create intermediate steps where problems can arise despite the hierarchy. Leaders can facilitate this by building relationships at all levels of the organization. Layers in org charts can create invisible barriers to communication that can harm projects. Make a conscious effort to interact with people up and down the chain of command.
Test, but test your tests
One anecdote from the book that stood out involved testing a system under conditions it was likely to encounter in space. The system broke down, leading to scheduling delays, long working hours and budget problems.
But the system had not failed. The tester had it.
It is crucial to test your systems before they go live. But remember that when a system fails a test, it may not be its fault. Testing procedures may not have been followed correctly.
It’s also a lesson in testing your assumptions. The human brain can only process a limited amount of information at a time. So he filters out the details and takes shortcuts. Sometimes these shortcuts make us blind to the important details we need. Learn to question your assumptions and listen when others do the same.
Put down the technical books for a minute
Being an expert in your field is essential, so it’s important to spend time studying and staying up to date. That said, Ruffa reminds us that technical expertise alone is not enough. Most problems that derail projects are human problems, not technical ones. The next time you ask for professional development or training, consider focusing on soft skills.
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