Write everything down

One: "Did you write down what I told you?" The second: "I remember!". An hour later, a bottomless abyss in the memory and ringing silence in my head.

"I remembered. Everything here in the head. Yes it is clear. Good. Clear. I'll do it. "

I remember myself so. It was an attempt to prove to myself and others that I have a great memory and I grasp the essence of the problems on the fly. Unsuccessful attempt. And not the only one. The details of the discussion were erased every other day, and on the next delivery of a piece of code, it appeared again and again:

- This is not so! Well, we discussed it! Well, show me your task list ... There are only six points out of seven and in two that are not what we discussed. You could not come and clarify again? Why are you stuck on this task, because we left it "for dessert"?

Fiasco, time after time. "Rukalitso", if in a modern way.

The human brain cannot keep too many details in memory. What is the metric for this? It seems that we can remember 6 statements, then the next seventh point supplants the first. As a stack in software algorithms. If the discussion of the issue lasts more than a certain time limit (each person has his own), the previous minutes of discussion fly away irretrievably into the bottomless abyss, and later it is impossible to remember, only a ringing silence in the head. And panic.

Why I did not fix tasks on paper? Why did not try to restore the details, if they began to be forgotten? Why did I not ask additional questions if the task turned out to be more difficult than expected? Why do I have a list of priorities?

Can't trust memory

I met this phrase: "If one of the two came to the negotiations without a notebook and pen - he lost." It was a discussion of commercial projects and transactions. If you do not fix, then the details will be added retroactively, pretend or "lost." But in general, this is true for any professional field.

Are you saying that you have a great memory or a discussion on just one point? But tomorrow your vacation starts. Can you remember everything after? Can you tell a colleague? Will he remember?

We correct the situation

In formulating and refining the tasks of developing programs, there are many points and in each there are many details, which in most cases are conveyed in words, and in writing or in electronic form are absent. Some task managers do not know how to write assignments just as much as you do not know how to take notes of them for yourself. In general, I do not want to find out why the task director does not fix them. I want your work not to suffer from this. So write down everything!

Example: Workplace for an online conference

Specially configured workplace for online conference using handwritten charts. On the table are the results of the discussion of the implementation of git-flow in the Icons8 development team.

Paper

First of all, paper and pen. As soon as a question or task arises in the process of discussion - write it down. Even if the page of the technical task is attached, take note of everything that is said out loud. Because the details can be shown only by example. Because it is the most important. Because they forgot to write in the task, but it is also important. Well, that is the nature of man. Write everything and prioritize later.

The importance of pens and paper is still too high. Manual recordings can be lost or spoiled, but you should never forget about them. A brief protocol or meeting summary must always be kept. All additional tools are only a backup option. Significantly more accurate and convenient, but backup.

In the comments to various articles habrahabr.ru periodically discuss whether web developers need a higher education in the field of IT? I will answer: yes, because here the skill of note-taking, quick writing is fixed. I am only talking about note-taking and not a word for or against the content of the courses.

Electronic diary and electronic notebook

We are talking about both special devices - notebooks, and applications for tablets and smartphones. It is possible to use them during negotiations, it is even convenient with certain training. Sometimes you have to suspend interlocutors so that they give time to enter information. People speak much faster than they write. Obviously you don’t have time to write everything down, right? Either they will wait for you, or you will learn shorthand, or you need an assistant. But then the list can be re-sorted by priority, insert a new item or enter details.

Lack of electronic typing device - hands and eyes are busy. I can't draw or write on the board, I can't look and discuss. In general, it is not very convenient to ask questions while typing. To do this, we must think and speak, and to think, speak and quickly recruit is almost impossible. When you have a question for clarification, you must finish typing a phrase. While you are writing solutions on one issue, they have already moved on to the next one.

Dictaphone

Great helper. Write down everything. You can not be distracted by the process of writing, and participate in the discussion. There are special utilities that later try to translate oral speech into text.

You can ask questions, get answers, draw on the board, view other people's illustrations.

Do you think you will look stupid with your digital assistant? No, the opposite. Despite the initial skepticism and mistrust (“what if you talk a little about something superfluous”), after a while the participants will ask the opposite - “Has it been recorded? Need to repeat? ”, Respect appeared in the eyes. With regular use of dictaphones, participants will begin to specifically speak more clearly and will specifically loudly indicate which diagram, screenshot, page they are discussing. Even the paragraph number will be indicated.

I have been in negotiations where several voice recorders were standing in the middle of the table. If someone suddenly has a battery left or the memory card has run out, you can take a record from a neighbor. I was at a conference where a special station was used to connect to the Skype conference group with the audio recording function.

Tip: Check the battery, memory card and device operation before starting a conversation.
Especially on them all the same do not hope, keep the paper and pen with you.

Example: restoration of the rally protocol

But today we forgot to turn on the recording of the screencast during the rally Icons8 , where we conducted a demo for two weeks. I had to recover from memory. No one was offended.

Camera or video camera

If it was originally supposed that there will be a lot of discussions on slides, a lot of screenshots, a lot of drawings by hand - make a photo or video recording. Video shooting from a tripod is a somewhat cumbersome decision, however, this will allow combining voice and illustrations, that is, test and images.

If necessary, record two cameras, for example a screen and a hall, for the presenter and the listeners.

Screencast

If you talk over the Internet (Skype, Zoom, Join.Me, TeamViewer), then you can use the program to record the entire screen in video format, and not just sound. This allows you to see later what was discussed.

When I recently discovered the icon of the included screencast of my interlocutor when discussing the technical details of the implementation of his project during the Skype conference, I mentally added him 100 points of negotiation skills. I myself at this moment forgot to turn on my screen and the details could be lost.

And I have already said, especially at the screencast do not hope, keep the paper and pen with you. I had such cases: the screenmaster wrote the image on the wrong monitor, did not write the sound of my microphone, or the voice of the interlocutor. I was helped only by my notes.

Conclusion or summary

At the end of the discussion, all participants should be given the results of the discussion: what issues were on the agenda, what problems were discussed, what decisions were made. If possible, a resume should be issued right after the discussion, but it is possible a little later on the same day.

Feel free to admit if you are not able to make a summary of the negotiations. They are very long, straight for two or three hours, the reasoning goes away, along the way there are a lot of third-party issues that are recalled, everyone could express solutions and it is not clear which solution was adopted. Tell all participants that you have difficulty making a resume. List those points that are clear from your point of view. Ask to be reminded that you missed.

Priorities

During the discussion of tasks can float tons of parts. Some of them remembered, so that once again not to forget. And maybe nothing was remembered. When discussing, people can move not from the main to the minor, but from one problem to another, gradually delving into each of them from what is easy to understand to what requires detailed description. Some of the questions and tasks were “for the future”, “in reserve”, “for dessert”.

Priorities are the second stage, after all the problems and solutions have already been listed. There will be a very useful summary of the talks or a list of tasks. Sort them in the priority that was agreed upon in the negotiations. In this order and do.

Clarification of details after the meeting

The task list is not carved out of stone. You can always repeat the discussion, add new details and clarify priorities.

- I can't remember what had to be done on issue N
- I have a photo of the scheme from the board fuzzy, let's draw once more, and you check?
- I don’t remember something (I didn’t have time to turn on the voice recorder, I was late) with what we started. Could you repeat the first two tasks?
- At the end I was tired and lost the thread of the conversation (went out on business, answered the phone, the recorder battery was discharged). Could you repeat the last two tasks?

Here are all these questions - they are not fatal! .. Moreover, for such questions I would give the medal "For courage" or even "For responsibility".

It is necessary to restore the discussion protocol and summary. It may be necessary to once again gather the participants, and if it does not work out to gather, discuss with each individually. Solve the problem of lost tasks must be no later than today or tomorrow, otherwise the details will be forgotten.

Perhaps there will be some level of irritation from colleagues. Negative, you can smooth out, but these are other skills. The main thing for you is to solve production problems. And the next time, take a pen and paper, okay?

My personal experience

Desktop: voice recorder, second camera, handwritten notes in notebooks and on leaflets, many pens and pencils

• Specially I wait until my interlocutor finds a pen and paper, and then I ask you to voice what he wrote. Newbies are terribly confused and confused, but I am patient with this. Because he was in their situation. Excuses "I will remember" do not affect me.

  
  

• There was a situation that I had hoped for a voice recorder, but the recording turned out to be noisy. This is not a reason for panic. The whole conversation was restored from memory, replaced the voice recorder with a better one.

  
  

• I have an external battery for emergency recharging of the recorder, two memory cards (MicroSD format, they are tiny, they do not take up much space), I also have the ability to turn on the voice recorder on the smartphone (it is not so sensitive, and can also be turned off during an incoming call - not very reliable solution) and a spare microphone-buttonhole - in general, you can provide yourself some reserve of technical means, it is not very expensive.

  
  

• Every 15–20 minutes, I stop negotiations and recite a summary of the current discussion - what problems were discussed, what questions arose, what decisions were made. This allows all participants, including me, not to be distracted from the agenda.

  
  

• I specifically ask one of the listeners to take note of the discussion and draw up the totals with the task list and make sure that he has time to contribute everything and not lose a single task.

  
  

• I make a photo from a smartphone. That's why the multi-megapixel camera built into it came in handy for me, and not for my cat's photos and food on an instagram. My favorite screensaver is HyperCam, and I take screenshots through Monosnap and Gyazo

  
  

• During the negotiations, I use Google Docs and Evernote, because they allow you to jointly edit the document - if I forgot something, another participant will add it.

  
  

• At the end of the meeting I submit questions and tasks to Todoist and Trello. These services have convenient ways to work together, you can share tasks with colleagues to solve together. Todoist is also convenient in the form of an electronic notebook from a smartphone and tablet, and you can also attach photos from a disc or camera, audio recordings, Google documents and files from Dropbox to tasks.

  
  
• I love my spring books, I just adore, always a little on the table, and clean, and already significantly written. With a large number of entries, I make notes with highlighters, bend corners on important pages and use small sticky bookmarks.

Opposite side

The above described how to capture the details of discussions, from the point of view of the performer or the listener. Let's try to look at the discussion process from the other side - from the task director or speaker. What would you change during the discussion if you were sure that your interlocutor would forget everything you talked about?