Too Many Bugs, Not Enough Time: How to Prioritize Fixes Without Losing Your Mind
Fix What Matters, Stay Sane
This is
- your weekly guide and shortcut to mastering emotional intelligence through the power of empathy. I talked recently about how to Escape the ‘Always Rushed’ Cycle
It's Monday, and you have opened your JIRA. You see the list building.
The long list of bugs flowing in is beyond what you can keep up with.
It's double what you closed out on Friday.
Friday was already triple what you closed out on Thursday.
How do you fix what matters and stay sane?
All the bugs can feel like a bunch of ants invading your desk!
It can be stressful, but there are ways to tackle it and not lose your mind.
Debugging Without Self-Destructing
I started with my bug list. It was growing.
Every time one got crossed off the list, four more would pop up.
Stakeholders and users were getting impatient, and the developer team was starting to burn out. Our offshore team would not be on for at least a few more hours.
Well, it is impossible to tackle all bugs at once. Doing so is like attempting to spin dozens of plates in the air.
When I have a big list before me, I borrow a technique I learned in the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradbury and Jean Greaves: to take control of my self-talk.
What you say is what you are. If you say you are stressed out, you are stressed out. Now, this does not mean you run from your emotions or thoughts. You still need to acknowledge them. But, if you stay in the mindset of "this will never get done" or "this is a sh*t show," well, it will be.
Do not self-destruct before you even start. Remember, you got this! Remember the other times you overcame this situation? Unless you are new to the world of tech, you certainly have an overwhelming list before you in the past, and you got through it!
See the Self-Management Strategies chapter in the book for more.
Severity vs. Frequency: The Seesaw Act
URGENT! You see that in the subject line of the alert coming from your queue.
Is it urgent, though?
You can be the empathy catalyst here - not immediately take pity on them and do what they ask, but rather, try to understand what is happening.
Let's say the user filing the URGENT bug clicked on the wrong link and is using information that is not related to what they need. It's not a bug; it is a user error.
But what if the link is the only one available, and it's preventing them from closing a multi-million deal for the company? Yes, this minor item of a misplaced link has a huge impact.
When a bug is on the list, you have to determine its severity and frequency. Something can be frequent but has an easy workaround, or it can be rare but has a severe impact if it hits.
For example, your system sends the wrong documents to the customer in an edge-case scenario. Sure, it's rare, but the documents could set up your organization for a lawsuit. Not good.
Think of the process of determining the severity and frequency as a balancing act, like you are trying to find equilibrium on a seesaw. Or, figuring out which side is higher than the other. Picture it.
Every bug should have a place in your mind. This will help you decide when to start tackling it.
Along these lines, you can use an Impact vs. Effort chart. Assign a score, with 1 being low and 5 being high.
Speaking Their Language: Framing Bugs in Terms of Business Impact
Sometimes, the balancing act is not what you think but how you engage with others.
Are you using their lingo? Are you getting to their concerns?
A fancy Dashboard that you have created with 30 different metrics is not going to help your freaked stakeholder, who just wants a list of their sales deals to follow up on that day.
Or, even worse, what if you keep going in circles and use different terminology to describe the same thing? This certainly will not help you on your path of developing your professional goals towards success if you cannot forge forward.
Social Awareness and attuning to facial expressions and reactions will help you determine if this is the case. People might look at you with confusion or be guarded with their arms crossed.
Before you can effectively tackle a bug, you have to understand the issue and why it exists. This comes back to understanding the business impact. How can you prioritize it otherwise?
Speak the language of your stakeholders, and you will be able to frame tackling the bug in a way they can understand, and you can effectively do.
Be Empathic and Compassionate in getting through the laundry list
It can be tough to get through the list of bugs when you are overwhelmed. You want to run away, flailing.
But here's the key to all this: you are together in getting through the laundry list of bugs, whether you like it or not.
Be empathic with your stakeholders who have raised the bugs and do not have the technical know-how that you have. They are looking to you as the SME. Isn't that something? Remember, you have the knowledge. It is your job, though, to make it understandable and workable.
When you are frustrated, having some compassion for yourself goes a long way. Do not convince yourself you cannot do something before even starting. Self-defeating language sets you up for roadblocks. Get systems in place to better prioritize vs. just going top to bottom on the list. And before you get too ahead of yourself, make sure you understand the bug to begin with.
Get with your stakeholders; they won't bite. Well, some might, but it won't poisones like some obscure bug in the Australian Outback like an Australian Jack jumper ant (see below).
✅ What I’ve been Analyzing this week (reading, watching, listening, etc.)
📖 I’m reading Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown. I’m learning about how true leadership is about courage, vulnerability, and creating a culture where people feel safe to take risks and be themselves. I agree, as an advocate of elevating our empathy!
🤚I saw this video of the moment Jon Stewart sliced his hand open on a coffee mug. Ouch! I really empathize with the guy, having done something similar.
✍️ I commented on a post by
on the need to be flexible in our work and personal lives.Want more on Empathy and Emotional Intelligence to Elevate your career? 📈
I empower💪tech people to elevate their empathy, to accelerate their careers
Thanks @Ame
Have some compassion for yourself. Self empathy. this can be applied to everything. and nice impact and effort image.