A Learning About the Beginner’s Mind
As you advance your knowledge in a specific field, you need to pay attention to the Dunning Kruger effect. It is easy to believe that your knowledge is sufficient to be imposed upon your clients and collaborators. You are likely not an expert, nor do you want to be one. Being an expert differs from being a guide. You can be a guide, but you don’t need to be an “expert”. You may want to be an expert in the knowledge and tools you possess in that particular domain, but you are not an expert when it comes to understanding your clients’ needs (raw and conspicuous).
While collaborating with a client some time ago, I stumbled upon such a realization myself: often, clients just want the most simple solution to their problem. As a Notion consultant, my primary objective is to understand the client’s vision and then systematize it to turn the vision into a digital system. Notice how the primary objective I listed is to understand. Understanding is half the job done. When you are a consultant, or whenever you collaborate with someone, listening carefully and completely is necessary. It is the first component of a successful project—a project that reaches its initial aims.
When you listen to your client’s needs and vision, it may be—it is—a good idea to pick up all the necessary cues that will make your job successful. An element of the essential cues is skill level and raw needs. This may be especially true—applicable—to “backend” software development, where the client is the final user of what is built. This is the case in Notion consulting: you develop digital systems for the clients themselves. They are the final users. Ultimately, what you build is centered around the ability of the users. There are different ways of building a Notion system. If you fail to pick up meaningful cues in the listening phase, you may fail to build a system that actually fits the needs of the client. Often, clients merely want the easiest system they can have.
I figured out this learning by direct experience. I built a system that was too complex in its structure compared to what the client needed—and was able to use. This is a learning in perspective: you do not know full well what the client needs. By paying attention to the ability level of the people you interact with, you can drop your ego and fully embrace the vision. And often, the vision is much simpler than you may imagine it to be. Be a beginner. Employ a beginner’s mindset. Your main job is to understand and listen carefully as a beginner. Then, you may employ your expert knowledge to develop the final product with awareness—complete awareness—of what you are doing and why you are doing it. Be an expert on your own—when you are developing stuff; listen and strive to understand like a beginner skier during his first ski lesson.