Closing Your Technical Knowledge Gap

In the last year or two, I’ve started supporting projects in areas of my company that do technical work I don’t understand well: software, data, and finance. I add a lot of value to these teams with my skills in leading people through a process. But understanding the steps that need to happen in this work—and how those steps relate to each other and to the work in other parts of the company—can still be a challenge.

Leading successful projects while not fully understanding the nature of the work is definitely possible. I share a lot of ideas for navigating this type of situation in my blog, “7 Strategies for Managing Tricky Technical Work.” But now that I’ve been supporting these areas of my company for over a year, I find myself wanting to understand their work at a new level because I can see the additional value I’d be able to provide if I did.

For the functions I’ve been supporting for many more years, such as writing, video production, and audio production, I have instincts about their needs, I sense what advice they’ll have for other teams, and I know what project tasks they’ll need to do in what order to create common types of deliverables. I can make work flow smoothly from one functional team to another, and I can do this pretty efficiently because I don’t need to ask them to stop and explain very much to me along the way.

So how do I get to this point with the new functions I’m supporting? I don’t have a complete plan or process figured out, but I can see what my options are to close different aspects of my gap, and that’s what I’ll share with you so that you can also start to see your way forward if you’re in this situation.

Closing an industry knowledge gap

The convenient thing about knowledge, fundamentals, or best practices that truly span an entire industry like software, data, or finance is that you can likely find resources to close your knowledge gap on your own time. Books are likely available, as well as online courses, which have exploded in availability and range of subject matter in recent years.

Especially for the fundamentals—in finance, let’s say—I imagine an Accounting 101 course would close my knowledge gap better than my coworkers would, because it’s designed for beginners. Experienced practitioners spend so much time in advanced details that they sometimes lack instincts on how to teach their expertise to somebody who knows far less than they do.

The downside of this approach is you need to carve out time for it, rather than just picking up knowledge in the course of your work. But if you’re giving thought to how to close your knowledge gap, you’ve probably already tried absorbing it in the course of your work, and that isn’t working. If you’re looking for a different approach to try, this can be a part of your answer.

Closing a team knowledge gap

That said, external resources won’t get you the whole way. When you’re newly working with a team of experienced practitioners, there are also peculiarities and nuance to how that team operates, how they talk about things, and the patterns and workflows they’ve developed over the years. This knowledge only exists in the heads of the team members, so the only way you’ll acquire it is by getting them to explain it to you—or at the very least, observing them working.

Picking up as much as you can by observation is a nice time-saver for the rest of your new team. For some types of technical work, you can learn a lot by watching it happen. I’ve been to several video shoots, and I sent our newest project manager to observe one when he was new because it genuinely makes us better at planning the video team’s work.

Another very effective way I’ve “observed” teams and learned how they work is by attending their team meetings. What can you learn from how they talk about their work and how they talk to each other? In my own situation, I think a major difference between the functions whose work I understand well and those I don’t is whether I’m in their team meetings. The tricky thing is these meetings are usually a closed group on purpose, and it takes a lot of trust-building to be invited to them, or to be able to ask to attend without sounding pushy. But I honestly think this would make the biggest difference in closing my current knowledge gaps, so I may need to find the finesse to make it happen.

Finally, though, your only option on some projects may be to ask a team member to show you how something works. I often need this for software programs—particularly ones developed in-house for which no teaching resources exist, or when our internal teams have daisy-chained many software programs together and created a unique workflow. Seeing it is sometimes the only way I’ll get it.

I put this option last because it is nice to be efficient and not ask people for more of their time than you need, but don’t hesitate to do it when it’s truly your best or only option. It’s worth company time for you to understand the work of other teams well. You can do more for them, faster, when you do. You may just need to spread these requests out over time depending on how busy they (or you) are.

Multiple strategies, one goal

So when you find yourself directing work you don’t really understand, and when you find yourself with the bandwidth and longevity in your role to change that, you can split the knowledge you’ll need into two types, and then choose one or more options to close your gap for each type of knowledge:

Industry/Subject Matter Knowledge

• Option 1: External resources: books, online courses, etc.
• Option 2: Learn by observing your team
• Option 3: Learn by asking your team

Team Knowledge

• Option 1: Learn by observing your team
• Option 2: Learn by asking your team

Pick your best-fit options for each type of knowledge, and you’ll have the foundation of a custom learning plan and a way forward to a new level of team support!