\u201cDo you have any questions?\u201d#<\/a><\/h1>\nThis one is pretty obvious to ask, but I try to repeat it as often as I can so any questions the developer comes up with are answered quickly:<\/p>\n
\n- Arriving at the office in the morning: \u201cHey, how\u2019re things going? Do you have any questions?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
- Leaving after assigning a task: \u201cFeel free to ping me if you have any questions\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
- Sitting with a mentee in a pause while waiting for a module to build: \u201cBy the way, do you have any questions about the system or is something not entirely clear?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The point is to make the developer super-comfortable to ask any<\/em> questions he gets. The more he asks, the quicker he learns.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/iamakulov.com\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/question-signs.png?resize=75%2C46\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cHave I explained this well?\u201d#<\/a><\/h1>\nI find this exact question extremely useful, and I feel like it\u2019s my little invention (haven\u2019t seen anyone using it yet). I ask it every time I explain something to the mentee to make sure I\u2019m clear, and the mentee\u2019s level of knowledge is enough to understand the stuff:<\/p>\n
\n- \u201cSo this is how<\/em> $module.require works… Have I explained this well?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I prefer this question more than \u201cDo you have any questions?\u201d<\/em> because the latter feels too official to me in this context.<\/p>\nThe point about the question is that you should ask it in exactly the specified form. It\u2019s easy to transform it to \u201cIs this clear to you?\u201d<\/em> or \u201cDo you get this?\u201d<\/em>, but you shouldn\u2019t do this. All these latter questions are about the mentee<\/em> and their perceptional abilities and could make them feel insecure if they answer \u201cNo.\u201d This decreases the communication between them and you and is definitely not your goal. I only find the \u201cHave I explained this well?\u201d<\/em> form to be not about the mentee and therefore be safe.<\/p>\nBonus question: \u201cCan you explain this to me?\u201d#<\/a><\/h1>\nThis one is useful too. I ask it to check that the mentee fully understood the topic we were talking about. If the developer answers well, then it\u2019s cool; if he doesn\u2019t, I notice the points where he gets stuck, and help him with them.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/iamakulov.com\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/stars.png?resize=76%2C26\")
<\/p>\n
Not only mentoring#<\/a><\/h1>\nThese questions are useful not only when you\u2019re mentoring someone, but also when you give a talk, a lecture, conduct training, etc.<\/p>\n
For example, a lot of speakers only answer questions at the end of their speech, when a half of the listeners have already forgotten what they wanted to ask about. I tend to ask \u201cDo you have any questions?\u201d<\/em> after each major part of my talk. This has two advantages:<\/p>\n\n- attendees understand the speech better because we speak of the material that was on the screen just a moment before that,<\/li>\n
- and there\u2019re fewer situations like \u201cCould you please switch to slide 2\u201d when you\u2019re on slide 53.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I used this approach this with \u201cRedux in real life\u201d<\/a> and in a company\u2019s internal React training, and seems like it worked well.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The point is to make the developer super-comfortable to ask any<\/em> questions he gets. The more he asks, the quicker he learns.<\/p>\n I find this exact question extremely useful, and I feel like it\u2019s my little invention (haven\u2019t seen anyone using it yet). I ask it every time I explain something to the mentee to make sure I\u2019m clear, and the mentee\u2019s level of knowledge is enough to understand the stuff:<\/p>\n I prefer this question more than \u201cDo you have any questions?\u201d<\/em> because the latter feels too official to me in this context.<\/p>\n The point about the question is that you should ask it in exactly the specified form. It\u2019s easy to transform it to \u201cIs this clear to you?\u201d<\/em> or \u201cDo you get this?\u201d<\/em>, but you shouldn\u2019t do this. All these latter questions are about the mentee<\/em> and their perceptional abilities and could make them feel insecure if they answer \u201cNo.\u201d This decreases the communication between them and you and is definitely not your goal. I only find the \u201cHave I explained this well?\u201d<\/em> form to be not about the mentee and therefore be safe.<\/p>\n This one is useful too. I ask it to check that the mentee fully understood the topic we were talking about. If the developer answers well, then it\u2019s cool; if he doesn\u2019t, I notice the points where he gets stuck, and help him with them.<\/p>\n These questions are useful not only when you\u2019re mentoring someone, but also when you give a talk, a lecture, conduct training, etc.<\/p>\n For example, a lot of speakers only answer questions at the end of their speech, when a half of the listeners have already forgotten what they wanted to ask about. I tend to ask \u201cDo you have any questions?\u201d<\/em> after each major part of my talk. This has two advantages:<\/p>\n I used this approach this with \u201cRedux in real life\u201d<\/a> and in a company\u2019s internal React training, and seems like it worked well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n\u201cHave I explained this well?\u201d#<\/a><\/h1>\n
\n
Bonus question: \u201cCan you explain this to me?\u201d#<\/a><\/h1>\n
<\/p>\nNot only mentoring#<\/a><\/h1>\n
\n