Empathy in Tech Who is "The Business"?
Sep 4, 2024
A conversation about who gets to speak for “the business” and why engineers often feel cut off from decisions. They explore storytelling techniques, formal methods like ACL2, and how shared journals and async communication can reduce alienation. Practical ideas for learning cross-domain concepts and measuring what matters are highlighted.
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What People Mean When They Say The Business
- "The business" is often an abstract label engineers use to describe everyone outside their team, reflecting alienation rather than a single actor.
- Andrea and Ray explain it functions as a cultural shorthand for non-technical decision makers and organizational norms that feel separate from engineering.
Alienation Runs Both Directions
- Alienation in companies is mutual: engineers feel excluded and business folks feel pressure and lack of agency.
- Ray and Andrea note leaders and product people often feel answerable and powerless, creating parallel feelings of disconnection.
Business Value Can Be a Hand Wave
- "Business value" is often used as a vague catch-all that obscures real outcomes and can be hand-waving.
- Ray warns that invoking business value without modeled outcomes suggests avoidance of concrete cause-and-effect thinking.