Please Ask Questions Early and Often If You Don‘t Know How to Do Something
As a full-stack developer with over a decade of experience, one of the most important lessons I‘ve learned is this: please ask questions early and often if you don‘t know how to do something! It sounds simple, but many of us, especially early in our careers, hesitate to speak up when we‘re unsure. We don‘t want to look incompetent in front of teammates or managers.
However, asking questions is absolutely essential for learning and growth as a developer. When you‘re building software, you constantly encounter new languages, frameworks, tools, and concepts. It‘s impossible to know everything, even for senior programmers. The key is being willing to acknowledge knowledge gaps and seek help to fill them.
The Cost of Not Asking Questions
Research shows that the average developer spends 21% of their time stuck on problems they can‘t solve independently. That‘s over a day per week! In a 2018 survey by Blind, 38% of developers reported spending 1-2 hours per day stuck, with 11% spending a whopping 4+ hours per day.
Not asking questions doesn‘t just waste time, it also impacts the quality of our work. When we‘re stuck on an issue for too long, we start to lose focus and motivation. We may settle for hacky workarounds instead of seeking out the best solution. Bottlenecks slow the whole team down and lead to missed deadlines and sub-par code.
There‘s also a personal toll. Struggling alone is incredibly isolating and frustrating. It can make us doubt our skills and career choices. Given that 58% of developers already experience imposter syndrome, we don‘t need any extra reasons to feel inadequate!
Why We‘re Afraid to Ask Questions
As a junior developer, I definitely fell into the trap of being too scared to ask for help. I wanted to prove myself and not be a burden on my busy senior teammates. When I got stuck, I would often spend hours struggling in silence before finally caving and asking for help.
Looking back, this was such a waste of time and energy. Yes, it‘s good to try to troubleshoot on your own first. But if you‘ve made an earnest attempt and are still stuck, the mature thing to do is raise your hand.
Many developers avoid questions because they don‘t want to look "dumb". But in my experience, most senior colleagues respect juniors who ask questions. It shows that you‘re engaged, eager to learn, and humble. Managers would much rather have you ask for help than quietly spin your wheels for hours.
The real problem is that many teams have not cultivated psychological safety – a shared belief that you can take risks without being punished or humiliated. Google‘s Project Aristotle study found that psychological safety was the #1 factor in high-performing teams. On teams with high psychological safety, developers feel comfortable asking questions, admitting mistakes, and pitching ideas, leading to more innovation and better outcomes.
How to Ask Good Questions
Of course, there‘s an art to asking good questions as a developer. You don‘t want to just say "I don‘t get it!" at the first sign of trouble. Here are some tips:
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Do initial troubleshooting independently. Check documentation, search Google and Stack Overflow, examine code examples, etc. Really make an effort to solve it yourself first.
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Be specific. Once you‘ve done some legwork and are still stuck, reach out for help. Clearly explain what you‘re trying to do, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. Provide relevant code snippets, screenshots, and error messages.
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Show your work. Detail the solutions and debugging steps you‘ve already tried. This helps the person understand your thought process and avoids retreading dead ends.
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Ask in public. Post your question in a team Slack channel, or on a site like Stack Overflow or freeCodeCamp‘s forums. This way the answer benefits others, not just you. (Of course, be mindful of any sensitive data or company IP.)
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Be gracious. Thank those who help you and let them know how you resolved the issue. Pay it forward by answering questions when you can!
The Benefits of Asking Questions
Building the skill of asking questions has so many benefits:
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Increased efficiency. We‘ve all wasted hours or days on something a teammate could have cleared up in minutes. Asking questions helps you move forward quickly.
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Collaborative problem-solving. When you pair with a colleague on an issue, you get to absorb their techniques and heuristics. Over time you‘ll get better and better at debugging.
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Stronger relationships. Asking questions lets you interact with and learn from your team. They‘ll be impressed by your initiative. You may even teach them something new in return!
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Thought leadership. The most successful developers aren‘t know-it-alls, they‘re curious learners who readily admit limitations. Normalizing question-asking sets a great example.
As Kent Beck, creator of Extreme Programming, put it:
"I‘m not a great programmer; I‘m just a good programmer with great habits."
One of those habits is asking questions shamelessly and often!
Fostering Inquisitiveness on Your Team
If you‘re a tech lead or manager, you play a key role in creating an environment where people feel psychologically safe asking questions. Here are some suggestions:
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Encourage questions. Explicitly tell your reports that you welcome their questions and there‘s no such thing as a "dumb" one. Lead by example and ask lots of questions yourself!
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Make time for Q&A. In meetings, standups, and 1:1s, regularly prompt for questions. Consider starting meetings with each person sharing something they learned recently.
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Use async tools. Team chat apps allow people to ask and answer questions on their own time. Create a dedicated "Questions" channel. Having a searchable archive of FAQs is hugely valuable.
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Celebrate curiosity. When someone asks a great question or shares an insight, give them kudos. You could even implement a lightweight points system for rewarding knowledge sharing.
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Offer mentorship. Pair new hires with a designated mentor and encourage them to schedule regular check-ins. Create onboarding docs with FAQs to demonstrate your commitment to curiosity.
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Host learning events. Organize lunch-and-learns, AMAs, book clubs, and lightning talks with Q&A. The more you showcase and celebrate learning as a team sport, the more comfortable individuals will be speaking up.
If you‘re a more junior developer, it may take courage to ask questions at first, especially if your team hasn‘t historically been question-friendly. Start small by asking a teammate you trust. Hopefully by being inquisitive yourself, you give others permission to do the same.
Ask Me Anything!
These days, as a lead full-stack developer, I still ask questions constantly. I never want to be the smartest person in the room. I‘m always striving to level up my skills and learn from my colleagues, whether they‘re junior or senior to me.
The field of software development is so complex and changes so rapidly. No one can know everything. Asking questions is how we grow our knowledge, do our best work, and contribute to a high-performing team.
So please, make asking questions a daily habit. See it as a chance to practice communication and strengthen relationships. Don‘t worry about appearances. The only foolish thing is struggling in silence when your team is eager to help.
If you have any other tips for asking good questions, I‘d love to hear them! Feel free to reach out on Twitter or GitHub. And if there‘s a topic you‘d like me to write about in a future post, just ask. 🙂
Happy questioning!