A Software Consultant Tool: Commercial Awareness
Software development is a fast-moving and broad area for expertise. Starting your career as a developer usually begins with software engineering concepts, design patterns and principles, which are the foundations you need to be able to create good products. I don’t want to talk about any of that; I would like to discuss what I consider to be a gap in the arsenal for a lot of young (and seasoned) developers: commercial awareness.
What is Commercial Awareness?
As described, the term merely refers to understanding the business value. At a high level, this means that you are aware of what the business objective is, and how the work you do fits into that and delivers the value; how you help the bottom line. The stark truth is that most of us are developing solutions for businesses to make money, not just the joy of creating software, and as such we need to ensure that we deliver value.
What does this mean for a developer? You should strive to build a good relationship with a client or product owner. Having knowledge of how you affect the bigger picture and how you can use that knowledge to inform decisions, advice and ways of working ultimately improves both your work and the overall product or project.
How do I increase my Commercial Awareness?
Developing commercial awareness is not a quick and easy process. This is especially true if you are consulting across different projects, clients and sectors. It isn’t something that you gain and can apply to everything you do — it will take time and effort and will need to be adjusted and re-evaluated continuously.
The first step is to know your domain. Be aware of competitors, clients, suppliers and trends. You may be working in a heavily regulated sector, such as finance — make sure are aware of how they affect your product, and what the consequences of failing regulation and governance are. Having this knowledge is essential in order to advise on actions as this will be a basis of pushing back against limitations, availability of services and support, or regulatory concerns.
Understand the client or organisation. What are their long-term goals? What are the defined values and how can you help achieve them? Over time you should develop a deep understanding of what the organisation is trying to deliver and how they intend to do it. You may find that they have values, a mission statement, a business strategy and a vision of their future. Knowing these will help you to build on your commercial awareness within the organisation.
How does the organisation, or product, interact with their customers? This forms the foundation of awareness — understanding how people are using the product or products, and why they are using them, will define the goals and experiences that you are trying to achieve.
Ultimately, whatever task you are working on, you should be considering whether what you do progresses the product — does it make it easier for the user, does it improve their experience, does it help achieve a goal. If it doesn’t do any of these, then maybe it is time to talk to the product owner to obtain some clarity — or evaluate your understanding!