Suggest Without Full Context

dennyzhang

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/suggest-without-context/

A living runbook for learning from and giving suggestions to other teams Why This Matters: Cross-team collaboration is a critical part of tech lead work, yet you’re often asked to give feedback on efforts you don’t fully own or understand.

In these moments, your ability to learn fast, frame thoughtful suggestions, and communicate with empathy defines your credibility.

Good suggestions create momentum and build bridges. Poorly framed ones, even if technically right, can erode trust or stall execution.

Core Principles

  1. Understand Before Suggesting

    • Do the deep dive yourself; validate information.
    • Focus on what (goal/outcome), not how.
    • Check: Do I understand their goal even with limited context?
    • If not sure, signal limited context upfront: “I may be missing some context, but…”

  2. Respect People and Context

    • Acknowledge effort before giving input.
    • Match discussion level (process vs details).
    • Treat pushback as a sign of ownership, not resistance.
    • When you disagree, start from curiosity: “Can you help me understand why this direction works better?”

  3. Keep It Simple and Actionable

    • Avoid information overload.
    • Tie suggestions to metrics and outcomes they care about.
    • Clarify who owns follow-up actions.
    • Check: Are my suggestions relevant, concise, and actionable?
    • Use soft framing to reduce friction:
      • “One idea to consider…”
      • “You might explore…”
      • “Here’s what worked for us before — not sure if it applies here.”

  4. Share and Co-Own (Optional)

    • Frame input as collaboration, not correction.
    • Offer help or co-ownership to turn ideas into action.
    • Check: Am I ready to co-own implementation or provide support if needed?
    • Ask permission before diving too deep: “Would you like thoughts on this tradeoff?”
    • Build safety for iteration — your goal is to unlock better thinking, not to win arguments.

Scenarios & How to Engage

High-Pressure, Short-Context Scenarios

(Few minutes to give input, limited context)

  • Approach

    • Focus on the goal or desired outcome.
    • Ask high-leverage, pattern-based questions.
    • Prioritize comments that are high-impact and low-risk.
    • Signal limited context but contribute thoughtfully.
    • Clarify follow-up / ownership if action is triggered.
    • Don’t try to cover everything — aim for clarity, not completeness.

  • Examples

    • SEV postmortem review
    • Rapid design review
    • Urgent cross-team triage

Scenario: Standard Context Scenarios

(More time to explore context)

  • Approach
    • Deep dive into details if needed.
    • Understand tradeoffs and context fully.
    • Offer concrete suggestions with examples from prior experience.
    • Frame suggestions in alignment with team goals.
  • Examples
    • Process improvement sharing
    • Quarterly roadmap sync
    • Tooling/infra collaboration