I still have a tendency to talk about all the cons of a proposed solution I don’t believe is the optimal one. There’s an old saying that “no one likes to hear their baby is ugly.” When you bring the negatives to someone else’s solution, that’s what you’re doing.
If I think I have a better solution, it’s in everyone’s best interest if I can talk quickly and succinctly about the positives of my solution. For instance, if I think something should be deployed to the cloud, I need to be able to articulate why that solution is advantageous. Likewise, if I think a particular technology should be used, I should be able to explain why we should do so.
With that being said, I need to be able to think critically about the cons of my proposed solution or technology. It might not be a great option. For instance, while my experience is primarily in SQL Server, I have to understand when it’s not a good fit and why. An example is this short video from Brent Ozar talking about why you probably don’t want to build your data lake on SQL Server:
Yes, when proposing my solution I should have some talking points that compare to other proposed solutions. But rather than beating down all the other solutions and telling everyone how bad I think they are, I should be focusing on the positives of the one I’ve proposed. And I need to be ready to talk about the issues my solution has. It’s easier to convince someone to choose your option when you haven’t spent time bad mouthing theirs and you’re open about the downsides of your own solution.
By the way, this also is true about people. For instance, when I’ve participated in job hiring, I have found that when I talk about the negatives of particular candidates more than the positives of the candidate I think is best, that such comments are typically ignored. However, when I can detail why I think a particular candidate is a strong fit, that is heard and processed, even if the hiring manager was originally leaning towards a different candidate.
It’s easy to be negative. It’s easy to complain or tell someone why something is a terrible idea. That’s heard so often that it’s now often dismissed as noise. Better to talk in a positive light, though for many of us that’s harder. However, because that’s now the exception, it tends to be listened to more.