SE Sin #1: Feature Blabbing. Aka: Spill your candy in the lobby, spray and pray, show up and throw up, demo daemon… Some SEs try to prove how smart they are instead of “selling while they teach”.

Think about telling a doctor, “Doc, my chest hurts”, and the first thing the doctor says is, “Let me show you my rib spreader! It’s tungsten reinforced with fast electric powered trigger action like a jaws of life so we can perform several retractions and rib spreadings in just seconds…”. Yikes! As a patient, you’d run for the hills.

A good SE is like a good doctor: “Where does it hurt?” “How much does it hurt?” “How did this happen?” “Why do you need to fix this?” “How does it affect your job?” This approach is consultative and strives to understand the cause of the pain so a complete and proper solution can be identified.

In summary, SEs often commit serious sales sins, sometimes because they don’t know any better. Many SEs are guilty of feature blabbing at some point in their career. Acquiring regular soft skills training can promote good habits and avoid ugly surprises.