The two articles I chose to read for this asignment were:
- "Why is Empathy Important for Design"
- "The Surprising (Nontechnical) Skill You Need to Succeed in Tech", The Muse
Empathy is an invaluable skill both in one's personal life, and work life. To this point, empathy was something I really only considered in immediate interpersonal skills, such as face-to-face interactions with other people and working in groups as a team. I've spent most of my professional life in retail sales, which requires a great deal of personal interactions with people of all walks of life. In order to be successful in that environment, it was imperative that I quickly connect with each person with whom I came in contact, or else I would most likely not close the sale. The same can be said with expressing empathy with team members to form a cohesive and successful team. I was a trainer on my previous team, so I had the responsibility of meeting all the new team members, empathizing with them so as to effectively teach them in the way they learn, and understanding that many of them were outside of their comfort zone.
After reading these articles, I see that empathy goes beyond strictly interacting with people directly. As a software developer, I am creating a product with which people will closely interact, and when they interact, they'd like the experience to be simple and effective. The author of the first article touches on understanding the value that your product brings to people, and thinking about more than just the surface needs. As I build web pages and apps, it's crucial that I keep these things in mind so that the finished products meet as many needs as possible for as many people as possible. The team aspect also plays a big role. As the second article states, software developers come from all walks of life also, so lacking empathy from even one of the team members can create rifts among the team, thus decreasing productivity and efficiency.