Don't write this off as a solely as a symptom of education.
Being able to question the judgement of an authority figure / decision maker is a privilege. A squeaky wheel gets the grease but a raised nail gets the hammer. Engineers generally lean more nail than wheel in most orgs, and being a minority or otherwise less respected subset of that group makes you feel even more like a nail.
Dotting I's and crossing T's is exactly the kind of behavior one would expect from a person who is smart enough to recognize something is a stupid idea, knows that they lack the authority to make any changes, and will bear the bunt of the inevitable failure.
> A squeaky wheel gets the grease but a raised nail gets the hammer.
You're right about this. Indian work culture tends toward rigid hierarchical structures, and expects employees to be much more deferent to authority than you would find in a typical Silicon Valley startup. However, even after bringing our startup culture out there (unlimited PTO, stock options, choose your own hours, don't call me "sir"), I still find this test-taking mentality to be what dominates an engineer's decision making.
Because of this, I know to be extremely specific on exact deliverables and tickets. The "rockstar developer" who can think deeply about the end user's needs is an extremely rare thing to find out there. The dominant mentality among developers is to expect a detailed specification that can be treated as the exact boundary of the problem.
To give a concrete example - I recently got quite frustrated when a simple CRUD feature shipped without a delete button, since the specification failed to explicitly mention where the button should go. Out of 30 developers and a full QA team, not one person thought critically about the specification or tried using the app from a user's perspective.
> not one person thought critically about the specification or tried using the app from a user’s perspective.
I come from a manufacturing background and have moved into software. In manufacturing, if there actually are issues with the specification, you raise those through engineering change notices. If you start changing the spec on your own, that’s a big time no.
Do you have a formal process for spec changes or are you expecting the team to raise these issues independently and unprompted?
If someone has actually raised concerns with you about the spec or offered up changes, how did you respond to those? I work with people who always say, “why doesn’t anyone challenge me on my ideas?” This happens at the end of a meeting where these people will have shot down everyone else and their ideas. In reality they want “yes people” who tell them there is no disagreement because their idea is best.
I’m not saying this is you, but they may have been through these experiences and might need permission or direct instruction to show them speaking up is valued.
Yeah and also I don't think introducing unlimited PTOs and stock options is the same as tasking people to take responsibility for architecting a product. The likely reason is that India still lacks talent in mid to upper-level engineering leadership roles that can make user-centric decisions and groom entry-level talent.
> Dotting I's and crossing T's is exactly the kind of behavior one would expect from a person who is smart enough to recognize something is a stupid idea
Maybe? But it makes them useless for my purposes. Which requires them to think for themselves.
That is thinking for oneself. That's seeing a problem, attempting to address the problem, and when that fails, taking copious notes for CYA purposes. It's the enterprise version of I Told You So.
What I think you mean to is you want a person who will take action. And that's down to company culture. If you want employees who act empowered, you have to give them power.
I remember reading a speech made to West Point graduates on the value of questioning authority. Not sure how much it is actually followed, but was pleasantly reassured that at least the thought is being planted.
Now if someone could only help me locate that speech.
Being able to question the judgement of an authority figure / decision maker is a privilege. A squeaky wheel gets the grease but a raised nail gets the hammer. Engineers generally lean more nail than wheel in most orgs, and being a minority or otherwise less respected subset of that group makes you feel even more like a nail.
Dotting I's and crossing T's is exactly the kind of behavior one would expect from a person who is smart enough to recognize something is a stupid idea, knows that they lack the authority to make any changes, and will bear the bunt of the inevitable failure.