On keeping a “WTF?” list.
Your first impressions are fleeting — write them down.
As my friends and coworkers know, I am a veritable font of unsolicited advice. However, when there’s only a minute left in my intro 1:1 with a new teammate, there is one recommendation I always make time for, and it is this:
Keep a “what the fuck?” list.
Note: The below examples are tailored toward a work environment, but you could make a WTF list when starting at a new school, volunteering with an organization, or when entering any situation where there’s an established culture and processes that you are tasked with learning and adopting. Meeting the in-laws for the first time? WTF it!
What’s a WTF list?
It’s your own personal, secret way to keep track of shit that just doesn’t make sense. There’s no documentation on the process you’re learning? What the fuck! Team X is in charge of System A, when it obviously fits better in Team Y’s charter? What the fuck!
My WTF lists have generally been organized by category; for example:
Product WTFs — why is feature X built like that? Why don’t we have a feature Y yet?
Organizational WTFs — why don’t we have someone in charge of program Z?
Vision / goals WTFs — why are we focusing on strategy A instead of strategy B?
Personal WTFs — why doesn’t smart person C ever talk in meetings? Why does everyone seem to listen to person D even though their ideas aren’t very good?
Why keep a WTF list?
I’m so glad you asked! Here we go.
Your first impressions and opinions about things that feel “off” will often be right, and will in any case be valuable — to you, and to your team and organization. They can be the source for feature ideas, process improvements, areas to research, and more. If you don’t keep track of these impressions, you’ll forget them, and that value will be lost.
You’re smart, and you’re ramping up, so you’ll soon learn why System X and System Y both do the same thing yet are both in active development, or why System Z requires three button-presses to execute Process A when obviously one button-press would be better, or better yet no button-presses at all — and once you’ve learned the why, you’ll move on, make mental space for the next thing you’re learning, and probably never think about the WTF again. Writing down the WTF won’t prevent you from learning the “why” and adapting.
WTFs are good fodder for conversations with your manager or colleagues. I’d encourage you to let them marinate for at least a few days — generally, nobody likes the person who joins the team and immediately shits all over the way things are done. But once you’ve gotten at least a tiny bit settled and established, referring back to your WTFs as targets for improvement (especially when you’re proposing fixing things yourself!) can be a great way to start getting your hands dirty on a new team. Picture this:
You: “I noticed while I was getting set up with permissions for System X, there wasn’t good documentation on which groups I needed to join — it ended up taking me way longer than necessary to figure it out! So I wrote the documentation and now it’s on the onboarding wiki for the next person.”
Your boss: “What a go-getter. I’m so glad I hired you.”Sometimes your WTF will have a legitimate “why”! In that case, it’s still good to learn — and maybe you can help improve the onboarding process for the next person by pointing them to the rationale that answered your question.
And finally, and importantly: your WTF list will help you feel sane.
And just to be clear — you don’t have to share your WTF list with anybody. It’s primarily for you. Keep it in a private document and do not censor yourself. If your list only accomplishes the goal of keeping you sane, it’s still worth making.
Do you keep a WTF list at work? In other contexts? Write me back or leave a comment.
Your internet friend in sanity and righteousness,
Sarah