Giving answers and suggestions is very tempting especially when you join a team temporarily as there is obvious time constraint and normally you are there for a reason. Answers can be easily misunderstood because of established behavior, knowledge and etc.
I prefer questions first and typically focus on a couple of areas:
- How do you make decisions?
- What are your dependencies?
- How do you deliver?
- What ?
Why these questions?
Question #1 leads to a conversation who decides what to do (business, technical), how critical situations are solved if any, what information or KPIs decisions are based on.
Question #2 leads to understanding roadblocks: technical, organizational, business, knowledge
Question #3 gives an understanding of current team’s process, how the plan, how/if collect feedback, how they deploy, ensure quality and etc.
Question #4 leads to a conversation about end users and what services/products/components are delivered to them.