It Started Like Any Other Team Meeting
It was a regular morning meeting. Everyone was gathered around the table while the organizer shared his screen.
As soon as the discussion started, the pace picked up.
People began throwing around jargon, acronyms, and workflows that felt completely foreign to me.
From their tone, I could tell there was a real issue they were trying to solve — and I genuinely wanted to help.
But as the conversation went on, I realized something: I didn’t fully understand what they were talking about, or how all those pieces fit together.
Still, deep down, I knew I could build a solution — if only I understood what they meant.
I thought about asking questions, but I knew it would derail the meeting and take forever.
So I stayed quiet.
The meeting ended, and I left without contributing anything.
That silence hit me harder than I expected.
The Realization That Changed Everything
Later that day, it dawned on me:
Even if you’re an expert in programming, frameworks, and clean code, your impact will always be limited if you don’t understand the business domain — the real world your software is meant to serve.
Without that understanding, collaboration suffers.
And even the most elegant code can completely miss the mark.
Business domain drives communication.
Communication builds understanding.
Understanding shapes solutions.
Solutions come alive through implementation.
That realization changed the way I approached my work.
From that moment on, I made it my mission to truly understand the business domain.
I Took Time to Understand Their Journey and Pain Points
I didn’t have direct access to the end users, so I couldn’t simply ask them what they needed.
And honestly, I didn’t want to overwhelm the requirements analysts with a flood of questions.
Instead, I decided to do my own research first — to explore, learn, and come back to them only to confirm what I’d found. It felt like a more respectful and productive approach.
I started using ChatGPT to learn more about our business domain.
I asked it about common pain points in this industry, then went deeper — why do those problems exist? What causes them?
To organize everything I was discovering, I opened Canva and started mapping it visually.
Slide by slide, I laid out the journey — each one beginning with a question, followed by the reasons behind it. Then I’d connect that reason to another question, repeating the process until the entire picture made sense.
By the end, I wasn’t just memorizing facts.
I was beginning to see the world through the users’ eyes — and that changed everything.
I Started Exploring Every Term I Didn’t Understand
Once I had a clearer view of the user journey, I shifted my focus to how the business actually worked.
Any time I came across a term I didn’t understand, I prompted ChatGPT to explain it — not just the definition, but the context around it.
Each explanation opened new insights.
And those insights led to better questions — questions that revealed how things truly operated beneath the surface.
It became a cycle: learn a term, uncover an insight, ask a deeper question, and repeat.
With each round, my understanding of the business grew more complete.
Then I Tried to Connect the Dots
But knowing all the terms wasn’t enough.
True understanding came when I started connecting everything together — the processes, the systems, the people, and the reasons behind each decision.
I built a sort of mental map — a hierarchy of terms and relationships — until the information I’d gathered formed a coherent structure.
That’s when it all clicked.
I could finally see how everything worked together — not just as isolated pieces, but as one living, interconnected system.
The Quiet Lesson
That morning meeting taught me something no course or tutorial ever could:
The best developers don’t just write great code — they understand the business behind it.
Because once you understand why something matters, the how becomes much easier to figure out.
And sometimes, understanding doesn’t start with speaking.
It starts with listening, observing, and connecting the dots.
