Seeking advice from programmers for non-programmers
maudineormsby: Also interested in hearing people's thoughts on this, as a "demand side" guy who asks programmers to do stuff.My advice, FWIW, is that talking to and really trying to understand the problems faced by the engineers/developers working for you goes a VERY long way. Typically, they just want to know that someone is aware of their issues and is working with them, not against them.Not a unique problem though - that's how all management needs to function. Although the technical barriers in programming can be daunting (as I think the OP notes).