Troubleshooting Techniques: Troubleshooting Remotely

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On today’s Tech, No Babel: Troubleshooting Techniques: Troubleshooting Remotely

1. Ask a lot of questions. Questions are your life line. The more you ask, the more information you’ll have.

2. Look for evidence to rule out your hypothesis. It’s easy to jump to conclusions early. When you do so, though, you may miss the actual solution.

3. Devise tests. How can you prove a problem or narrow down which one it is? Figure out a way to test and you’ll see.

4. Use the best communications medium you can. If it’s text, it’s text. If it’s voice it’s voice. If it’s a video chat, use that. Try and choose the best medium for the situation.

Sometimes you’ll need to troubleshoot remotely. If so, keep these things in mind:Click To Tweet

5. Get the person on the other end to describe it to you like you can’t see (because you can’t). When you can’t see, get the person you’re working with to describe, in vivid detail what they see and prompt them where to look.

6. If the person doesn’t believe you, devise a test to show them. They might be right and you might be, but figure out a way to show it for sure.

7. Don’t tell them they’re wrong; help them realize it themselves. Show them the evidence and let them realize it for themselves. Don’t belittle. Make them feel important and smart, even if they’re not.