Warped Expectations: The Iceberg of UX Ambiguity Behind Synced Inputs

The first few months of the author's time as a software engineer at Warp have been challenging yet rewarding. They were given three "small" starter tasks and one larger starter project, which involved implementing a broadcast input functionality similar to that in other terminals like iTerm2. However, this task proved more complex due to Warp's unique IDE-style input box, which supports mouse input and various actions not directly sent to or from the programs on the computer. The author had to navigate through numerous ambiguities and questions related to broadcasting inputs while receiving support from their engineering mentor, manager, designer, and team members. They followed Warp's product development process effectively throughout this starter project, learning valuable lessons about uncovering and clearing up ambiguity, balancing perfection with speed, and prioritizing user needs over simply adding cool terminal features. The author encourages users to try out the "synced inputs" feature in Warp and provide feedback on GitHub or Twitter.