I’ve always believed that the key to creating great software is to talk with those who use it, to understand what they need and want from your product. If you step away from support, your software will suffer.
You can, however, step away from bad customers.
Some Customers Suck – Nick Bradbury. via Sheri
Customer service is difficult, expensive and unpredictable. But it’s a mistake to assume that any particular example is automatically either good or bad. A company might spend almost nothing on customer service but still succeed in reaching its goals.
Customer service succeeds when it accomplishes what the organization sets out to accomplish.
What is customer service for? – Seth Godin.
A few days later, I found myself in pajama pants, pacing frantically around my apartment, on the phone with Elon Musk. We had a discussion about Tesla, SpaceX, the automotive and aerospace and solar power industries, and he told me what he thought confused people about each of these things.
Elon Musk: The World’s Raddest Man – part one of a series of posts Tim Urban has queued up about Elon Musk and his various projects. Part 2, focused on Tesla, is already in my Instapaper list.
I wonder sometimes if folks at media companies ever try clicking their own links from within social media like Twitter or Facebook, just to experience what a damn travesty of a user experience it is.
Facebook hosting doesn’t change things, the world already changed – Eugene Wei.
We must develop an acute awareness of the passage of time and with it our diminishing window of opportunity. If we fail to do so we cede to others the opportunities which today are uniquely ours. We must work with a sense of urgency.
Sense of Urgency – Andrew Bosworth.
Work very hard—a surprising number of people will be offended that you choose to work hard—but not so hard that the rest of your life passes you by. Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you’ll probably end up in a pretty good place. Figure out your own productivity system—don’t waste time being unorganized, working at suboptimal times, etc.
The days are long but the decades are short – Sam Altman. – via Matt
I told Doc we had arrived at the Holy Moment in debugging — reproducibility. I told him “reproducible” is the programmer’s favorite word. If you can tell me the steps to reproduce the problem, then I can find it and fix it. Until it’s reproducible all I can do is share your frustration.
Dave Winer – Reproducible.
[A business unit] should be responsible for its contribution to innovation in the company’s product or service; and it should in addition strive consciously and with direction toward advancement of the art in the particular area in which it is engaged.
Peter Drucker – The Practice of Management.
But the greatest wild card of all in all the data, and the most precious piece of information for any happiness engineer hoping to solve any ticket, is the customer’s own perception of what is wrong. And the gap between what people think is wrong and what is actually wrong can be quite far indeed.
Scott Berkun – The Year Without Pants.