Policies are often the result of something that once went wrong. It’s organizational scar tissue developed from a This Can Never Happen Again mandate. And its almost always ill-considered.
The problem with policies are that they compound and eventually add up to the rigidity of bureaucracy that everyone says they despise. Policies are not free. They demean the intellect of the executer (“I know this is stupid, but…”) and obsolve the ability to deal with a situation in context (“I sympathize, but…”).
Here’s a curve ball: When something goes wrong, have a chat about it, embed the learning in the organizational memory as a story instead of a policy. Stories have context and engage the listeners, so next time a similar situation arise, you’ll be informed by the story and act wiser.
Policies are codified overreactions to unlikely-to-happen-again situations. A collective punishment for the wrong-doings of a one-off. And unless you want to treat the people in your environment as five year-olds, “Because The Policy Said So” is not a valid answer.
- Business historians say agile companies are the ones that win
- "Those who came out on top…proved able to adapt to change instead of being prisoners of past success. And in their glory days, these corporate champions were magnets for the best and brightest."
- Soccer jersey fonts
- Linotype matches fonts from popular soccer jerseys to ones in its library.
- Demographics for TechCrunch and Read/WriteWeb
- 89% male (RWW = 84%), 81% 18-39 (RWW = 71%), 60% publish their own blog (RWW = 68%). Meanwhile, the TechCrunch redesign isn’t sitting well with some.
- Creative Department Douchebag
- "Sup dickbags? The name’s Trev. I’m 27, totally super fucking hip, and am a copywriter at a global ad agency in New York City."
- The limitations of listening to customers
- Asking people what they want will only get you so far because of “functional fixedness,” the human tendency to fixate on the way products or services are already normally used. People are unable to imagine alternate functions.
- New BMW campaign targets the creative class
- "Rather than horsepower and curve-hugging handling, it’s ballyhooing its design prowess and financial independence."
Continued…
Sam Brown of explodingdog (and former guest cartoonist at SvN) has been Getting Real and dropped us a note about it:
i have been amused for the last few months, because ever since you had me do drawings for the 37svn blog. i have been much more focused on what i am doing, simplifying my work and being far more productive. i guess something from you guys rubbed off…so thanks.
Nice to hear. We usually focus on Getting Real in a software context but you can get a lot of mileage applying the concepts to non-software activities too. The suggestions about small teams, rapid prototyping, embracing restraints, etc. can help people drawing cartoons, starting a business, writing a book, designing a web site, recording an album, or doing plenty of other stuff.
After the jump: an excerpt from the Getting Real book on how others use similar ideas to get results.
Continued…
The software industry is missing one thing.
It’s not talent.
It’s not ideas.
It’s not money.
It’s not marketing.
It’s not technology.
It’s discipline.
Some interesting comments posted this week at Signal vs. Noise:
Screens Around Town: One-page sites
Wilson Miner 08 May 06
One page sites are the perfect cure for the “why haven’t we made a website for this yet” syndrome. I put this site together in a couple days, including writing the content, because I was tired of answering the same questions over the phone (including “where’s the website?”). Knowing that everything has to go on one page really helps distill down exactly what information is really necessary and keeps you from adding a bunch of extra fluff because you need to fill in a spot in the site navigation, or because “the about page looks empty”.
The importance of instant feedback
Glenn Davies 09 May 06
Several years ago, I had lunch with a successful business man who had agreed to meet with me and listen to my ‘big’ idea. He listened throughout lunch, asked the right questions and then he said two words that have stuck with me since that time, “Fail Fast”.
At first I was clearly disappointed, but then I recovered and realized the wisdom in those carely chosen words. The concepts behind Getting Real are not new, the boys at 37s will tell you that, but they are new to a tired old club of developers who just don’t want to change (cross-browser compatible???). Instant feedback, built into your product and/or service, will limit your failures and move you closer to your next success.
No, by BMW
RS 09 May 06
I don’t think you can separate prettyness from functionality.
Consider the shape of a cello. While at first glance the curves look ornamental, on inspection one finds they are necessary to produce a good sound.
Sometimes the notion of “prettyness” is actually included in a function. For example, what makes a public space “functional”? Nikos Salingaros has discussed how so-called ornamental elements like facets and flutes actually function to redirect sound and light toward the pedestrian level. This stands in contrast to flat “functional” surfaces.
Continued…
Question in the 37signals Campfire room: “Has anyone seen any inspiring web design lately?” What d’ya say? Link it up.
An astute analysis of the similarities between political voting and voting for the American Idol. It’s about broadening your base, not just appealing to your core fans.
And this is what explains Chris Daughtry’s stunning loss this week on “American Idol.” He has a distinctive voice and distinctive appeal. The problem is that he never broadened his base very much. If you liked him from the start, you stayed with him - which is why he remained solidly among the top contenders through most of the show’s run.
But if you didn’t much like his sound when there were still 9 contestants remaining, you weren’t suddenly going to decide you liked his sound when there were only 4 remaining.
The key to winning “American Idol” isn’t being overwhelmingly popular in the early stages. The key is having a sound that makes it possible for you to pick up votes from people whose favorites have gotten booted off the show. Because if you don’t get those votes, somebody else is going to get them.
Based on this logic, the article predicts Elliot Yamin will be the next American Idol.
It’s human nature to strive for bigger and better things. To increase ambition on the back of success. In many fields that’s fantastic. Software is rarely one of them.
The problem with ambition is that it leaks and it loops. You get high on your ability to solve that one hard problem and march on to prove your ingenuity to the remaining stack of todos. Stop it. Take your mind for a cold shower.
Most problems in this world do not need to rev your ambition meter to the red line. You have to train your brain to see and take the detours.
Take “climb Mount Everest”. That’s a hard problem. Could “get a fantastic view from high in the sky” suffice? If so, you now have an easy problem with an array of easy solutions: Take the elevator to the top of the Sears Tower, fly a plane across snowclad mountains, or simply watch others do it on Flickr.
All problems are negotiable. Don’t solve before you settle.
Do you know Mr. More? Of course you do.
He has a great resume. He has a great smile. He’s well versed in 6 languages. He’s been everywhere you haven’t. He never says “um.” He’s got a few degrees after his name too.
Mr. More looks great on paper.
But when you meet Mr. More, well, you realize that Mr. More isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. Mr. More is exhausting, annoying, and makes you feel uncomfortable and anxious. Mr. More is frustrating.
When you walk down the hallway with Mr. More you notice he doesn’t let you get in front of him. Mr. More has places to be that are more important than the places you need to be. And Mr. More needs to get there before you do because Mr. More’s time is more valuable than yours.
When you talk with Mr. More you notice he finishes your sentences for you and corrects your grammar. That’s Mr. More’s way of reminding you he’s smarter than you.
Mr. More corrects your facts, reminds you it’s “fewer” not “less,” and follows up your stories with “that’s great, but I’ve…” and “I already know that.”
When Mr. More picks up the tab at lunch he makes sure you see that he has a American Express Centurion card. Mr. More also puts the keys to his Bentley on the table so you can’t miss ‘em.
You wouldn’t want to hang around Mr. More all day, would you? You wouldn’t want to hire Mr. More, would you? You wouldn’t want to send Mr. More to represent you, would you?
Then don’t build bloated, complex, too-clever-for-its-own good software. When you build software like that you are subjecting your customers to the same experience they’d have if they had to hang around Mr. More all day. Software shouldn’t make you feel stupid. Software shouldn’t make you feel less important. Software shouldn’t get in your way.
Personify your software and fire Mr. More.
Some of the activity this week at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:
Marcel thinks Chicago’s grid system is neat. Jamis countered, “You ain’t seen a grid system until you’ve been to Utah…my address is 2917 W 1230 N.” 90% of the streets in Provo are numbered which makes finding places a snap, according to Jamis. Marcel used to live at the corner of Pleasant and River and imagines that someone, somewhere, lives at the intersection of Church and State.
Jason: Heard the iPod Hi-Fi. It is pretty killer.
Jason: and prettier in person.
Jason: it has that Apple fit and finish that photos can’t capture
Ryan: yeah i checked it out at the apple store and had the same impression
Ryan: the photos make it look like a big block. it does have character it person
Jason: yup
Ryan: and yeah, the sound is damn good
David pointed out this quote, from Wikipedia, on the BMW redesign:
Bangle seems to posture that he wants people to either “love” or “hate” a design, but not be indifferent to it. As such, his designs illicit much more emotional response than previous generations.
I postured that David Blaine has the best Wikipedia table of contents ever…
1 Magic career
1.1 Overview
1.2 Premature Burial
1.3 Frozen in Time
1.4 Vertigo
1.5 Mysterious Stranger
1.6 Above the Below
1.7 Drowned Alive
1.8 Cancelled stunts
…Ryan said it’s like a McSweeneys list. Marcel said they sound like sexual euphemisms. 1.9 The Swirl?
Continued…
Project Detail Systems is the first business we know of built around providing Basecamp add-ons via the Basecamp API. Their first product is BCTix.com, a support/issue tracking tool that integrates with Basecamp. It’s still early, but it’s worth checking out and following along if you need this functionality.
We’re excited to see what else people come up with using the API. Here’s someone playing with a mobile version of Basecamp using the API.
- Noam Chomsky and code
- "The same limitations when communicating in English stand when communicating in Ruby or some other programming language...Keep your statements concise and refrain from gratuitous nesting and run-on statements when possible."
- Less options at Yahoo advertising
- Microsoft lets advertisers enter bids based on the sex, age and other characteristics of the ad viewer. Yahoo doesn't. Why? Yahoo VP: "We don't want to go overboard" and confuse customers with too many choices.
- Why Don't Ad Agencies Advertise?
- "Considering that agencies recommend their clients spend 10% of their revenues on marketing, the big four are spending .01% of their combined $29.3 billion in global revenue." [via Seth Godin]
- The Moriyama House
- Interesting concept: Every room is a different building.
- Professional wrestling holds
- Summary of various pins, stretches and holds used in pro wrestling including the camel clutch, figure four, Boston crab, etc.
- Physicist Briane Greene helping to plan The World Science Festival
- He discussed it on Charlie Rose last week and it sounds very cool. "The first annual World Science Festival — a weeklong exploration of science, from cutting-edge research to works in theatre, film, and the arts inspired by science — will take place in New York City in 2008."
Continued…
A friend recently asked me to beta test his new product. I’d heard about its development over the past few months so I was curious.
When it was finally time to sign up for the beta I dove right in. Well, I wanted to dive right in but the signup process was 5 steps of heavy forms with all sorts of questions that just didn’t seem relevant at the time. I’m sure they were relevant to the engineers who built the product, but they weren’t relevant to me. Why did they need to know which school I went to? Why did they need to know my gender?
That signup process solidified my long held belief: don’t ask for it if you really don’t need it. And I mean if you really don’t need it. There’s a world of difference between “nice to know now” and “need to know now.”
We’re staying true to this as we build Sunrise. Sunrise is about people. People have all sorts of data associated with them: phone numbers, email addresses, companies, job titles, addresses, etc. You know — everything a vCard can have. Lots of fields and lots of data. But how much of it do we really need to know up front? Just their name. And that’s all we’re asking for.
If a field is optional consider leaving it off the page during the add process. Display it on edit, but hide it on add.
When you build an app that requires data entry, think hard about how much you really need now. If you don’t really need it now then don’t ask for it now. There’s always time to fill it in later.
Sunrise Sidenote: For those who are wondering when Sunrise will be released, we don’t know. We recently decided we didn’t like where it was going and we threw most of it out. We’ve started on what we think is a significantly simpler and better Sunrise. We’re making good progress. We went through a similar process when we designed Backpack — we tossed about 2/3rds of the app out and focused hard on simplification. It worked then and we believe it’s working great this time as well. We’ll provide more information when we’re ready to share it.
The folks at 36 Degrees Design have cooked up an OS X Dashboard Widget for the Signal vs. Noise Job Board. If you haven’t checked out the Job Board lately you should. You’ll find over 60 design, programming, and executive jobs from companies large and small.
From a two page BMW ad spread in Automobile Magazine:
“The ability to say no to compromise is a rare thing these days. Many companies would like to be able to say it, but so few have the autonomy to actually do it. As an independent company, BMW can say no. No, we will not compromise our ideas. No, we will not do it the way everyone else does it. No, we will not factor designs down to the lowest common denominator. No, we will not sell out to a parent company who will meddle in our affairs and ask us to subject our cars to mass market vanilla-ism.
“Because we can say no to compromise we can say yes to other things — such as building our vehicles with 50/50 weight distribution for superior handling and control, despite the fact that it costs more to build them that way. It’s thousands of little things like this that separate BMW from other car companies. By maintaining our autonomy and ability to say no, we can make sure great ideas live on to become ultimate driving machines.”
The instant feedback loop that’s built into Getting Real is one of the big reasons it succeeds. Instead of waiting months/years to find out if an idea is working, you get a meaningful response back right away. That means you can constantly learn and improve as you go along.
The Freakanomics boys latest piece, A Star Is Made, offers some scientific support for this notion. It explains that immediate feedback is a key element to exceptional performance, whether you’re a doctor, athlete, or programmer.
For example, most doctors actually perform worse the longer they are out of medical school due, in large part, to the increased lag time between making a decision and being able to judge its impact.
When a doctor reads a mammogram, she doesn’t know for certain if there is breast cancer or not. She will be able to know only weeks later, from a biopsy, or years later, when no cancer develops. Without meaningful feedback, a doctor’s ability actually deteriorates over time. Ericsson suggests a new mode of training. “Imagine a situation where a doctor could diagnose mammograms from old cases and immediately get feedback of the correct diagnosis for each case,” he says. “Working in such a learning environment, a doctor might see more different cancers in one day than in a couple of years of normal practice.”
About a year ago we launched Backpack. Backpack was our third product (Basecamp was first and Ta-da List was second).
So far over 150,000 people have signed up for a Backpack account. Over 2,500,000 to-do items have been added to 500,000 Backpack pages. People have also created over 500,000 notes and set nearly 400,000 reminders. It’s a real thrill to hear from people who have made Backpack a part of their lives. Thanks for your continued support.
Backpack started over a conversation at lunch in Seattle at the end of 2004. After Getting Real with a variety of internal revisions, we launched Backpack about 5 months later. Like everything we build, we built Backpack because we needed Backpack. We use Backpack every day.
Backpack was also our first product with an API. We’ve since launched an API for Basecamp as well. We have one planned for Campfire later this year too. At this time Backpack is also our only product with a mobile version.
We love Backpack and others do too. We’re excited about some enhancements coming this year — including a calendar. We’ll also be tightening up the UI in a few places and making some other changes to keep the improvements coming.
So, here’s to Backpack! Happy birthday friend.
Some of the activity this week at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:
Ryan really wanted this Samsung t809 slider phone but tried it in the store and said, “the UI is attrocious…i couldn’t do it…sucks. i think that sliders are such a good idea.”
Jamis tip: “Set your laptop to speak the time on the hour. You’ll never lose track of the time. Keeps me a lot more focused, too.”
Ryan posted a link to The Bad In Email (or Why We Need Collaboration Software). Jason’s response: “Email will always ‘win’ because it’s so simple…Everyone can use it. It’s ceased to be ‘software.’
Jamis’ touch of sickness earned him photo treatment from Ryan in the form of a cup of tea and a bowl of chicken soup. Backpack’s 1st birthday resulted in this cake:
Marcel: I defy any flu type thinger to take on the combined power that is apple sauce, saltines and ginger ale
Jamis: miracle cure?
Marcel: indeed
Marcel: mir.aculo.us
Continued…
Suits at Anheuser-Busch wanted to capture some of the Heineken market. So they came up with new Anheuser World Lager…
There are some problems though:
1) It tastes like swill.
2) The marketing copy in the ads (and site, warning: gratuitous Flash) seems like it came from an SNL parody commercial: “Old world. New world. The best of both worlds.”…”People often say the best place to drink a European beer is in Europe, and that has to do with freshness.”…etc.
3) Most of all, the concept blows: If you think imported beer from one country tastes good, then imagine how good a beer from 10 countries must taste! Actually, that’s just my explanation. Here’s how they put it…
Anheuser World Lager combines the time-honored brewing traditions of brewmasters representing 10 countries with the most refined brewing practices of today.
Ah yes, the time-honored tradition of throwing together people from lots of different countries in order to come up with a single solution. It’s a concept that goes all the way back to, well, the Tower of Babel. And that certainly turned out well.
Continued…
On our way to New York for the GEL Conference we ran into the Minority Report Screen at O’Hare.
It sure is a great demo. But it’s a bad product.
I know it’s only there for a demo, but it’s so clear that it’s just about the visuals and experience and not about the actual data. It’s a shame when something so tied to content isn’t about the content.
Here’s what happens. You walk up to it, you move your hands, touch the screen, things move around, data is exposed, etc. It’s cool. For 10 seconds. And then you realize that because the screen is so damn big, and because your arms are so much shorter relative to the screen size, that you are way too close to actually read anything you just selected. It’s like trying to watch a 50” TV from 1 foot away. It doesn’t work.
I wonder how much money was spent on developing this. And then I wonder how much time was spent actually thinking about how people would read the content that is exposed by the fancy animations, gestures, and wow-factor size and graphics.
The reason this “worked” in Minority Report was because Tom Cruise and company didn’t actually have to touch the screen. They were able to gesture from a comfortable distance away from the screen. The information was then presented at eye level in a reasonable resolution.
Lesson: Think about how people are going to actually use things. Don’t get caught up in the wow. Don’t confuse enthusiasm with priority.
We recently had an experience that was so surprising, I just had to share it with those of you who are building web apps - I believe you’ll find it very valuable.
The Expensive Plan
If you’re one of the many companies or individuals who are currently working on a web app, I’d strongly encourage you to consider including an expensive premium plan. Something that is head-and-shoulders above the other plans you offer. Typical extras that could be included in a premium plan are:
- Increased security (SSL)
- Brandable interface
- Higher capacity or usage
- Extra support
- etc.
Read on and I’ll explain why.
Continued…
We just can’t keep it quiet in the Rails camp. The Agile Web Development with Rails is taking on a second edition after selling more than 40,000 copies of the first. And after filling up the invasion of Chicago in June for the first RailsConf, we’ve just announced that London is next. On September 14-15, RailsConf Europe will be besieging central London. If you’re into Rails (or interested in becoming it), that’s the place to be. The Chicago edition sold out in just about a week.
Now excuse me while I drag this oversized horn back to its chamber.
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