Category: Business Main Categories

Sunday 4/25/2004
Business, Design

We’ve recently heard tell of ways that users “get around” what they find inconvenient about our therapy management application. I find this sort of revelation surpassingly interesting because it reveals not only deficiencies in the application, but new ways that people want to use it.

It is almost as if they are writing the requirements for us. They’ve identified a need, identified a workaround, and put that into practice, thereby defining the minimum required level of functionality.

Excellent stuff. While I shouldn’t go into detail about our particular situation here, I plan to write a bit about this in the coming days.

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Saturday 4/24/2004
Business, Implementation

Work (in the immortal words of Scott ) continues apace, with me flying to Indianapolis on Monday to meet one of our biggest customers to pick her brain for enhancements to one of our online therapy management tools, all in the shadow of yet another looming round of layoffs. No discernible buzz this time about our group getting hacked at (and we’re as small as we can be), so it’s all of us or none of us, I wager. Actually, work is tougher but funner than it has been in the past, mostly because I (and Nils, my UE colleague) have abandoned fear! in favor of some organizing principles for our work.

1. Do not act solely of fear
2. Be skeptical of orders that are borne of fear
3. Do not build anything that won’t get used
4. Do not build anything that won’t carry the story forward in some meaningful way
5. Apply good design AND good programming practices to everything that we do build (now including automated regression testing, syntax checking, minimal markup, hardcore modularization, and the like).

It is amazing what an effect 1 and 2 have had. That’s right, folks, abandon fear!, just step over to the tent and have some Kool-Aid… While it is impossible to abandon fear entirely, reminding ourselves to put it in its place has been quite useful. Certain competitive threats are shown to be meaningless inconveniences, while others loom only appropriately large. Bad ideas borne of fear are shown to be bad ideas, and abandoned. A greater honesty, resolve, and professionalism are apparent in every communication.

Of course, without 3 and 4, the first two might still have you building useless things, an egregious waste of your effort and the user’s time. Since it is far chaper to do the hard work ourselves than to multiply small bits of hard work over the entire user base, we must be willing to adhere to 3 and 4.

5 speaks for itself. A thing to be made should be made well, and one should not shy from using whatever tools or techniques are necessary to help one build a solid product, even (especially) if that includes asking others for help. Naturally, failing to ask others for help is usually borne of fear!, bringing us back to point 1.

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Saturday 4/17/2004
Business

Mark Waites, in this month’s Communication Arts article on his London advermarkedesignery agency Mother :

Most agencies put the client in the middle and organize the work and the people around the client. We put the problem in the middle and invite the client to be part of the circle around it.

He has the right idea. And with scads of fine work for blue-chip clients such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, Siemens, Weiden + Kennedy, and others, Mother is proving him right.

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Tuesday 4/6/2004
Business

I’ve been called upon to make various proposals to the head of our group regarding new features and revisions to the online therapy management tool (and associated online marketing materials) that we work on, as well as to complete a “project charter” (new to me) for a major strategic re-alignment of other web properies held by the division. Big stuff, big money; I had better write well.

This represents an opportunity, naturally, to capture in vivo some of my thinking about building such documents. Most important to me lately: what to include in a proposal that will be read by senior management.

Again, expect revisions. This list is likely incomplete, and I hope to make it more solid as I build these proposals and charters.

The problem

Briefly state the problem to be solved, the most pertinent items that support your assertion that the problem even exists, and mention why the problem is worth solving. What warrants addressing the situation? Ideally your take on the problem and the value of solving it will include one or more specific metrics that reveal the current failure and suggest how success might be measurably defined.

The solution: strategy

Quickly mention the goals of the proposed solution. For example, “Increase visitor conversion by reintroducing key marketing messages regarding data security and privacy to the public-facing website.” This is the time to say what you will do, but NOT how you plan to do it. Ideally you can work into this a bit about how the success or failure of the project will be measured.

The solution: tactics

State in general terms the objectives of a project designed to meet the strategic goals. Don’t get too specific. It is probably not essential that you cover all of the possible objectives; hit the high big ones.

Ancillary stuff

No doubt you’ve ammassed a fair amount of anecdotal and numeric evidence that supports your claims that there’s a problem worth addressing and that it can be done in a cost-effective manner. Put that very nice supporting material right here in the back, where it won’t get in the way of the harried and/or impatient manager who is reading your proposal.

There are some other points I’ve had to remind myself of repeatedly:

• Write directly, in plain English, using an active voice.
• Imply nothing. If you want the reader to know that you expect your plan to vastly improve user feelings of security, say just that. And then mention why improving user feelings of security is a good idea; what will the measurable result be?
• Avoid cliches, especially business cliches. Strive to remove every cliche from your document. If you find yourself including cliches but don’t want to interrupt yourself or can’t readily think of alternatives, italicize the cliches and keep on writing. Later you can return to the italicized passages and recast sentences to speak more directly.

There will be more of this, provided I have the presence of mind to take notes while I work. Watch this space.

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