tyler

AppleMacOSX: Still need one more referral Macheist Purchase!

Fri Jan 18th 13:44:59 2008 *

If you haven't bought the Macheist Software Bundle yet, and are interested in doing so, please consider using my referral link to do so.

Thanks!

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Agile Process: The Customer's Dilemma

Tue Jan 15th 14:44:18 2008 *

For many years I've been placing the blame for bad use cases /stories and feature explanations square on my own shoulders. I haven't educated my customer well enough. I haven't provided enough feedback to educate the user on what is possible. I haven't given the customer quick enough feedback in the form of tangible interfaces for review to pull additional ideas from them.

A conversation I had with Loren today triggered some thoughts that I wanted to jot down before I lost them to the ether.

The fact of the matter is, some customers don't know what they want. They have a fluid set of ideas, but cannot dictate them to you in conversations any number of days apart. They'll in fact tell you completely different things and call them the same ideas they had previously.

Any effort to educate the user ends up being a waste of time. They are not interested in your information technology hocus pocus. Asking them if they are looking for a desktop application or a web-based app is futile. They don't know. They'll never know.

The opposite end of the spectrum can be just as annoying. Take the customer that comes to you and says, "I need a FileMaker based application." Or perhaps, "We've spent money on 3 different web guys and we've decided we want an application to talk to our MS SQL Server database."

Toss caution to the wind trying to explain what client access license implications mean to these folks. You have to talk in universal terms. You have to come up to their level of thinking and forget implementation for a minute.

What is this customer really after? They've come up with an idea (or multiple ideas) that they are fairly sure will positive affect their bottom line. It's about the money. A customer service bonus program... is about the money. An invoice suite and inventory control manager... is about the money.

So translate that to the customer every chance you get. By adding this feature you save X. By providing your customers a way to accomplish foo you make Y. Show them how you can affect their bottom line.

Now step sideways with me if you will into my cube at Move Networks for a moment.

I don't work directly with customers, and unfortunately I don't get to set expectations nor try to educate them about the benefits of our solutions. I do however get to look at the features I'm in charge of rolling out and be as pragmatic about those tasks as I can be. I tend to offer myself questions to kick start development. How is what I'm doing contributing to the success of the company. Is this the most important task I can be doing right now. Am I doing what the project manager expects me to be doing. Are they fully aware of the risks I am aware of. Are any of my co-workers dependent on tasks that I have taken charge of. A quick self-assessment of my projects helps to straighten out my priority list. I plan on publishing this list internally and making sure the project managers know where to find it.

The key in staying agile and sticking to agile methodologies is staying flexible. Requirements and priorities change. Since I accepted this fact I'm much more at peace with the fact that I can only accomplish the most important things (especially at a startup), but can sleep at night knowing it was the best use of my time.

Recognizing break downs in communication and building bridges to overcome them will reap many benefits. If you can't find a happy medium then head straight in for the kill and show them how you affect the bottom line. Return on investment speaks volumes.

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Macheist II Bundle

Sat Jan 12th 20:31:20 2008 *

If you aren't familiar with Macheist it may just be THE method for buying mac shareware. Macheist II is going on right now. I picked it up as I think Snapz Pro and Pixelmator are worth the $49.00.


If you're considering buying the bundle, please consider using this link as it unlocks another app for me! Macheist 2 Bundle!

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bux.to Redux

Fri Jan 11th 23:52:36 2008 *

Already put in for a payment. We'll see if it ever shows up.

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Bux.to

Sun Jan 6th 09:08:15 2008 *

Bux.to is a "get paid" to surf website. Now in the past I've talked about these would be scams. Basically you get $0.01 for every ad you view... and unfortunately there is a limit each day... however. You also get $0.01 for every referral. Pretty cool eh?

Give it a try and Tell them I sent you!

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Vote Move Networks for TechCrunch's Best Technology Innovation / Achievment

Tue Jan 1st 10:37:59 2008 *

Head on over to TechCrunch and help us win a Crunchie!

Get all your friends to vote too!

If they aren't convinced... then send them to ABC.com, Fox.com, CWTV.com or Discovery.com to see what innovation I'm talking about. Look for Full Episodes links and check us out!

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Bloggers from the Past

Thu Dec 27th 23:50:13 2007 *

My sister Natalie asked me if I have a blog. I said no. She was telling me about hers and all the friends she has linked to. Lots of folks from high school and what not.

I can't relate to the need to keep in contact with folks from then. I think it has to do quite a bit with the fact that I'm not the person I was then. Socially, emotionally, physically, religiously, psychologically, sociologically... well I probably still take myself too seriously... but I'm working on that.

I was also contacted by a friend I met fleetingly 15 years ago. It's funny how folks are driven to look others up. I guess there are parts of my life where I still try to keep in touch with folks. Certain missionaries I served with in Spain. Select folks from high school. You can't help but bump into them living back where you grew up. Business colleagues, and contacts from projects past.

I'm by no means belittling the efforts of others... hey if that's your thing, that's great. That era of my life is just not interesting to me. Could be the damage I did to my head as a cheerleader.

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MediaReview: Super Mario Galaxy

Fri Dec 21st 23:57:28 2007 *

I've spent some pretty disappointing minutes staring at the Wii games selection at all the major stores. Nothing has really even interested me. Based on the reviews I had heard about Super Mario Galaxy, on Diggnation, XPlay, etc. I picked it up.

The first time I sat down and played it I spent, oh, probably 15 minutes playing. Controls were clever... storyline was typical and infantile.

The second time I sat down to play was this morning.

I checked my Wii messages, which provide a report of time spent playing. I'm utterly embarrased to say I spent 4 hours and 53 minutes playing that damn game.

I haven't done anything like that for better than a decade.

Now I find myself hoping for a chance to play some more.

I give this game 4:53 out of a perfect 5. 7 minutes shy of perfect.

If you own a Wii. This game won't disappoint.

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MediaReview: Microsoft's Silverlight Has Some Growing Up To Do

Wed Dec 19th 16:18:49 2007 *

Viewing Jackass 2.5, a terrible disappointment and waste of your time actually gave me a chance to review long-form content on the Silverlight platform.

The interface was nothing fancy... and definitely typical amongst the Flash crowd. Controls were responsive... but bah.

THE VIDEO...

... started fairly quickly, and looked great... and then it started...

... Silverlight can't hold sync with audio and video to save its life. I tried pausing the video several times and it maintained the drift. Terrible. By the end of the movie drift was almost 5 seconds off.

I haven't known this to be a particular issue with Windows Media. I tend to work with a different video streaming solution. :-) It looks better than Flash, but I'm partial to what we do at Move... especially when it comes to long-form content.

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And now to dissappoint my mother...

Tue Dec 18th 12:04:18 2007 *

Tomorrow Jackass 2.5 will be free... I'm not going to watch it... no way.

http://www.jackassworld.com/

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