Monday, January 03, 2011

Danger Zone - No Feedback Mechanism

Those of us who have worked side-by-side with the near-geniuses who write computer programs know the problem -- software designers often have a blind spot about their works of art. They exhibit an enviable pride of ownership, but sometimes perceive negative criticism as a slight on their right to creative expression.

One company I read about recently was having a hard time getting its software designers to listen to the customer service reps about end user complaints. No matter what the feedback, the designers retorted with the classic comeback -- "the end users are just stupid and don't know how to use the program correctly."

So the company instituted a new policy in which the people who created software were required to visit client sites for a certain number of hours each week and watch how their programs were being used. The first thing that they learned was that, while the software designers wrote and tested their code on state of the art computer systems, most end users were utilizing the software on older models. No wonder systems ran slow.

The more they observed, the more they learned. The software developers returned to their own workstations with at least 2-3 ideas of how they could tweak their programs to make it easier for end users to get the maximum benefit of their ingenious designs. The result was not only improved customer satisfaction; the software designers actually got more acknowledgement of a job well done (which is all they ever really wanted).

Technology without feedback is a danger zone. Many of us would love to do our work in an ivory tower where we are unemcumbered by the opinions and frailties of others. Unfortunately life doesn't work that way.

How can you open up your life and work to more involvement and interaction with others - especially others who are different from you?

How can you set up a system that invites feedback (and even criticism) so that you can hone your skills and become of even more value to the world?

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