Taking the Pain Out of Support Engineering

Production support is not a priority. No one on the team wants to work on support cards. Being on-call is a pain. Does this ring a bell? We've all been there! There is a better way to handle Support Engineering for your product. A way that will level up your team, and create positive support experiences for your customers. Drawing on 3+ years of Support Engineering at two different companies, I will share successful Support patterns and tools you can start using today to improve your product support.

Transcript

1. TAKING THE PAIN OUT OF SUPPORT ENGINEERING @cecycorrea // software engineer // context.io
2. Hi, I’m Cecy Correa @cecycorrea Software Engineer, Context.IO
3. A STORY
4. IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO SOMETHING, DON’T SAY “I DON’T KNOW”
5. “I DON’T KNOW, BUT I’LL FIND OUT FOR YOU”
6. WHAT IS SUPPORT ENGINEERING?
7. SUPPORT ENGINEER developer providing technical support to other developers / end-users / internally
8. BACKGROUND Have worked support for Electronic Arts Return Path / Context.IO
9. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES
10. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES • Learn to think critically
11. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES • Learn to think critically • Prioritize a relationship with support
12. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES • Learn to think critically • Prioritize a relationship with support • Continuity
13. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES • Learn to think critically • Prioritize a relationship with support • Continuity • Ownership
14. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES • Learn to think critically • Prioritize a relationship with support • Continuity • Ownership • Boundaries
15. SUPPORT ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES • Learn to think critically • Prioritize a relationship with support • Continuity • Ownership • Boundaries • Tools
16. PART 1: THINK CRITICALLY
17. CASE STUDY: THE SIMS 3 LAUNCH
18. WHAT THE STUDIO DID RIGHT • Gave support early access • Time to test • Generated TONS of support FAQs
20. IF YOU REMOTELY THINK THIS COULD BE AN FAQ, IT SHOULD BE AN FAQ
21. SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH!
22. PART 2: PRIORITIZE A RELATIONSHIP WITH SUPPORT
23. CASE STUDY: MASS EFFECT 2 LAUNCH
24. WHAT THE STUDIO GOT WRONG • Team did not get early access to game • Team didn’t get a chance to think critically, preemptively generate content
25. WHAT THE STUDIO GOT RIGHT • After sharing data / volume of support calls, studio vowed to increase lines of communication with support
26. GIVE YOUR TEAM ROOM TO THINK CRITICALLY
27. PRIORITIZING A RELATIONSHIP WITH SUPPORT WILL GIVE YOU THE BENEFIT OF THEIR PERSPECTIVE
28. ...AND THEY NEVER HAD RELEASE ISSUES AGAIN
29. PART 3: CONTINUITY
30. 2 PARADIGMS OF SUPPORT
31. [assuming you have a support ticketing queue]
32. DEDICATED vs. ROTATING
33. DEDICATED SUPPORT One person / group whose sole job is to answer and solve support tickets
34. ROTATING SUPPORT One person rotates weekly or bi-weekly as support “czar” or “firefighter”
35. DEDICATED SUPPORT
36. WHY DEDICATED SUPPORT WORKS • Business continuity
37. WHY DEDICATED SUPPORT WORKS • Business continuity • Efficiencies found
38. WHY DEDICATED SUPPORT WORKS • Business continuity • Efficiencies found • Relationship building
39. WHEN DEDICATED SUPPORT STOPS WORKING • Can lead to burn out if you don’t have an exit strategy
40. HAVE A SUPPORT EXIT STRATEGY FOR YOUR TEAM TO AVOID BURNOUT
41. ROTATING SUPPORT i.e. WHY ROTATING SUPPORT DOESN’T WORK
42. WHY SUPPORT ROTATION DOESN’T WORK • Little to no follow-through
43. WHY SUPPORT ROTATION DOESN’T WORK • Little to no follow-through • No hand-offs, ownership confusion
44. WHY SUPPORT ROTATION DOESN’T WORK • Little to no follow-through • No hand-offs, ownership confusion • Efficiencies lost due to time to ramp up
45. HOW SUPPORT ROTATION CAN WORK • Create cards for support issues, add them to active sprint
46. HOW SUPPORT ROTATION CAN WORK • Create cards for support issues, add them to active sprint • If it happened on your rotation, you still own it
47. PART 4: OWNERSHIP & ESCALATIONS
48. REMOVED vs. OWNED
49. REMOVED ESCALATIONS Another team must fix, they don’t owe a reply to the end-user
50. REMOVED ESCALATIONS CHALLENGES • No sense of priority when throwing over the fence
51. REMOVED ESCALATIONS CHALLENGES • No sense of priority when throwing over the fence • Not directly accountable to an end-user / client
52. REMOVED ESCALATIONS CHALLENGES • No sense of priority when throwing over the fence • Not directly accountable to an end-user / client • Not being graded on an SLA
53. DON’T CARE AS MUCH IF YOU DON’T SEE THE IMPACT
54. OWNED ESCALATIONS Another team must fix, but they own the reply / resolution
55. WHY OWNED ESCALATIONS WORK • Business continuity, tracking
56. WHY OWNED ESCALATIONS WORK • Business continuity, tracking • Keep client front and center
57. WHY OWNED ESCALATIONS WORK • Business continuity, tracking • Keep client front and center • Increases accountability
58. PART 5: BOUNDARIES
59. BOUNDARIES WITH CLIENTS
60. BOUNDARIES WITH CLIENTS • Establish support hours and stick to them
61. BOUNDARIES WITH CLIENTS • Establish support hours and stick to them • Allow buffer time between responses
63. BOUNDARIES WITH CLIENTS • Establish support hours and stick to them • Allow buffer time between responses • Reinforce good behavior
66. YOUR TEAM’S SANITY AND HAPPINESS COMES FIRST
67. PART 6: TOOLS FOR THE JOB
68. DOCUMENTATION
69. DOCUMENT TROUBLESHOOTING & DOCUMENT THOUGHT PROCESS & DOCUMENT COMMON TASKS
70. SUPPORT PLAYBOOK A living, ever evolving document with common support tasks, FAQs, troubleshooting
71. THE SUPPORT PLAYBOOK • Helps reduce training time • Helps find efficiencies for automation
72. EMPOWER YOUR TEAM WITH DATA
73. DASHBOARDS, DASHBOARDS, DASHBOARDS DATA DOG GRAFANA
74. LOGS, LOGS, LOGS SCALYR
75. AUTOMATED API TESTS RUNSCOPE
76. tl;dr
77. A SUPPORT ENGINEER • Good at troubleshooting
78. A SUPPORT ENGINEER • Good at troubleshooting • Good at communicating
79. A SUPPORT ENGINEER • Good at troubleshooting • Good at communicating • Good at seeing patterns
80. A GOOD SUPPORT ENGINEER IS A GOOD ENGINEER
81. PRIORITIZING A CULTURE OF SUPPORT ENGINEERING means PRIORITIZING A GOOD ENGINEERING CULTURE.