"But that's not what you asked for!"

Dealing with our users - the people who either pay for or use our software - can be a trying experience. This talk hopes to highlight some ineffective communication strategies we technical people often have and to suggest some ideas for better hearing our users needs, and communicating our own.

Transcript

1. Let's talk about: Talking ...and stuff (so meta)
2. "Man is by nature a political animal." Aristotle
3. Gavin van Lelyveld Gavin van Lelyveld Internet Internet Everything Everything
4. Who are our users?
5. Users are
6. Users are The person paying you
7. Users are Other Technical People
8. Users are People who use your software daily
9. Users are Your colleagues
10. Users are Your boss
11. Users are Your boss(es)
12. How do our users think How do our users think about our projects? about our projects?
13. Not like us Not like us
14. We care about We care about
15. We care about We care about Architecture Architecture
16. We care about We care about Structure Structure
17. We care about We care about Standards Standards
18. We care about We care about Technical stuff Technical stuff
19. Users care about Users care about
20. Users care about Users care about Money Money
21. Users care about Users care about Looks Looks
22. Users care about Users care about Change Change
23. Users care about Users care about “ “Random” Stuff Random” Stuff
24. Understanding Understanding Expectations Expectations
25. Ask Ask Questions Questions
26. Ask Ask Questions Questions (constantly)
27. Questions like
28. Questions like WHY? WHY?
29. Questions like What's What's Important? Important?
30. Questions like What are we What are we Accomplishing? Accomplishing?
31. Questions like Who will Who will it benefit? it benefit?
32. Questions like Does this Does this Take into account Take into account …?
33. Questions like How will this How will this Make Money? Make Money?
34. DIG! DIG! “Dogs dig” (c) 2011 Sandor Weisz and made available under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license
35. Ask without Ask without Judgment Judgment
36. Deliver Value Deliver Value
37. The Practice of Politics
38. Our approach:
39. Our approach: Openness
40. Openness beginner's mind
41. Openness beginner's mind "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki
42. Openness Humility
43. Our approach: Jargon
44. Our approach: Jargon
45. Jargon Intimidating
46. Jargon Irrelevant
47. Jargon Organisational Jargon
48. Jargon Understanding is your job
49. Our approach: Be Present
50. Our approach: Be Mindful
51. Mindfulness Spend Time
52. Mindfulness Observe
53. Mindfulness Ask Questions
54. Mindfulness Be Self-deprecating
55. Story Time!
56. Our approach: Forget the Job
57. Perception is Everything
58. Communication
59. Communication Managing Channels
60. Communication Managing Channels Email
61. Communication Managing Channels Bug Trackers
62. Communication Managing Channels Meetings
63. Communication Managing Channels Meetings :(
64. Communication Managing Channels Text Chat
65. Communication Managing Channels Video
66. Communication Managing Channels Voice
67. Communication Be responsive
68. Communication Be reliable
69. Communication Manage Expectations
70. Communication Favour High Bandwidth
71. (A few) Pathologies
72. Pathologies: Us Working to Spec
73. “No plan Survives contact with the Enemy” Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke Pathologies: Us Working to Spec
74. Pathologies: Us Going into Hiding
75. “But that's not what I asked for!” Your users Pathologies: Us Going into Hiding
76. Get Feedback Early Pathologies: Us Going into Hiding
77. Get Feedback Often Pathologies: Us Going into Hiding
78. Pathologies: Them
79. Pathologies: Them They're just difficult!
80. Pathologies: Them They're just difficult! Out of proportion
81. Pathologies: Them They're just difficult! Have Compassion
82. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects
83. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects This is not Boredom
84. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects Death March
85. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects Bad Politics
86. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects No Scope to Fix it
87. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects Organise your Exit
88. Pathologies: Them Dead-end Projects Maintain your Professionalism
89. … In Summary
90. Listen more than you talk In Summary
91. Have Compassion In Summary
92. Pay Attention In Summary
93. “Beginners Mind” Empathic Design ”Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion” – Marshall B. Rosenberg “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams” - DeMarco, Lister Further Reading
94. Questions?