#UserConf: Bridging the Gap

The talk that I gave at UserConf about bridging the gap between product, engineering and support.

Transcript

2. Hello! I’m Mercer.
5. Bridging the Gap Getting Product and Development riding the train to Support Town.
6. Everybody’s Heard It.
7. “Not right now.”
8. ?
12. Why go to this length?
13. Because we care.
14. Why is it so hard to communicate with other teams?
15. There are big, shiny new things to work on.
16. We have tiny teams.
17. We have no process. X
18. Enter AHS.
19. All Hands Support (v,n): Also known as AHS. A day of an individual Wistian’s time that is spent entirely in the inbox.
21. This worked a little bit…
22. But not enough.
23. They didn’t have enough time.
24. They had too much time.
25. There was minimal visibility into what the real issues were.
26. It’s not what engineers can do for you, but what you both can do for your customers.
28. Enter DOP.
29. Dev On Point (n): Also known as DOP. A focused week of an engineer’s time where they are devoted to high-pain and high-difficulty issues in the inbox.
31. Triangle of Customer Triumph
32. One Week One Day Product, Engineers Marketing, Design, Executives AHS vs. DOP
33. How does it work?
34. Champ Issue Other Champs DOP
35. DOP has changed our infrastructure a ton.
36. If we can’t fix a bug or prioritize it, we should all know why.
37. Push the most important fixes
38. Communicate better across teams
39. If customer focus isn’t a metric on your company’s rubric…
43. Customers should be everybody’s reason for getting out of bed.
44. @mercenator/@wistia