Phrases that harm productivity

The other day, I had the opportunity to attend my first Design session. These are sessions setup to discuss the design of a particular aspect of a system. It could be a house design, or a new pool, or even a software program. The basic idea is for both the designer/developer and the client to have a clear understanding of what work is to be accomplished. How it should look, feel and work.

I had a great time!, though I was mainly just an observer, I noted the use of several phrases that although they seem simple enough and make a lot of sense. In reality, they actually hamper efforts to "move forward" with a particular aspect of design. Two such phrases that seemed important were;

1) "Let's not do it, until we get it right!"

2) "We have to be consistent in our Design"

Let's examine these a little more closely;

Let's not do it, until we get it Right!

The simple notion here is that there is nothing worse, then designing and coding something only to have to go back and change it all later...and indeed I can show you many statistics that show that software bugs or decisions made early on the in the process have a large increase in cost at the end of the project. The later in a project that a change is introduced the more costly it will be.

However, this is a flaw in this type of thinking because there is no such thing as a "perfect" design. At absolute best the design is only "perfect'' design for a few seconds after the decision is made. Hindsight is always 20/20 and looking back you will always find new and better ways to improve on your design.

In fact, it is a basic continuous improvement process. The trick is not to improve but to carefully time those improvements. If you are on a development project this can be difficult, but decisions will need to be made. Do you go back and rework everything potentially delaying your project end date, or do you push those changes off, and implement them in a later..seperate project?

Sometimes it is better to release early and release often, then to never release at all!

We have to be consistent in our Design

If your working on a very large project with hundreds (or thousands) of moving parts, someone has to be responsible for making sure all those parts fit together, and undoubtedly to do this they will want to make sure the design off one part is consistent with the design off the other parts. Of course, how else will part B fit into part A if they are not both designed to fit together?

The flaw here is that there are many design decisions around part A (usually presentation related) that have nothing to do with Part B (and vice-versa). And while there is no technical reason for these parts of the design to be consistent, there will be those who insist they "must" be. More then often this consistency comes at a price of hundreds of hours of more development work, and scope creep.

So keep this in mind the next time you are in a design change, and you here these phrases!

The Beginners Guide to Tradeshows

My first "real" job was a system administrator at a local small business. I was fresh out of University and I never heard of trade shows like CES or SXSW. My degree was in CS, not in marketing.

But like most small companies, we all have to pitch in, which meant that I had lots of opportunity to learn about lots of different areas of the business including the of those trade show displays.

The two most prominent ways our companies technology was presented to the world was at trade shows and webinars.  Some days it seemed like 90% of our companies budget was spent on traveling to various trade shows around the world.

Of course hind-sight is always 20/20 and looking back.  For example different trade shows attract different kinds of people.  Therefore that one vinyl banner that you make won't work in all trade shows. You have to think about your audience and plan accordingly.

The first area of your plan should be your trade show schedule/budget. Exactly how much will you be spending this fiscal year? Be Frugal.  Attending a different trade show every month is no guarantee  of new customers, but it is a great way to spend a lot of money.. FAST!

At my first job, our product was applicable in a wide variety of industries, but in the beginning the industries did not know anything about our product..in fact, most of them did not even know they had a problem that our product could fix!

So another important tip before embarking into the world of trade shows it to establish what exactly is your goal? Are you trying to sell your product at the trade show? or are you just trying to teach others about your product and bring awareness to the industry?

Okay so you've established your trade show budget, considered your audience and set your trade show goals. Now don't forget to advertise! In my company we did this simply by having a simple calendar on your website (perhaps using google calendar). It listed all of the trade shows that we would be attending in the near future.

Finally, whether or not you "makes sales" at a trade show, remember to build and network.  Hold a contest to attract people to fill out forms for prizes, include in the form their name, business, industry. This can be a great way to gain new sales prospects, even if you don't yet have the actual sales!

Good Luck!