Rubberband Wound

I can’t believe that I’m just one day in, that there are really three more days of SXSW ahead of me. This experience has already been amazing; it’s opened my eyes to new ideas, made me evaluate things in a different way, and really motivated me to step it up and start doing more - more with myself, more with my career, more with the things I want to experience and accomplish. I see what can be, and I am going to work hard to acheive it.

I’m planning to put up my notes from each panel, but for now I’m going to just put up some quick summaries.

1000 - Why XSLT Is Sexy

No great quotes from here, but some wonderful ideas that I can see affecting things at work. We’ve used a little XSLT, but I’ve never been involved in much of it - really interesting to see it’s potential uses and power. Functional over Procedural application of templates - I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re using procedural, and that’s probably why there’s such a stigma around the few XSLT pieces we do use.

1130 - Getting To Consistency

• Make things as consistent as possible for the target user - make the parts consistent that make sense, everything doesn’t have to be exactly the same.
• Figure out how to evolve software, move on from legacy elements - can be hard to do, but you can’t keep things from version 1 to version 20 just to keep old users happy if those elements don’t make sense any more.
• Take a look at what your user is doing, see when they evolve, use those as opportunities to make breaks from your current features
• What is the workflow of your user, what are they trying to acheive? Workflows could be drastically different - the tools they’re using, the process they follow, are important to consider and follow.

1400 - Web App Autopsy

• Of the 4 products, 50-90% code rewritten from the original release (some within 9 - 12 months)
• "Our goal is to - within a certain amount of time - reduce the support requests for a given feature to 0. if they couldn’t reduce it to 0 within a set time period (6 months), they pulled the feature out and re-examined it."
• Try to have as many people as possible doing support actively - all developer & designers, business development, CEO - keeps people involved and aware - "feel the pain"
• Increase signups by asking for as little information as necessary, as late as possible. Don’t ask for it until you need it.

1530 - Stop Designing Products

• This was one of the best I saw, hands down.
• What’s the highest compliment I could receive about my product?
  • probably not "highly proftable"
  • maybe not "never breaks"
  • "Cool" is the greatest compliment you can get.
• The most successful products and services are those that know who they are.
• The experience is the part that customers know, and it’s what matters to them.
• Three steps to product development - New Technology (look what we can do), Adding Features (here’s how we stand out), Find The Underlying Problem (what are you really trying to do, how can we make it easy?)
  • Few make it to the third step.
• As a discussion of product design grows longer, the probability of using an iPod comparison approaches one. - Petereme’s Law

1600 - Ruining The User Experience

• Levels of Service
  1. No Frills (basics)
  2. Dress it Up (style, css)
  3. Make it Sing (interactivity w/ js, etc)
• Ensure the content gets delivered no matter what; then improve the display; then add interactivity and advanced functionality
• Customer service is about understanding your users
• Think about the lowest common denominator

1700 - From Tags To Riches

• "There’s a lack of respect/understanding of what a web developer does, and the complexities and demands of the job" - Molly Holzschlag
• Learn how to say no to projects you shouldn’t take
• Learning curves beyond code
  • how to manage people
  • trusting people to handle responsibilities
  • best way to manage someone is to give them responsibility and run with it - don’t micromanage
  • dealing with different personalities, different environments (marketing, etc)
  • expected to run meetings, be prepared
  • time management
  • putting out fires

That’s it so far - panels are getting going for day two and I’m taking even more notes. I’ll put some more up soon.