xperienceYou’ve all heard the derisive phrases “form over function”, “lipstick on a pig” and the like. The gist of these epithets is to indicate that more care and attention is put into how something looks than into how that something works. Its a fair criticism when the function is lacking, but I’d argue that when the function is solid, the form is an equally important consideration. Function without form is no function at all. I believe that this is an important concept that is ignored. I believe that this needs to be a fundamental tenet of the IT industry. I believe that form is the diferentiator and I’ll tell you why.
The Final Third
Posted by
on August 31, 2010
A few weeks ago an old friend and I did the Grouse Grind. It is a grueling trail often referred to as Mother Nature’s stair master. We are not exactly models of fitness but we thought “How bad can it be”, then “Can we really do this”, to “What do you mean “halfway to one third”?”, but we rallied “I’m not going back down, I don’t care if we sleep here”. And so the story went in a comedic struggle for how far we could or would push ourselves. In the end, I promised myself a beer at the top and she celebrated the journey the entire trek up.
It became obvious early in our hike that she was going to be the champion for this endeavour. Yet even in her role as the spirit guide for this exercise in human torture there came a moment when she held a quiet doubt. She whispered it with a smile as she turned a particularly steep corner on the final third of the climb. ”Where’s the chicken door?” she said “There’s always a chicken door.”
In every haunted house there’s a door that takes you out of the dark into the daylight where you can see all the corners and what is around them. There comes a time in most every project when its sponsor says longingly “Where’s the chicken door?”.
By this point you have enough experience to appreciate the magnitude of the task, enough invested to make the journey personal and enough strength to laugh.
Electile Disfunction
Posted by
on August 26, 2010
Here at e-bydesign we take community involvement seriously. And as one of our communities, Edmonton, is currently going through the paces of its current municipal election, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the issues that are resonating with me at this early stage. My goal is awareness and my own feeble ploy to save some of you from municipal electile disfunction: that state where you can’t be bothered to get up and vote, or worse, voting without knowing who or what you’re supporting.
More…
Hanging on to Old Truths
Posted by
on August 24, 2010
Jon just sent me an article, “Why Gandhi Hated Iodine”, and suggested that it felt a great deal like some of the things we face in our work. The old truths that hold long after the context they were created in has fallen away. These are often the most steadfast characteristic of an organization. In our work, uncovering the old truths and building new ones is part of each project we take on and the most difficult part.
Like modern day India, when we arrive we have new tools, techniques and stories from around the economic community that suggests some things work better than others. What we don’t have is the old truths, hard won stays of execution on past challenges. And so we see the new list of Job Titles including Culture Officers and Corporate Evangelist whose responsibility it is to protect the hard won truths in the new contexts of technology, policy and social norms.
But for us, we bring new truths and bristle against the old ones, half in misunderstanding and half in disbelief. Without the context of the culture and a true appreciation of how deep those old truths run we wrestle. Thrashing our way to organizational change, slowly, often painfully, until we align the old truths with the new truths.
And as hard as it is, we know, one day, ours will be the old truths that hold steadfast for new ideas to come crashing against making them stronger and better.
The 4 ‘A’s of team behaviour
Posted by
on August 19, 2010
I’ve worked with a number of teams over the years. Built-from-scratch teams, in-place teams I’ve inherited and teams that have grown organically with me over a long period. In all cases, people have interesting dynamics when they operate in a team, but despite their ability to amaze me with their individualism, teams always seem to go through 4 stages as they react to a new leader.
We’re LIVE! TritonCanada.ca
Posted by
on June 23, 2010
Our custom document management and workflow solution is live and we’re so proud! Here’s the feedback so far:
From our client:
“The background checks went great! System works as designed and customers are really happy that they can now get rid of the faxes and emails – I believe you and Jon designed something that will give us competitive advantage in the marketplace….”
From our client’s client:
“I have to say that your site is by far the most comprehensive for all of our customers, and from a techie standpoint it is very impressive.”
eXperience
Posted by
on June 21, 2010
Collaborative Development
/k??læb ??re? t?v, -?r ? t?v/
–adjective
where two or more people or organizations work together to an intersection of common goals
/d??v?l ?p m?nt/
–noun
the act or process of growth or progress
For an organization to invest in enterprise software, there is an oft quoted idiom: you buy or build. You buy a software package, customize your business to the software or spend as much again customizing the software to your business. Alternatively, you build your own software, from scratch, which requires knowledge and resources often far outside your core business and operational budget.
What if there was a third way?
Collaborative software development brings together a number of like-minded, non-competitive organizations with a similar software need to work together. As a group of peers, these organizations get immediate return on investment as they split the cost of the development. But in addition, they get brainstorming opportunities and sharing of best practices, increased business knowledge, and sharing of industry-common data not readily available.
Collaborative Software Development groups also benefit from shared risk, shared quality measures and a more objective focus on what the software can or should do. Through partnering with other organizations to build software for your industry you increase your own competitive advantage by becoming the designer of industry standards. Your software is built and implemented for you first then offered to your market while you continue to be the front of the line in technology, upgrades and feature decisions.
What can we build for you today?
The Power to Soar Higher
Posted by
on June 16, 2010
While I was at the library on Sunday I met the most interesting and entertaining gentleman who was kind enough to share a book with me. The book was called “The Power to Soar Higher” and the gentleman was Peter Legge.
I read the book and found it full of inspiring stories and comforting quotes. My favorite and the one most fitting my own experience was right there in the introduction.
“You need to find a person with the following three qualities:
- Integrity
- Intelligence
- Energy
The most important of these is integrity, because if they don’t have integrity, the other two qualities – intelligence and energy – are going to kill you”
It was the first of many, many giggles I had throughout my afternoon with this gem. By the end I had spent hours thinking about the best and the worst of my entrepreneurial experiences with a huge smile and light heart. I had become blessedly detached from the big things that go right and wrong in my business, the things that feel like they will swallow me whole some days. With each chapter and each story I settled comfortably and cozily back into the small things that are fun and fulfilling to do. The things that created all of the opportunities in the first place and the ones that really matter.
If you are looking for your “little engine that could” spirit, here it is. It is an uplifting book that reminded me of what I can laugh at and what I can let go of along with an infusion of encouragement on every page.
Book it to your library
Posted by
on May 27, 2010
Originally from a small town in Newfoundland, I found a window to the world through Sidney Sheldon’s intriguing and spell binding stories about faraway exotic cities. Through these books and the wonderful librarians at the Deer Lake Public Library I learned what it would be like to be a doctor, a lawyer and a spy. Versailles and the Sydney Opera House were painted with written words and became my travel guide for future adventures. It is my honor to play a small part in the priceless journey’s embarked on from our library.
Join me for our annual Martini Challenge and Silent Auction, this year’s funds are going to our mobile library! Come on Coquitlam MOVE THAT BUS!!!
Partnerships and Sharing
Posted by
on May 4, 2010
When you decide to take on a partner, you decide to share. Sharing means being as happy to see someone else with what you have as you are to have it yourself. There are a lot of things we cannot share and its important to know what those things are.
For example, its very difficult to share the usability of something. Usability requires scheduling and responsibility. Imagine sharing a car, to truly share a car with someone you have to share the cost of the car and take turns using the car or go everywhere together. Because we are all individuals with individual work and life passions its very hard to create a completely parallel usability model for a car, even if you’re married. So sharing usability doesn’t work.
What does work is ideas, passions, values and beliefs because these are flexible and liquid. I can have an idea anywhere and in any form. I can share that idea and I lose nothing when someone else appreciates and adopts that idea as their own. Now we are like-minded and that gives us something bigger than the idea, it gives us a community. Passions, values and beliefs work in the same way.
Jon and I have received much advice on being partners, all of it rather contrary to our actual partnership experience. I believe this is because we did not build our partnership based on a usability model. We didn’t decide to share company dollars, lawyers and a client base, we decided to share a belief around how clients and team members should be included in our community. We partner to bring a creative and game-like strategy to our operations and that free, creative value structure allows us to build a community. This community in turn allows us to share clients and lawyers.
Just like sharing a drive, a restaurant and a payment method on date night is not about going to the same place at the same time it is about having an affection for the other person that you are happy to share.
