Author: Scott Berkun

CHI 2007 – We want you

Posted on in design, Managementby Scott Berkun

chi2007.jpgCHI 2007 , in San Jose, CA 4/28-5/3 2007, is the big dog of UI conferences – it’s one of the oldest, largest and most comprehensive ways to learn about what’s happening in the HCI / interface design world.

The big challenge is quality presenters – finding qualified people willing to get up there and teach. It’s all too easy to get rejected at CHI as so many folks want to participate. But this year something is different: I’m one of the gatekeepers.

So if you have good ideas for sessions – we want you.

I’m the co-chair for both the management and education communities – so if you’ve been waiting to contribute in these areas, and waiting for a crazy person to be at the controls, now is your chance to make a run for it.

Here’s the run down:

Courses: these are 90 minute or longer tutorials. If accepted you’ll recieve a $700 stipend per 90 minute segment you teach. We’re in big need of qualified folks interested in teaching.

Panels: Run a debate or reality tv show inspired session involving multiple presenters. I’m hoping someone will improve on the panel format – better speakers, more challenging topics – and remember we did the live competition Interactionary as a panel session.

Workshops: Full day discussions for small groups.

Reports: short, less formal papers on developments you’ve made in design, methods or other topics.

There are other session types, and Deadline for most things is Sept 1st, 2006 but check here for details.

Contact me if you have ideas, especially if you’re interested in submitting something related to UX management or HCI education.

This week in ux-clinic: The requirements to design gap

Posted on in design, UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the ux-clinic discussion group:

I work for a large medical software company that attempts to follow a strict engineering process (partly for ISO certification). All logged bugs are supposed to be tied to a requirement (we use ReqPro), but managers aren’t sure what to do with “visual” bugs because visuals aren’t included in the official requirements docs.

So the big question is: What is the best way to fit the visual/UI deliverables into the engineering process?

Specifically:

  • How best to deliver visuals? PDF? HTML?
  • If designers don’t write the req documents, even if we wanted to, how do we get the designs into the requirements?
  • How should visuals relate to the written requirements?

This week in pm-clinic: the myths of buffer

Posted on in PM-Clinic, Software/Web developmentby Scott Berkun

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum:

I’m a lead programmer on a web 2.0’ish startup. Our team of 7 released an alpha version last week and we’re planning the final release, and need to make partner date commitments for launch.

Our biggest debate is buffer. All of our experienced programmers have pet philsoophies about buffer and I’m looking for someone to dispell the myths and give real advice on: Should buffer be used at all? When? why? Where do you put it in the schedule? Do you tell the team? And what are common stupid things arrogant leads do with buffer that shoot themselves in the foot and how can we avoid?

thanks,

– Wannabe buffermaster (WB)

How do executives learn? Executive software summit – Oct. 16-18

Posted on in On Tourby Scott Berkun

When Steve McConnell asks you to speak somewhere, it’s hard to say no. I’ve been invited to round out the stellar speaking ticket of Joel Spolsky, Watts Humprhey, Steve McConnell and Ed Yordon at Construx software‘s annual executive software summit in Seattle, October 16-18.

Paraphrasing from their website:

The Construx Software-Executive Summit is a forum for top software executives to share, analyze, evaluate, and improve their experiences at the enterprise level. Participants develop new insights into their own organizations and explore challenges and opportunities with a select group of peers. Last year’s event was a huge success: 100% of attendies would return again.

At the 2005 Summit, 98% of participants held titles of VP, CTO, Director, or higher. The main criteria for attendence is multi-project responsibility for software development.

It’s an exclusive event – I don’t qualify myself – and there are only 60 seats for the whole thing. It’s a rare opportunity for executive level managers to experience a peer focused conference. The $3k fee includes a voucher for $1195 in free training from Construx for anyone in your org – so check out the agenda and registration info.

Two kinds of people: complexifiers and simplifiers

Posted on in Management, Philosophyby Scott Berkun

There are several thousand ways to complete the sentence “There are two kinds of people, those that…” And in case the universe wouldn’t be complete without another, here’s one more.

There are two kinds of people: people that make things complex and people that simplify.

Complexifiers are averse to reduction. Their instincts are to turn simple assignments into quagmires, and to reject simple ideas until they’re buried (or asphyxiated) in layers of abstraction. These are the people who write 25 page specifications when a picture will do and send long e-mails to the entire team when one phone call would suffice. When they see x=y, they want to play with it and show their talents, taking pleasure in creating the unnecessary (23x*z = 23y*z). They take pride in consuming more bandwidth, time, and patience than needed, and expect rewards for it.

Simplifiers thrive on concision. They look for the 6x=6y in the world, and happily turn it into x=y. They never let their ego get in the way of the short path. When you give them seemingly complicated tasks they simplify, consolidate and re-interpret on instinct, naturally seeking the simplest way to achieve what needs to be done. They find ways to communicate complex ideas in simple terms without losing the idea’s essence or power.

I don’t know what makes a person fall into either pile (genetics, habit, experience?), but I do know I’d much rather spend my time with the simplifiers than the complexifiers. Don’t you think all the good designers, programmers, writers, philosophers and teachers you’ve known fit into the simplifer group?

If your name is Edward it’s your lucky day

Posted on in The Art of PM bookby Scott Berkun

In the unexplainable department: I have a copy of the artofpm in my office that’s already been personally signed for someone named Edward. I have no idea at this point who Edward was or why I signed a copy for him.

As it’s not much good to the largely non-Edward named population I don’t really know what to do with it. So:

The first person named Edward that leaves a comment gets it sent to them.

Tricks for writing: book darts

Posted on in Writing Wellby Scott Berkun

For years I was a notorious page corner folder. I’d mark corners of passages I needed for research with a fold, making bibliophiles cringe and scream. I thought books should look used: it’s a sign of love that a book traveled, got scuffed up, filled with post-it notes or coffee stains. I love when readers post photos of my books that have lived good lives.

But then, I love books and want them to last. It’s really not nice to mark up books that aren’t yours (but are owned by friends or libraries). If I had a better way I’d have used it, I just didn’t know of one. So when I showed my brother-in-law a particular good book (with my folds on every other page) his eyes lit up. That Christmas I was gifted a set of book darts.

IMG_3198 IMG_3199

Book darts are small arrow shaped strips of metal that you can place on pages to mark a passage. They are easy to use, easy to remove, and do zero damage to books. It’s a great paper clip-esque design: minimal and clever.

IMG_3200

I use these things so much in my research that I own several hundred of them (I’m faster at marking pages than I am at reviewing the marks later).

They’re sold in various quantities at bookdarts.com and some bookstores sell them too. If you are student or writer and spend your days making notes in books, I highly recommend them.

This week in ux-clinic: Getting the new up to speed

Posted on in UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the ux-clinic discussion group:

Right now, our company is growing by leaps and bounds and an initiative has been put forth to reduce the time it takes a new hire to become productive. My question really is what approach have others seen work when it comes to getting new hires (fresh out of college/grad school) up to speed as usability engineers or designers?

How long does it typically take a new hire in your company to be completing projects on their own?  What topics are included in your training program and what format do those training sessions take (e.g., lecture style, one-on-one w/ a mentor, hands-on “lab” type training, etc.)?

This week in pm-clinic: interviewing managers

Posted on in Management, PM-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum:

Times have changed at my company and I’m looking for a management role. I was hired as a software developer, but have picked up some project management work through promotions. Since I have no experience either interviewing potential PMs/managers or being interviewed myself, I don’t know what to expect in seeking out a FT management position.

What are three questions you ask of any project manager you interview? What is the minimum criteria to get a hire? How do you deal with ambiguities of assessing management skill, compared to something more easily demonstrated in the interview, like programming or design knowledge?

How skunkworks got its name

Posted on in Innovationby Scott Berkun

The history of innovation has many legends, some of which hold more truth than others. The legend of Skunkworks, in my research so far, holds up well.

The term is commonly used to mean secret projects done within an organization.

The name was born for a special defense project, the P-80 aircraft, at Lockheed. The plan was for a special team to set up a new office: still part of the company but independent in direction. The bet was that to innovate they needed to be managed in a different way than other projects in the company.

skunkworks

The name skunkworks has everything to do with their first office. it wasn’t glamorous: it was a tent in the parking lot outside the main building. A nearby plastics factory gave off a nasty odor, reminding engineers of the ‘Skunk works’ factory in Al Capps comic strip Li’l Abner. The name was picked up by the staff, and carried on. The Skunkworks would go on to build the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird planes. You can read more about the organization in Skunkworks: a memoir of my years at Lockhead, by Ben R. Rich.

Some famous skunkworks type projects include: The Xerox Alto, The Apple Macintosh and Toshiba Laptop (one of the first production laptops in the world).

Know of other famous examples? Please comment below.

How honest should you be?

Posted on in Managementby Scott Berkun

On NPR Seattle (stream) right now is a show exploring the danger of white lies. Philosopher Immanuel Kant believed lies, of any size, were wrong. But the NY Times ethicist Randy Cohen thinks that lies can be good in some cases, such as when they protect someone’s life.

So when working with other people, what are the ground rules? How do you decide how honest to be with people about:

  • Their performance / quality of their work
  • What you really think of their ideas
  • What your true motivations are
  • How you feel about how things are going
  • The reality of the project schedule

I bet there is a high correlation between how honest the average person on a team is, and how well that team performs.
Anyone agree or disagree? What factors contribute to how honest you are?

Embarassing web tales: part 1

Posted on in Uncategorizedby Scott Berkun

No CS degree can hold up against the dark powers of an aging mind and the ocassional typo.

The contact form on my main site, normally a reliable way to contact me about speaking gigs, interviews or feedback on stuff I’ve written, has quietly been sending all of it’s little missives into never never land. Instead of forwarding to @scott…, it was forwarding to @scptt…, which is about as good as dev / null or the nearest black hole.

Now I’m sure someone out there has the unfortunate circumstance of their parents naming them Scptt, but I dodged that particular bullet.

So if you’ve been wondering why I’m such a jerk for not answering your questions or responding about speaking at your conference, company or backyard BBQ, now you know why. Apologies all around. Please try again and all will be well.

(Hanging head in shame)

The architecture at Google

Posted on in architecture (real), design, Managementby Scott Berkun

There’s a great little article on Metropolis all about the design and architecture of the Google campus.

The authors of Peopleware and Joel Spolsky have long written about the importance of workspaces in productivity and human performance, but there’s no better example of a major company investing in environment. I know many small companies that do it right, but it seems once they hit the 200 or 500 person mark, many of those perks go out the window (har har).

I’ve been to the Google campus a few times – it’s the creative spaces and strong use of color that charmed me. The ceilings are high. The spaces are non rectilinear. And I never had the quick sense of repetition that dominates most offices everywhere (Office, office, office, hall. Office, office, office, hall) Even the training and lecture rooms have character and dimensions that generate some kind of response.

At the right of the essay is an index of photos, giving a great sense of their approach to office design. Not for everybody, but sure gets you thinking about your environment.

Note: For those old enough to remember, the Google buildings were originally the home of SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.) The first time I was on campus I kept thinking I’d been there before and eventually figured out why.

This week in ux-clinic: vision and collaboration

Posted on in UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the ux-clinic discussion group:

While managing a small design team how does one manage both a strong design vision, and maintain a sense of collaboration and team ownership over that vision at the same time? How do you keep your team of real designers from becoming production crafts people when the design vision is quite strong from the beginning? Let’s assume for this thread that the strong vision is internal to the design teams and held and managed by the design manager.

This week in pm-clinic: turning the tide

Posted on in PM-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum:

I have just joined as a Project Manager at a software house employing 130 people, 90 of which are involved in software. The engineers are talented but number of PMs is low and failed projects is high. CEO is technical, but sees PM is a discipline he has neglected for too long. Hence the board have hired myself and one other PM to help.

Many engineers are anti-management and believe they don’t need managing, but after 3 weeks I see major problems of out of control work, lost budgets and late schedules. Some engineers fear I’ve been hired to cut headcount and are anxious (though I anticipate that the opposite may be true).

My preliminary moves to add structure to projects has met great resistance: some engineers refused to attend a weekly team meeting.

How can I bring order to the chaos without resorting to the stick method? How can I get engineers to buy in to the Project Management ethos? I already feel I’ve alienated some by my job title, and I don’t want to do more damage.

The motherlode of book writing statistics

Posted on in Writing Wellby Scott Berkun

I know some of you read this blog because I’m a guy you sort of know who wrote a book, and you’re interested in writing books – If that’s true, say hi or post a link to this entry on your blog, so I know you want more on the book writing process.

Found a page of book industry stats (warning: questionable validity) – link from India, ink:

  • 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
  • 42% of college graduates never read another book.
  • 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
  • 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
  • 57% of new books are not read to completion.
  • 81% of the population feels they have a book inside them.
  • 70% of the books published do not earn out their advance.
  • Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased (!).

The rest are here at Para Publishing. Again, I can’t verfiy these stats. And even if I could every genre or book market is different, so YMMV anyway. The page does have sources for most of these links, but they’re of varying quality.

Also see India’s post about how book interiors are designed.

New coke: an innovation case study

Posted on in Innovationby Scott Berkun

newcoke.jpgThere was a report today of Coke employees selling trade secrets, which reminded me of the New coke saga, a tale of failed innovation.

Most who were around in 1985 recall this as a huge fiasco, where a bad drink was rejected by the public. But the details are much more interesting, as Coke did many things right from an “innovation as strategy” perspective.

What went right:

  • Coke chose to move forward in response to real market pressure, rather than defending their existing products.
  • They had their best R&D & flavor people design the new product.
  • Extensive taste testing and veteran approval were sought, and all pointed to them having a better product.
  • They put big $$$ behind a major rollout campaign.

What went wrong:

  • The press conference (April ’85) was a disaster. Coke failed to explain why they made the change and did not acknowledge Pepsi taste test, or any taste testing done by Coke in R&D.
  • Pepsi attacked with counter-ads, including a full page ad in the New York Times.
  • According to Gladwell’s Blink and other sources, the successful taste tests of New coke didn’t suggest people wanted an entire 12 oz. portion of the new formula.

The result:

  • There was initial acceptance and the product did well it’s first weeks, sales up 8% compared to previous year.
  • However public outrage grew, with groups protesting New Coke (especially strong in the south).
  • By June ’85 there was enough public pressure and complaints from bottling suppliers that Coke execs were under pressure.
  • In July ’85 Coke brought Classic Coke back to the market.

It’s a great story of the risks of innovation. Coke did many things right – their greatest mistake was underestimating their customers lack of interest in innovation: they were surprisingly happy with how things were.

(See wikipedia’s excellent entry on the New Coke saga).

What innovation means: a short report

Posted on in Innovation, Managementby Scott Berkun

[Post updated: August 2015. Also see the best definition of innovation]

The word innovation is used in so many different ways I’ve categorized them here. As an expert on creativity I will put these common uses in context below.

Innovation is commonly used to mean:

  • A New idea: Innovative = creative thinking. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a good idea, or something that can be made into a product, just interesting, different or creative.
  • A New + Good idea: an innovation has to be new, but also good or better than previous things in some way. Something can be innovative in concept, before it’s a product or a tangible, usable thing.
  • A kind of product: Some people separate ideas from innovations and they draw the line at products. To be an innovation means you not only have an idea, but successfully deliver it to the world as a product. It’s not an innovation if it isn’t out in the world in someones service. So you can take someone else’s ideas, and if you’re the first to make a product out of them, you’re an innovator (e.g. Edison and the lightbulb, Apple and the iPod).
  • A kind of successful product: Some business books mark new ideas that fail commercially as below the innovation bar. So the Apple Newton and The Apple Lisa, wouldn’t qualify as they were commercial failures. But the Macintosh and the iPod qualify as innovations.
  • Something that is cool or perceived as cool. Often this is based on novelty, in that the idea seems new. But as the people making this judgement often aren’t experts in the history of a particular kind of idea, they’re often falsely perceiving an idea as novel.

The mere fact that the word is commonly used to mean so many different things means it’s a poor word to use. Odds are high that if you use it to mean one thing, the person listening to you will think you mean something else.

Innovation vs. Invention:

Some academics define invention as a specific creation, but innovation as the effect the creation has on an industry or culture. So a product can be an invention, but not an innovation, unless it has a profound impact on the world. This is humbler way to use the word as it is based on the impact of your invention, rather than the creation of the invention itself.

Innovative Organizations

Things get even messier when people talk of innovative organizations (another popular trend). Here, innovation means one of three things:

  • Results: An innovative organization is one that produces innovations (whichever definition you pick from the above). Think of research labs or teams of people directed to create new products.
  • Processes: It’s not the results that are necessarily innovative, but the way the group goes about doing it’s work is. So a bank might still use U.S. currency and offer loans, but the way they organize or make decisions is creative, new or different. Of course it is possible to have both innovative processes and results (e.g. IDEO).
  • Strategies: Many books aimed at executives like Seeing what’s next and Dealing with Darwin offer ways to think about business and beat competitors where it’s the strategy that has innovative elements. But here it’s hard to discern between a good strategy, an effective strategy, and one you simply haven’t heard of before.

What does all this mean?

A great place to start is to ask: when in the history of business has there been a time when innovation wasn’t important? Never. There has always been competition and greater rewards for people who could execute on better ideas for things. If you agree, then why has the term, as fragmented as it has become, grown so popular? and what does this means for popular perception of what innovation is, and how it happens? And did I miss any common uses of the word innovation?

Also see: Stop Saying Innovation and Best Definition of Innovation

The lost concept of the holiday

Posted on in Uncategorizedby Scott Berkun

Holidays are important to me, so much so that I invented my own awhile ago. But today I had a strange experience that makes me think in the U.S. we’ve lost the idea completely.

Today is July 4th, Independence day and we’re supposed to be doing fun things to celebrate the birth of the United States (and hopefully remembering times when the world thought better of us).

But surprise, surprise. My local supermarket is open all day. As is the neighboring video rental store, Thai resteraunt and various other stores. And the biggest surprise was how good business was: it was hard to find parking.

What’s going on? Are holidays only holidays for some now?

Hypocracy disclaimer: my wife is sick today and on a lark I called the video place. Since they were open I drove over and picked up some food and a movie for her. But I had the strangest feeling the whole time that things would be better off if all those stores were closed.