Author: Scott Berkun

Scolidays – 2006 (Custom holidays)

Posted on in Creative Thinking, Philosophyby Scott Berkun

A few weeks ago I mentioned I’ve taken the egotistical but interesting step of creating my own holidays: called Scolidays. Forgot to post the 2006 calendar mostly because, well, I hadn’t finished making it. A fact that has led to an additional day called “procrastinators lamentation day”.

Scolidays 2006

  • 1/29 – Letter writing day. Pick 5 people you have something you want to say to and write them letters. Could be a friend you haven’t spoken to in too long, a family member you haven’t seen in awhile, an author who wrote a book that moved you or to an organization that you’re glad exists (The YMCA, the local pub, whatever matters to you). (Make up day 3/29).
  • 2/8 – Summer in Winter day. You have to dress in summer clothing, do summer activies, and eat summer food (e.g. tank tops, shorts, volleyball, hot dogs and watermellon).
  • 3/15 (Today) – Ides of March. You must speak in Shakespearean English, preferably quoting from the play Julius Cesear as often as possible.
  • 4/1 – Silly hat day. You must wear a silly hat that can not be confused with any real purpose. You must wear it, or at least carry it around with you, for most of the day, including going to work, the store, friends, etc.
  • 4/17 – Learn something new day. It doesn’t matter how big or small but the day must involve learning a new skill. it could be a magic trick, or how to make lasagna. Ask people you know to teach you something they like to do.
  • 5/15 – The procrastinators lament . Take stock of all the important things you were supposed to have done by this time this year. Hang your head in shame at least until lunch time. Then make a list, rank them, and do at least one item on the list today. Decide the fate of the remaining items: either set them on fire and leave them behind, or make new plans to for the rest of them.
  • 6/3 – The day of fear. Pick something that you’re afraid of, trivial or signifigant, and go and do it. Might include calling a radio talk show, public speaking, getting onstage at an open mike night, handling snakes, telling someone how you really feel about them, whatever. You can pick a fear buddy: you help them with theirs, they help you with yours.
  • 8/9 – The day of surprise. Pick one person you know and like and plan a surprise. Could be a mystery gift package, tickets to their favorite show, or anything cool they’d never expect someone else to do for them.
  • 9/23 – Go somewhere new day. Get out a map, pick a spot you’ve never been to, and drive. No one in the car can have been there before. Pack a lunch maybe or bring some friends. Bring a camera. Send me pictures.
  • 10/12 – Share culture day. Make a pile of cool stuff you like and share it with someone. Could be a mix-CD of music. A box of cookies you’ve made. Anything. But you have to make it yourself and give it to one or more specific people. It can be a share culture potluck party: everyone brings cool food, music or games they’ve made.
  • 11/4 – Day of hedonistic glory. All bounds are removed. Eat what you like. Sleep late. Watch movies, really bad movies all day. Laugh as you drive past the gym, with Big Mac, Big Gulp, and Toblorone in hand. All the things you’ve wished you could do should be done: but today only.
  • 11/18 – Day of ascetic fasting and restraint. Do as little as possible. Spend your time in quiet places. Drink only water or tea. If you must eat, do so with great restraint and simplicity. Stay in one place as much of the day as you can. Don’t watch TV or use the computer and consume as few resources of any kind as possible. See how few things you can use or consume in one day.
  • 12/9 – Low technology day . Pick a year from the past and only use technologies that existed in or before that year (1950 would mean B&W TV, but no cable, no internet, no cell phones).
  • 12/31 – 2007 holiday planning day. Review which days you actually celebrated, make a list of ones to try and build a calendar for 2007.

If you think these days are lame, let me know what days you’d put on your own calendar. If you’re interested in following any Scoliday’s, leave a comment – and I’ll give a heads-up on the blog a few days before.

Update: Also see the failure of Scolidays.

Clever designs: Top ten alarm clocks

Posted on in designby Scott Berkun

From uberreview The top ten alarm clocks. They rank them by annoyance, but from my perspective these are all clever in some way. Some work better as concepts I’m sure, but they deserve points nonetheless.

A perenial interview question at Microsoft was “design an alarm clock for one of: the blind, the deaf, the stupid, the hungover, the heavy sleeper, or the paranoid.” Many good answers can be found in this review.

The twist (beyond combining constraints, such as stupid and hungover”) was always that the clock had to cost less than $10, but sadly all of the ones listed here are well out of that price range.

Puzzle clock

Cool != Good and the future of UI

Posted on in designby Scott Berkun

Touch display from NYU

One of the sensory highlights of E-tech ’06 was the demo of the multitouch interaction project from NYU. I’ve seen projects like this before, as things like it have been tried in the past, but this is the most polished and advanced of its kind. As you can tell from the picture, this display allows for complex interactions with your hands. You can grab things, slide them around, change input modes, you name it. You can use it as a keyboard, finger painting system or image modification suite.

The problem is that the demo is so non-representative of how we use computers. It’s more like an orgy of interaction pornography (everything is bigger, faster and shinier than life) than a sampling of how the world might be better with the use of a tool like this. The dude running the demo operates at high speed and with a magicians sense of flourish and polish – they knew exactly how to make this look cool. As a research project this is great – perhaps this is, or will lead to, how we’ll interact with machines in the future. But I see all sorts of easy questions about performance and interaction that this prototype itself can’t ask (What kinds of tasks is this good for? What new and useful behavior does it enable? What does it suck at? How hard is it to learn? etc.)

And that’s the trap – it’s a classic example of Cool vs Good – It’s great that people are excited by this project, as it fun and exciting to watch (aka cool). But there are few uses for something like this that match the coolness with value – exactly the same criticism I had of the famed VR type UI in Minority report. They both look fun, and match our faith in a cooler future, but that’s part of my point. I don’t think there is a strong historical correlation between what’s cool and what turns out to be good.

The video is a must watch: Go here to read about the project and watch the short film (12MB mpeg). Kudos to Jeff Han and everyone else that worked on this – nice job.

This week in UX-clinic: Drowning in customer love

Posted on in UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the ux-clinic discussion forum– Drowning in customer love:

We’re a small UX group (designers & usability engineer) for a large website – we constantly face the problem of decision makers who believe in customer omnipotence – that if the customer say blinking green, we should do blinking green. If they ask for 150 links in the nav bar, we should put 150 links in the nav bar. etc. All sanity goes out the window in our org if an important customer asks for an insane thing.

We’ve tried a few times to explain a better way to use customer input, but there seems to be this impenetrable, literal faith in “the customer is always right” that we can’t get past, and it’s hurting our work. We’ll be paying for some of these bad decisions for months to come.

Two questions:
1. What’s a better philosophy for using customer input/opinion
2. How do you convert people to that philosophy (without brain transplants)

– Drowning in customer love

This week in pm-clinic: the “poof” of concept

Posted on in PM-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum– preventing “poof” of concept:

For months I’ve been pushing my VP to fund a project to enable our websites to produce and use RSS feeds (including newsreader like customization) – I was turned down every time, until yesterday. He’s given me the green light and assigned my team to someone else, but I only have a month, of a single programmers time, to prove to him the value of my idea.

He’s given me no direction on what he expects to see in a month, or what I need to do to convince him and other VPs to finish the project. I’ve never managed a short term, high profile, proof of concept project before and I’m thinking now I should have just kept my mouth shut (yes, I’m scared).

Now that I’ve bought the ticket, how to make sure it’s a happy successful ride?

– Avoiding “Poof” of concept (POC)

E-tech report and UI talk slides

Posted on in On Tour, Uncategorizedby Scott Berkun

Missed the first day of E-tech and never got into the swing – conferences are fun if you can get the conference mindset (lots of smiles, introductions and politely forcing ways to meet people you don’t know) but it didn’t happen for me. Apologies if I snubbed anyone or didn’t say hi: was just in a crappy mood this whole week.

The sessions I caught were hit and miss: wide range in quality. Highlight was Clay Shirky’s short talk “Shut up, not you shut up” and Tom Coates Native to a web of data – unlike many of the sessions they had clear points and focused talks. There were just way too many sessions that felt like drive-bys or first drafts for a conference of this size. Author George Dyson had a fascinating and equally frustrating talk called Turing’s Cathedrial – Knowing much of the history of early computing I enjoyed the bits of archival sketches and notes he showed, but I couldn’t understand what points he thought he was making – it seemed even he hadn’t digested all of the material he was working with.

The worst session I saw was The Real Nature of the Emerging Attention Economy By Michael H. Goldhaber. Ordinarily I’d shut up and keep mean comments to myself – presenting is hard and risky – but this frustrated me on so many levels it deserves a special mention. First, this was a 15 minute talk. In 15 minutes you can make 3 points, maybe 4 if you’re clever. But you better be sharp, tight and crisp. You better practice and get feedback on the slides. He took an alternative, attention-blind approach: he wandered through a history of ideas and formalisms about the nature of economies but never quite got anywhere, finished a thought, point or idea. He offered a a vague description of his book on attention, which after a decade in is still unfinished, mentioned someone else calling him the Einstein of Attention, compared the universe to a game (but no mention of game theory, economic or otherwise), and delivered all this on some of ugliest, harshest slides I’ve seen since I left Microsoft. Frankly, his presentation gave off every signal of not being worthy of my attention. Mr. Goldhaber is smart and I bet he has many insightful ideas on attention – I had lunch at his table and he was a great guy – but whatever insights or teachings he has, none of them surfaced for me . (His paper, Attention economy and the net seems to be a better introduction to his work.

Slides from my Thursday talk, Data vs. Design: UI in a Web 2.0 world. Good, vocal crowd in a tight room. I understimated the number of Tufte fans in attendence and things got hostile. Normally this would be fun – but I was in a lousy mood and didn’t make the most of it. Somewhere in my future is a Tufte critique defense, but I didn’t have the brainpower today.

Thanks to Rael, O’Reilly and the conference organizers for letting me speak. I had fun and was glad I did it.

Art of PM the course: In Vancouver April 12th/13th

Posted on in On Tourby Scott Berkun

Over the last year I’ve been devloping a two day course based on the book, The art of project management. It’s finally ready – and it’s packed with the same jargon free real world attitude found in the book, but is interactive, exercise and discussion heavy, going to some places not possible to go with the book alone.

The course is now ready for prime time: I’ll be teaching in Vancouver, B.C. at the SPC Springboard Group on April 12/13th. Cost: $995 before 3/12, $1195 after.

The art of project management: the course

Day 1: Schedules, estimation and risk

  • Why schedules fail and how to avoid
  • Intense exercises with project scheduling tactics
  • Fun exercises with estimation techniques
  • Risks and crisis: What to do when things go wrong

Day 2: Leadership, decision making and relationships

  • Leading without authority
  • How to make good decisions
  • Managing positive change
  • Building trust and relationships
  • Learning from mistakes
  • Summary / Additional Q&A

All attendies receive:

  • A copy of the art of project management book (optionally signed).
  • A trim reference handbook of course slides and notes.
  • Two full days of fun, entertaining and challenging education on how to lead teams.
  • Follow up personal access and free consultation: I’ll answer any questions or follow ups from the course within two weeks after the course is over.

Full course outline and registration.

The trip to India: part 1

Posted on in Travelby Scott Berkun

We left New Delhi airport at 3:28am Monday. Over 20 hours later we arrived home in Seattle. It’s safe to say that whatever brain cells I still possess, they’re not working well.

That said, here’s the 3 bullet executive summary of the trip:

  • India is big. Really big. Like 1/3rd the size of the U.S but with 3 times as many people. So my attempts to describe to people “India was like…” are impossibly uninformed and unfair. I can understand now why when Europeans that do visit the U.S. (particularly ones that visit Las Vegas or Orlando) see it the way they do: how much can you understand about anywhere by being there for a few days, mostly in touristy places? While in India I struggled with the scale: the size of the cities, the numbers of people, the depth of poverty and the optimism about the future. But I only saw the NW of the country and mostly urban areas and some big tourist stops. So YMMV.
  • Chaos redefined. We stayed in Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur and I’ve never seen anything like what I saw on the streets and in neighborhoods. Motorcycles and rickshaws dominate the unmarked roads. I saw driving moves I thought people only did in video games (e.g. running through intersections the wrong way across 6 lanes of traffic). Sections of towns sprawl and mash up against each other, with patches of decay, construction, slum and promenade all rolled together. I found it impossible to get a sense of bearing in the cities: their chaos and scale makes Manhattan seem like a childrens park. From a Western and American perspective, these cities were aesthetically a mess. But they work, sort of – at least for the people in them. As much as I was dumbfounded by what I saw, I was equally amazed and how well people functioned inside these incomprehensible systems. Entire papers could be written on the agile methods and organic attitudes employed by dense, and largely poor, urban populations: they’re more clever and resourceful than the rest of us.
  • Amazement and Horror . During the trip I saw poverty on a scale I’d never imagined. We drove from Delhi to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, and for 200km each way we saw an endless roadside shantytown, one stretch of chaos after another, poor towns with shacks and village stores living off (one assumes) the traffic from the highways (We’d see more intense poverty early on in our train ride from Delhi to Jaipur). But every few miles, rising above the frey, were cell phone towers. Cell phones and internet access points surrounded by people without clean drinking water. I felt this kind of discordance many times in India – It seemed to be a country with everything, the good and the bad. Again and again there were dramatic contrasts, people living difficult lives in shacks, while next door is the most wonderous palace or temple I’d ever seen.

I’m still digesting what I experienced – once the brain cells are back I’ll have good stories to share. Thanks to everyone for their India advice – appreciated.


This week in pm-clinic: the boss who won’t listen

Posted on in PM-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum– The boss who won’t listen:

Months ago I informed my boss of my concerns for a project he was managing. He didn’t seem to be aware of the issues, so I mentioned them in our mutual best interest. He told me, polite but firm, he didn’t want me to inform him of such things: it’s not my place and he didn’t want to me to be so unsupportive of his efforts.

Last week I discovered some bigger issues in another one of his projects. These problems (missed requirements, secretly slipped schedule) will impact my team and others if they’re not nipped in the bud.

Do I raise the issues anyway and hope he’s not angry? Do I suck it up? Or should I find a quiet/secret way to inform his team of these issues?

– The boss who won’t listen

This week in ux-clinic: novices vs. experts

Posted on in UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the ux-clinic discussion forum– Novices vs. experts:

What’s the best way to tackle a comprehensive redesign of an application when there is already a large user base familiar with its clumsy UI? How do we provide a better solution for new users without alienating existing users who are now comfortable with the quirks (flaws) of the existing system? and how do you go about convincing management that it’s a worthwhile exercise?

I’ve spent the past few months working on a 5 year old application used by extremely competent technical users. The user base continues to grow and at the same time new functionality and features are “bolted on”, typically through increasingly long lists of tool bar options. We know that new users struggle with the UI but it’s very low on management’s list of priorities.

What can be done?

– Novices vs. experts

Personal: visiting India this month

Posted on in On Tourby Scott Berkun

In my ever expanding quest to see the world, I’ll be vacationing in India this month, starting next week. We’ll be in Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur over two weeks. I doubt I’ll have net access, so when post frequency drops you’ll know why. Expect a trip report on the other side.

If anyone has India travel advice (the usual what to wear? things to see? places to stay? lay it on me by all means)

This week in ux-clinic: How not to blow the big presentation

Posted on in UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the ux-clinic discussion forum– How not to blow the big presentation:

After months of careful politicking (and private ranting) about investing heavily in UX and design, I’ve been given a chance to present to our executive team. I will have 30 minutes to both make my case and propose changes to how software and web development are done at my company to a room full of big shots.

Today I woke up and realized I’m totally over my head.

I’ve never presented to an executive before and I have no idea what angle to take, how to advocate change without stepping on their toes, or how much time to spend teaching design vs. arguing for the value of design.

I’m hoping for advice and war stories of big presentations to non design folks – I have a big chance to move things forward but I need some words of wisdom from those who have done this before to pull it off.

– Shaking in my designer boots

This week in pm-clinic: managing our time

Posted on in PM-Clinicby Scott Berkun

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum– Managing our time:

Dear pm-clinic:

I’m a recovering Getting Things Done (GTD) addict. I tried the popular book/method/cult/flagellation by Dave Allen for awhile, but I’m not the kind of person capable of the religious type A behavior much of the system demanded. So I’m in need of something else before my team figures out how disorganized I am.

I’m hoping to learn timeworn tips and personal tactics people on the list have used to stay on top of their own hours and days (rather than their project’s).

How do you organize your own time against multiple projects? What tools (software or otherwise) are your favorites and how do you make use of them? What tricks have you learned over the years that have made a difference? What approaches do you recommend for people who work for you?

– Mr. Embarrassingly disorganized

This blog: weekly situations – yay or nay

Posted on in PM-Clinic, UX-Clinicby Scott Berkun

I run two discussion mailing lists – one on design and usability (uxclinic) and one on project management (pmclinic).

Question: In the past I’ve posted the weekly situations here on the blog. Sometimes people post comments on ’em, but often they just sit there taking up space.

I’m thinking now that if you’re into the situations, you’re on the list and don’t need me to annoy you with them here. I did it before to help promote the lists, but they’re off the ground now.

So if you do want these situations posted, speak up now. If I don’t get a few votes for doing it, I’ll stop.

Why vision documents stink

Posted on in Management, Software/Web development, Uncategorizedby Scott Berkun

At a talk yesterday I asked an audience of program managers how many of them had read a vision document. Most of the 100+ in the room raised their hands. I then asked how many had read a document they thought was good: about a dozen kept their hands up.

I’ve asked this question dozens of times and it’s rare to find people who’ve read one they thought was good. Most teams (or start-ups) have some kind of written charter, even if it’s just a beat up e-mail, for what the over-arching goals are supposed to be.

Why are they often so bad?

I have 3 theories:

  • They’re often written by committees. Five people get in a room and yield to mediocrity. Unless one talented person asserts him/herself as the lead author (e.g. Thomas Jefferson) the result is jargon happy, wishy washy, impenetrable tripe. You want a clear narrative, not a labyrinthine wishing well.
  • They’re not written to serve the reader. What purpose do these things serve? If the people writing it don’t know, odds are slim what the write will be of use to the people asked to read it. If the goal is to catalyze, motivate or clarfy, it should be easy for any vision author to check with readers to see if it’s working. But if they don’t ask, readers might be afraid to tell.
  • Author confuses hype with reality. A good vision document connects the future with the present, and gives tools to people to make faster decisions. All the hype and conjecture has a place, but it’s probably in the supporting materials, not in the directives or goals people are being asked to follow.

So why do you think vision documents and their ilk are often so painful reads? Politics? Cowardice? Lack of imagination? Labotomy? what?

Get in my shoes: Cool mentorship auction

Posted on in Uncategorizedby Scott Berkun

Get in my shoesI’m a big believer in mentorship of all kinds – The IMNO, a non-profit group focused on finding mentors for young adults and people in difficult circumstances, just launched a new campaign called: get in their shoes, and I’m participating.

Here’s how it works:

  • Famous people, and wanna-bes like myself, volunteer a half hour of mentorship time
  • Anyone can bid on auction for that mentorship time. The money goes to the IMNO.

You can donate to a good cause, and talk to people like Bill Walton, Guy Kawasaki, Stan Lee, Craig Newmark and more.

Or if you want a cheap date, go ahead and bid on time with Berkun.

You can also register as a mentor yourself or donate money, time or support to the IMNO.

Me, Microsoft and Digg.com

Posted on in Microsoftby Scott Berkun

One day this week, I think by accident, an essay of mine appeared on digg.com‘s home page. The essay was “Why I left Microsoft“, something I wrote nearly a year ago. A big wave of traffic ensued, and then, the flame mail :)

The problem was this: I wrote the essay from my point of view: Why I left Microsoft, which is more about me and my life than about Microsoft the company. Ordinarily, who cares? But when a major site like digg lists a link to “Why I left Microsoft”, everyone naturally expects a bunch of fun insider information (and dirt) about what’s going on in the company. And when the web doesn’t get what it expects, well, flames and snideness ensue (as you’ll find if you skim the digg.com comments).

To make ammends I’m glad to write about Microsoft the company. I did write a short google/MSFT comparison, but what do you want to know? There are plenty of books and sources for insider information for those than want it.

Leave comments here – and I’ll write a follow up called “Looking at Microsoft” more in line with what folks wanted to read in the first place.

(And thanks to all that had nice things to say about the essay – appreciated that)

Best of Berkun

Posted on in Essays, Writing Wellby Scott Berkun

Essay #50 will be published today – Its been 6 years of writing these things, first for MSDN, then at uiweb and now here. Thanks to everyone that’s been reading and writing in with questions and requests for essays – hope you’ll stick around. The next book is in progress and I’ll have details soon.

For fun I went back through all the traffic logs and looked at what’s been popular. So here is a traffic determined best of Berkun thru 2005:

  1. Why smart people defend bad ideas
  2. How to survive creative burnout
  3. How to give and recieve criticism
  4. Why good ideas come from bad ideas
  5. The myth of optimal web design
  6. How to pitch an idea
  7. How to build a better browser

Full essay archive