Releasing Software – Communication

 Business  1 Response »
Dec 062011
 

You are skipper of a boat leaving the port trying to navigate the bay to some fantastic destination, out past the horizon. You have a chart, a compass and you can see some buoys. You plot a course that should take three hours.

Three hours later you are a bit miffed when you have run aground on a desert island.

When you are cruising around on a boat, the wind, tides and currents affect where your boat ends up. You can’t just set a bearing and expect to end up precisely where you intended. Instead you need to recalculate where you are and refine your bearings. The more recalculations you do, the closer you stay on course.

Releasing software is similar but even the destination changes. It’s obvious when you’re in control of a boat, but when releasing software it’s easy to forget that getting regular user feedback is essential to staying on track.

Communication is surely an important piece among the many moving parts in the releasing software machine.

 Posted by Keiran McDonald at 7:00 am  Tagged with:

Keeping a ToDo list

 Business  No Responses »
Aug 242011
 

For about a year now I’ve been keeping a ToDo list. It’s the first thing I reach for when I have a block of time to spend, I find it saves me a lot of spin up time, and makes me think about what’s important. It’s not a particularly new idea; heaps of productivity authors have written their take on it, but I thought I’d share some of the details of my own system.

I like to keep the list items in order of priority and really concise; usually three words and nothing over twenty words.

I keep my lists on Evernote so I can access them either on my phone or via the web interface. In meetings or at times where thoughts are being brainstormed I use paper and a pen. This is good because you can focus on the meeting and fiddle with a gadget less. It also gives me time after the meeting to help filter and prioritise what goes into the list I work from.

I actually keep a few lists, one for each context of my life that I switch between.

For some of the lists I keep a corresponding Done list. I find the Done list useful for self reflection or those funny old performance reviews.

These are some of my lists I switch between.

  • Work ToDo/Done
  • Ideas
  • Blog Post
  • Grocery Shopping
  • Other Shopping
  • Household Maintenance
  • Holiday Plans
 Posted by Keiran McDonald at 10:34 pm  Tagged with:

Software Webinars

 Business  No Responses »
Aug 112011
 

A former colleague of mine recently published a post about Software Webinars that got me thinking. At my work we write software that is priced too low to pay a slick sales guy to jet around bending ears, unless a big new prospect is involved. So instead we use video conferencing tools to run webinars. After attending a few of these webinars I have dreamed up a strategy to maximise efficiency.

If the webinar is going to have five or fewer audience members and it doesn’t have to be repeated, then make it less formal and more interactive by using a question and answer type format. This way the audience members control the direction of the presentation.

If the conference has to be repeated or there are six or more audience members, then just pre-record the presentation part and press play when everyone has joined. At the end of the pre-recorded video, allow for questions and answers.

Pre-recording will take a bit of time upfront, but it will be reusable and you will be able to edit out any problems.

I think that five is the magic number of audience members, not three. With more than five people, the mood in the room is that of a broadcast, probably because it is difficult to find the opportune moment to interrupt. Also, the number of side conversations increases as the audience grows. A group of five can only diverge into two side conversations. Larger groups are also bolder, rowdier and it can be harder to get your message across.

 Posted by Keiran McDonald at 10:12 pm  Tagged with:
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