Holiday Inn. I'm not sure, but I think that must translate in some language to "Really Awful Shower". My only choices were boiling hot or freezing cold. Poor water temparature control + low water pressure + crappy massage shower head = boiling hot water shooting out at me every 5-7 seconds.
Anyway, since I am in the lovely city of Woburn, MA at a Holiday Inn, my running choices were a bit limited. I had to resort to the DREADMILL. The lovely Holiday Inn "fitness room" was being renovated, so the temporary fitness room consisted of a treadmill, a stairmaster, a stationary bike and a 27" TV. I got on the dreadmill with plans of running three miles. It was painful. I put on the TV, flipped channels. Mind you, there was no remote, so I had to pick my channel and volume prior to getting on the treadmill. I chose ... wait for it ... American Idol Results Show, which is redundant for boring on a good day. On a treadmill that is so loud, you couldn't hear a jackhammer let alone the TV, the American Idol Results Show is pure torture.
I started playing games with myself. Ooh, it's a commercial, can I guess what it's for before the product is shown? Hmm, let's see...a girl, playing, in the trees, ooh orange trees, it's a commercial for orange juice! Wait, no the mom is sneezing, allergy medication! Nope, Nyquil. Oh well.
Did I mention my view consisted of a brown door three feet in front of the treadmill? Really, captivating.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Communication for the IT Geek
I by no means claim to be a communication expert. However, in the course of my job, my communication skills are often called upon.
1) I am a developer. I am required to communicate with the user to determine their needs/wants/desires. After designing an application, I am required to communicate with the users to determine if those needs/wants/desires were met as well as communicate with users when they run into problems.
2) Being part of a small IT team (there are only three of us), I am required to communicate with users when my cohorts (particularly the guy who handles most of the helpdesk requests) are not around.
So, imagine if you will, a System Administrator (completely hypothetical, see disclaimer): he plans his infrastructure, he administrates said infrastructure, and what he says goes. He feels no need to communicate with the users. They will use the system he provides, end of story. You don’t like it? Tough. See this guy, I’ll wait, it’s worth it. (While hysterically funny, this should be an example of what NOT to do. Due to his own poor communication skills, he actually creates more work for himself!)
While that is an enjoyable attitude to have, let’s face it, if there were no users, we would have no jobs. So, some communication must be doled out to users.
Communication is good. Really, it is. I promise. If YOU can send out the appropriate information, in the appropriate format to the appropriate people, you will have to interact with end users far less than you currently do and those interactions will be far more tolerable, even possibly enjoyable.
So, on to the tips:
Try to think like the user (I know it’s hard, just try). They have NO idea what you do, they just want their stuff to work. They have 25 bosses yelling at them to get their TPS reports done. Are you designing an app that requires them to click through three screens to get to something they use several times and hour? Do you take down the server at noon to install an update?
Don’t be condescending. It doesn’t help anyone. The user will feel angry and frustrated. In all likelihood, the user will walk away. YEAH! You think. However, the next time they have a problem, they won’t report it and it will fester until it goes from a relatively small helpdesk problem into a large crap-this-will-take-me-hours-to-fix problem. Or they will report you to their boss and their bosses boss and who knows who else will come tromping into your office to tell you to be nicer to people. So condescending does not help in the long run (even though it feels good sometimes!).
Be PROactive more than REactive. If you are going to take down the server in the middle of the day, communicate that fact to your users at least 30 minutes beforehand. Too little time and they won’t be able to save their work and exit. Too much time and they’ll forget when it’s happening, or that it is happening at all.
Err on the side of too much communication. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain when I’ve given them “too much” information. If it is too much, they ignore it. Fine. At least that lets them decide. Too little information and once again, you have frustrated users. Worse, they can often fill in the gaps with their own made up info. Example, the T1 line goes down, so external email is not being delivered. Without any information from you, the user assumes Lotus Notes is down and IT sucks. If you communicate the information (the T1 is down and external email will not be delivered until the T1 provider fixes the problem) AHEAD of anyone complaining, you will have far less user frustration and misconceptions.
However, too much communication shouldn’t mean “tech speak”. Throwing out a bunch of technical terms just to get users off your back doesn’t count as communication, see the paragraph about being condescending. Have you ever had to sit in on a marketing meeting? Lots of industry jargon. It can be frustrating to sit there not understanding a word people are saying, can’t it? Don’t do that to people.
Don’t be afraid to speak to users in real life. Too often we rely on emails and IMs. In the daily barrage of information we all receive, these can often (always) be ignored.
Frequently, tone and intent can quickly be misread in email or IM. When things start to get out of hand or have too many back and forths, stop, get up and speak to the user in person.
Bottom Line. Communicating with people is a good thing. Communicating well is even better. Even just trying to be better at communication shows an effort. Believe me, you will be rewarded. When I communicate effectively with users and management, I have less work to do and WAY less frustration. You can too!
1) I am a developer. I am required to communicate with the user to determine their needs/wants/desires. After designing an application, I am required to communicate with the users to determine if those needs/wants/desires were met as well as communicate with users when they run into problems.
2) Being part of a small IT team (there are only three of us), I am required to communicate with users when my cohorts (particularly the guy who handles most of the helpdesk requests) are not around.
So, imagine if you will, a System Administrator (completely hypothetical, see disclaimer): he plans his infrastructure, he administrates said infrastructure, and what he says goes. He feels no need to communicate with the users. They will use the system he provides, end of story. You don’t like it? Tough. See this guy, I’ll wait, it’s worth it. (While hysterically funny, this should be an example of what NOT to do. Due to his own poor communication skills, he actually creates more work for himself!)
While that is an enjoyable attitude to have, let’s face it, if there were no users, we would have no jobs. So, some communication must be doled out to users.
Communication is good. Really, it is. I promise. If YOU can send out the appropriate information, in the appropriate format to the appropriate people, you will have to interact with end users far less than you currently do and those interactions will be far more tolerable, even possibly enjoyable.
So, on to the tips:
Try to think like the user (I know it’s hard, just try). They have NO idea what you do, they just want their stuff to work. They have 25 bosses yelling at them to get their TPS reports done. Are you designing an app that requires them to click through three screens to get to something they use several times and hour? Do you take down the server at noon to install an update?
Don’t be condescending. It doesn’t help anyone. The user will feel angry and frustrated. In all likelihood, the user will walk away. YEAH! You think. However, the next time they have a problem, they won’t report it and it will fester until it goes from a relatively small helpdesk problem into a large crap-this-will-take-me-hours-to-fix problem. Or they will report you to their boss and their bosses boss and who knows who else will come tromping into your office to tell you to be nicer to people. So condescending does not help in the long run (even though it feels good sometimes!).
Be PROactive more than REactive. If you are going to take down the server in the middle of the day, communicate that fact to your users at least 30 minutes beforehand. Too little time and they won’t be able to save their work and exit. Too much time and they’ll forget when it’s happening, or that it is happening at all.
Err on the side of too much communication. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain when I’ve given them “too much” information. If it is too much, they ignore it. Fine. At least that lets them decide. Too little information and once again, you have frustrated users. Worse, they can often fill in the gaps with their own made up info. Example, the T1 line goes down, so external email is not being delivered. Without any information from you, the user assumes Lotus Notes is down and IT sucks. If you communicate the information (the T1 is down and external email will not be delivered until the T1 provider fixes the problem) AHEAD of anyone complaining, you will have far less user frustration and misconceptions.
However, too much communication shouldn’t mean “tech speak”. Throwing out a bunch of technical terms just to get users off your back doesn’t count as communication, see the paragraph about being condescending. Have you ever had to sit in on a marketing meeting? Lots of industry jargon. It can be frustrating to sit there not understanding a word people are saying, can’t it? Don’t do that to people.
Don’t be afraid to speak to users in real life. Too often we rely on emails and IMs. In the daily barrage of information we all receive, these can often (always) be ignored.
Frequently, tone and intent can quickly be misread in email or IM. When things start to get out of hand or have too many back and forths, stop, get up and speak to the user in person.
Bottom Line. Communicating with people is a good thing. Communicating well is even better. Even just trying to be better at communication shows an effort. Believe me, you will be rewarded. When I communicate effectively with users and management, I have less work to do and WAY less frustration. You can too!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
6 Baby!
As you can see from my Twitter update -->
I just ran 6 miles today. It's been a loooooooooong time since I've done that. It didn't really feel that bad either! My time was 1 hour, 2 minutes, which is the same as my first 10k RACE last June. I feel pretty good, that an "easy" 6 mile run today came it at the same time as a race I ran last year. Last February I was only running 3's and 4's, so I'm ahead of the game, which is great.
As I've mentioned, I signed up for the Great Bay Half Marathon in April. I don't have any time goals since it's the beginning of running season. Finishing would be great!
I'm thinking of repeating some (if not all) of the Seacoast Series races. They were a lot of fun, and it will be fun to see my times improve (hopefully!).
For me, I need to sign up for races in order to motivate myself to run. And I really need to run. For health reasons of course, but I really find that I am a lot nicer and a lot more tolerant when I run. It's either that or start drinking. :)
I just ran 6 miles today. It's been a loooooooooong time since I've done that. It didn't really feel that bad either! My time was 1 hour, 2 minutes, which is the same as my first 10k RACE last June. I feel pretty good, that an "easy" 6 mile run today came it at the same time as a race I ran last year. Last February I was only running 3's and 4's, so I'm ahead of the game, which is great.
As I've mentioned, I signed up for the Great Bay Half Marathon in April. I don't have any time goals since it's the beginning of running season. Finishing would be great!
I'm thinking of repeating some (if not all) of the Seacoast Series races. They were a lot of fun, and it will be fun to see my times improve (hopefully!).
For me, I need to sign up for races in order to motivate myself to run. And I really need to run. For health reasons of course, but I really find that I am a lot nicer and a lot more tolerant when I run. It's either that or start drinking. :)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Guest Blog Post!
At Lotusphere, I was lucky enough to see a session by Chris Blatnick and Tom Duff. Chris covered low-fidelity prototyping among other things. He was gracious enough to allow me to post a guest-post on his blog. Check it out!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Running Schedule Update
Woohoo! Ran the scheduled three on Monday. Was supposed to run 3-5 today, my running partner and I ran 4. I didn't even feel that bad, especially given how long it's been since I've run any more than three miles!
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