The end user is number one

It’s the user stupid!
In the end, it’s the user (not technology) that matters the most when you go about your daily IT routine trying to solve problems. Rob Howard is absolutely correct when he states the following:

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is one we didn’t really anticipate: a shift from caring less about the underlying technology to how our software solves the user’s problem. It’s a subtle change, but as an ISV this is probably one of the bigger “maturing” steps a software organization has to go through. You can tell when an ISV hasn’t made this transition yet: the literature and announcements about their releases focus 100% on the underlying technology instead of how the software solves a particular set of problems for the people that use it…

For example, have you ever bought a car because of where the steel was made or because of the brand of the engine? A few people care about these things, but most people care more about: does the car drive good, are the seats comfortable, etc. {source}

Quite frankly, I already knew this, but sometimes we tend to forget the simple things in this bloody “technical” field. When you hear all the kool Tech buzzwords floating around in the Tech press, that’s when you gotta take a step back and, once again, refocus on the problem at hand. Sounds simple, eh? Well, you’d be shocked at how many IT pros, who lack people (or soft) skills, forget this. No wonder non-techies think we’re *gasp* geeks.

Therefore my advise to all you coders out there is this:

1. Really understand the user’s problem by seeing the big picture. Heck put yourselves in their shoes.
2. Find out what features are absolutely essential and implement those first.
3. Is the user happy with the basics?
4. If yes, proceed and implement the other less important stuff.
5. Is the problem solved? If no, then go back to step 4.

Now wasn’t that simple?
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