The Right Project Attitude
Learn How To Manage & Ship A Great Software Product
Get 20 lessons about how Software CEOs can grow their team, improve their culture, and create efficient work processes on the way to building a massively successful Software Company.
There’s a lot of conventional wisdom about the importance of having confidence that your software will change the world, or at least some aspect of it. And, while it’s good to believe you have something worthwhile to offer going into any development project, it’s more about what your customers believe that will cause your software to succeed in the marketplace.
How about creating the right culture, which Merriam-Webster defines as “a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business)?”
Culture is always important, but in today’s projects usually staffed by small teams — not huge organizations with assembly-line style working conditions, well-defined roles and predictable handoffs — it’s more about the attitudes of your team members about the particular project. There’s a lot of improvisation required and every team member plays multiple roles and brings her own skills, attitudes and habits from years of experiences. Your software is likely to rise or fall, not because of the culture of your work environment in general, but on whether you create the right kind of thinking about this particular project to harness that experience to maximum effect.
Here are three things you want people to think about — and prove with their actions — in any software project:
- It has to provide a real solution for which real customers are willing to pay real money. A software application is not inherently good or bad. It is measured only by its utility in solving a real problem for someone. And they have to be willing to pay for it. So many times, I’ve seen software that’s truly beautiful in its design, but which doesn’t really address a nagging problem customers are experiencing. Other times, I’ve seen great solutions, but the people who benefit aren’t making decisions to buy. If you’re building an app in a tax-exempt company, where the revenue comes as gifts from foundations, you’ll need a proxy method to do a reality check — actual usage numbers, customer preference over other choices, surveys, user focus groups.
- You’re not the only one out there. Somebody, somewhere is using something else to solve the same problems you’re trying to solve with your new-to-the-world application. It’s critical to find out what they’re using — what customers like about it, shortcomings, frustrations, etc.
- In the end, it’s still just software. Once you release it to the world, customers will test it, use it, abuse it, criticize it. You’ve got to be ready to embrace, learn from and incorporate every bit of feedback you get. Don’t fall in love with your creation. That will lead you to defend it rather than change and adapt it to users’ needs.
Much as you’d like to think otherwise, for most members of your team, this is just one more project. They had a life before it started and they’ll have one after it’s all over. So, rather than spending your energy puffing everyone up with confidence or getting caught up with trying to create or change the culture of your organization, focus on the needs of your customers, making maximum use of the skills and knowledge every team member brings, and creating the right work attitude to make that happen.
Learn How To Manage & Ship A Great Software Product
Get 20 lessons about how Software CEOs can grow their team, improve their culture, and create efficient work processes on the way to building a massively successful Software Company.