Innovation is not a top down exercise. You don’t innovate by creating structured documents full of pretty flow charts that don’t really describe the problem. You don’t innovate by spending three weeks on the world’s greatest specification document. You innovate by getting your hands dirty and diving in. You get things done by occasionally throwing out the…
Sometimes the smallest mistake causes the biggest issue.
No one is 100% perfect all the time. We are all going to make mistakes in the natural course of the tasks we do. And sometimes those mistakes will lead to issues bigger than the mistake itself. Mistakes are like that though. The most innocuous, innocent mistake can lead to cascading problems that impact a…
Eating your own cooking is the only way to get better.
If you manage a system, do you use it MORE than your customers do? What about your services? Did you leverage your internal teams to make that last big decision? Chances are, you probably aren’t doing things internally the way that you help your clients to do the same things. It’s a natural thing. Often…
My proudest role.
We all play roles in life: husband, colleague, boss, etc. In each role we interact with different groups in different ways. Sometimes we get to be friends and other times we are managing and directing. The role I am most proud of is that of mentor. I’ve been volunteering as a mentor with Mentor Jackets…
Windows 8 and the impact of change
Let me start by saying I’m not a Microsoft fan. I do everything I can to avoid their tools. The first computer I bought for myself ran Windows Millenium (still waiting for an apology for that), Internet Explorer has been a disaster on many levels, the list goes on. So when I bought a new…
It always comes back to quality.
Doing it right the first time may take a little longer than you’d like. But the total time spent goes down if you spend that extra bit up front. For example, pulling a list of all buildings in a market that fit a client’s needs prevents the common process of the client finding sites on…
All 10 rules to make your CRE technology better.
Well, we’ve survived. And selfishly I’ve never received better reader quantities over any comparable period so I guess I struck a nerve. For those that like recaps: Ignore the current user, focus on the future audience. Act as if everything you know about the industry is wrong. Focus on the visual! Release the Alpha, Beta, RC1, etc versions…
CRE Tech Rule 10: If it’s broke, fix it!
If it’s broke, fix it! And finally we come to the end. The ultimate rule that guides our hands. A rule so important that all reading this probably live by it already. If it’s broke, fix it. It applies to technology, it applies to life, it applies to our industry. This is the rule that…
CRE Tech Rule 9: Never let a written specification get in the way of a good idea.
Never let a written specification get in the way of a good idea. When building a technology for CRE you’ll likely find yourself with a functional spec and roadmap. Most of your build will try to follow these two documents. Don’t treat these as Gospel. New ideas occur everyday. And most new ideas are bad….
CRE Tech Rule 8: Discover your super users early. What they say should be gold, all other input is second tier.
Discover your super users early. What they say should be gold, all other input is second tier. I know, I know. You’re going to say this is just another continuation of the last two rules. Not true! This rule is about understanding who is on your side and who isn’t. We’re now talking marketing! Systems…