It's all about feedback

It's all about Feedback

Recently Subway set the price of all their foot long sandwiches to $5 (any sandwich) which are great news specially in this tough times..
Now, how is this "important" event related with Software Development? Well for me this a big opportunity that Subway is missing to get to know their clients better since they don't register what kind of sandwich you buy. They don't really have an idea of what kind of sandwich sells better and which is not doing so well...
Many companies are willing to pay for marketing studies, surveys, etc. to get an opinion from their customers, what they like / don't like about their products, what could be improved, etc. and some companies don't take advantage of opportunities like this one to get that feedback from their clients.
Again... how is this related with software development? I believe the developer's best tool for software development is not a programming language, an IDE or what ever new geek stuff is out in the web. For me is feedback from your client, since it lets you make sure that you are doing exactly what they hired you to do.
This feedback will let you know what is the client thinking, are we doing exactly what he needs/wants?, is this field in that form actually required? is the user experience good and pleasant? are we saving all the information we need or are we missing anything? Do you really need this astronaut architecture for your simple image gallery...?
It's not about showing stuff just for the sake of showing something. It's about showing new stuff, new functionality, changes, new concepts, idea. Is trying to get the client (and perhaps the final users of the software) into the development cycle, getting comments, opinions, suggestions (after all - and hopefully - they will have a better idea than you of what they want/need)
How to do this? Constant builds, demo servers, make the application available for demoing as much as possible, screenshots, mockups, wireframes, isolate functionality and presenting it, continuous testing/integration, etc
And all of this, because is the client the one that requested your services and is the client the one that knows what kind of sandwich he wants. And when you see that the BMT sells better than the Turkey Breast sandwich you will try to repeat and improve the recipe every time...


Todo es Feedback

Recientemente la cadena de restaurantes Subway, puso todos sus sandwiches de un pie de largo a $5 (cualquiera de ellos) osea mucho mas barato de lo normal. Esto logicamente alegro el bolsillo de muchos de nosotros y pusieron la cadena de restaurantes como uno de los favoritos para la gente que almuerza afuera.
Ahora, que tiene que ver Subway con software, que es de lo que trata este blog? Pues me parece que la cadena o los restaurantes mismos estan perdiendo una valiosa oportunidad de conocer cuales son los sandwiches favoritos de sus clientes (no se registra que tipo de sandwich se compra) y al hacer esto no pueden utilizar ese feedback para mejorarlos, ponerlos en oferta, anunciarlos mas, etc...
Muchas empresas estan dispuestas a pagar por encuestas y estudios para saber cuales son los gustos/disgustos de sus clientes con su firma sin embargo otras no aprovechan oportunidades como estas para escuchar a su cliente.
Ahora... de nuevo que tiene que ver esto con Software? Pues como dice el titulo, todo es Feedback. La mejor herramienta de un desarrollador es el feedback que pueda recibir durante el desarrollo de la aplicacion. Es el feedback del cliente el que le indica si se esta yendo o no por el camino correcto, si esa pantalla tiene los datos correctos, si la tabla tiene los campos que verdaderamente necesita, etc.
Pero como hacer esto? Pues permitiendo al cliente y usuarios ver e interactuar con la aplicacion lo mas frecuentemente posible, tener dialogos con ellos, exponer screenshots o mockups, isolar funcionalidades y presentarlas por aparte, cualquier forma de interaccion que nos permita asegurarnos que el cliente esta siendo satisfecho con lo que vamos haciendo.
No se trata de ensenar cosas todos los dias a todas las horas aunque no se avance nada o este inestable. Se trata de meter al cliente (y usuarios finales si es posible) lo mas dentro del ciclo de desarrollo para asegurarnos que hacemos lo que ellos quieren/ocupan.
Este feedback nos ayudara a saber cuales son los "sandwiches" favoritos de nuestros clientes y cuando sepas que el Italian BMT vende mejor que el sandwich de pechuga de pavo, vas a intentar repetir y mejorar la receta...