If you build it they will come

I got into the whole software design/usability world by accident. Never thought about doing it before and sure didn’t know I had a talent for it. 

Starting my new job as Manager of Telecom Planning 9 years ago was supposed to be the crowning achievement of my career of more than 20 years in telecommunications. Too bad that the other department already doing that work didn’t feel like giving it up. So after an 18 month dance my group lost out and my beloved position was dissolved. 

Now what? Turns out that the audit department had developed quite a hate for some of the documentation practices of one of my colleagues. So, without further adieu ladies and gentlemen, I was given the task of fixing it up – a decision based more on my availability than on any identified capability. 

Pretty soon it became apparent that some kind of tool was going to be necessary to manage all of the documents in the fashion the audit guys cherished. We didn’t have one and none of the senior executives saw any reason to help us buy one. But, through a stroke of good fortune, I met an independent developer and we convinced my management team to give us a small fund to start building something. 

Based on an existing web-based CMS application written by my new colleague we began the process of creating an electronic document management system. Up to that point I had never seen or used one so I had absolutely no idea how they worked. And that my friends is the moment at which I began my incredible journey into designing software. 

We did the most extraordinary thing – we asked our user community what they needed – sounds like USER CENTERED DESIGN (I’d never heard of it!). We didn’t even look at any existing DMS systems for ideas. We just built on the basic methods the users already had and added in the things that they needed. 

We asked, they told  us, we designed a working model, they kicked the tires, we added/subtracted/changed things then asked them again. “Better this time!” they said – sounds like AGILE DEVELOPMENT (something else I had never heard of!) 

This went on every day/week/month for about 2 years – from day one the system provided value and with each new iteration it got better and better. At the end we had a highly functional system which rivaled many commercial offerings. It cost us $63,000 to build and it stayed in production for 3 years until one of the senior executives got the bright idea (not from us) to buy from one of the industry giants. 

I actually helped implement the new system, kind of a sad time. But, it was most satisfying to hear many of our users say “I like the old one better!” 

So out of the ashes the Phoenix rises. One failure led to an incredible new beginning. I moved into a field that required the kind of instincts I had about technologies and humans. Build it for them and they will come! 

I went on to design other things, again using the same customer focus and got similar results. And, I’m still at it today- helping to build useful, usable tools. Just what the Dr., and the customer ordered!