Study George Lakoff for tips on using language to shift perceptions. Keep asking, no matter what, "So, how does this help the user kick ass?" and "How does this help the user do what he really wants to do?" Don't focus on what the user will think about the product, focus everyone around you on what the user will think about himself as a result of interacting with it. In meetings, phrase everything in terms of the user's personal experience rather than the product. Frame everything in terms of the user's experience. In no particular order, here's a collection of tools used by our formerly underground User Liberation Army: Only one of our original disruption team remains a badged Sun employee, but our legacy persists today in areas that won't make us famous, but do make a substantial difference in the experience that users get within the sphere we influenced. Most is from things a maverick (but cleverly disguised as compliant) group of us did at Sun, while we could.
Here's my little unofficial guide to creating passionate users for those working in Big Companies. In that case, you do what many of us did at Sun. You're an engineer, or maybe a program manager.
#Subvert zombie software#
But he kept insisting that where better to produce positive change than going straight into the heart of one of the biggest sources of trouble for both users and developers in the software ecosystem?īut let's say you're not a Ward Cunningham or any other famous, visible, already influential industry player. When Ward Cunningham (inventor of the Wiki, key player in extreme programming, etc.) went to work for Microsoft, much of the software engineering world was horrified that he'd even consider it. are, there are motivated, smart, caring, creative people who work there.Īnd these folks have a chance to make a Difference (capital "D") on a scale that most of us will never touch. I'd forgotten (or never recognized) that it's a collection of individual people, and no matter how entrenched the company's views, policies, practices, values, bureaucracy, etc.
#Subvert zombie how to#
But I'd forgotten how to see Microsoft as something other than a Big Company. It's so tempting to say that anyone who really cares that much about users ought to get the hell out of the big company. But the day was a string of surprises and challenged assumptions (starting with finding Liz Lawley in my workshop (someone I'd never met but long admired), and ending with meeting some amazing MS guys including Furrygoat's Steve Mafosky, Shawn Morrissey, and Lou (whose-last-name-I-forgot)). And yes, it was on a "passionate users" mission - something even my teenage daughter found hilarious given the Microsoft we all know and love to hate. But what if you are, in fact, a fish in a sea as vast as, say, Microsoft? Can you hope to make a difference? Or does working at the "DarkStar" suck the soul from any employee with a passionate users bent? It's one thing to talk about-and execute-a user-focused approach when you're a small company or an independent contractor. | "Dignity is deadly." - Paul Graham » Subvert from Within: a user-focused employee guide
#Subvert zombie Pc#
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