I recently posted up a fix to the QuickBase Appointment Creator application - it allows you to download appointment-type records that have been setup in QuickBase and create an appointment in Outlook. An Intuit network change caused the app to begin failing, and a problem with IntuitLabs.com kept me from seeing the customer feedback that was coming in. Once the feedback problem was solved, I quickly discovered the network change bug and fixed it. And that’s when the real feedback and iteration began. At least 5, or was it 6, engaged users who were either needing a new feature or still having problems began both commenting on the app page or using the “Talk To Us” link to directly send a comment. That made a few perfect storm factors come together to enable the rapid iteration: First, the add in, which I hadn’t modified for, well, a really long time, was “on the mind”. As a developer, it takes extra time to shift the focus and mind off of one problem and onto something different. I’ve been developing Linux-based web apps for a long time now, and switching back to Windows is a bit jarring. But this was a real problem, people were interested, and I quickly discovered an easy fix. Second, there were people interested and communicating with me RIGHT NOW. They were downloading, testing, giving me quick feedback. Finally, there were some things that I was waiting for from other folks, and they were (are) sort of holding up some other work that I need to get done… meaning I couldn’t do that work… I knew that the new feature would be a quick and easy one, so I did that instead, then spent some time debugging and, hopefully, fixing some final issues that I could easily do. Building innovative solutions that solve real problems is a lot of fun when you have the right situation in place.
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I posted to intuitlabs.com
Customer feedback and rapid iteration is what it’s about
http://intuitlabs.com/blog/archive/2009/04/customer-feedback-and-rapid-iteration-is-what-its-about/
April 29 2009, 2:07pm | Comments »
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