If you doubt the ironic powers of the universe, look no further than the Seattle monorail. You see, for those than haven’t been paying attention, Seattle recently passed up its last chance for urban mass transit. We did so in an embarassingly incompetent fashion, with misguided leadership, misinformation and a confused understanding of what the problems and possible solutions were. Even shutting down the project is a sad nightmare. It has been a classic project management disaster.

And as the icing on the cake, the tiny one mile stretch of monorail, the one that’s only here because of the World’s fair in 1962, crashed this week. It will cost several million dollars to repair the trains. And, like the monorail fire last year, makes one wonder what’s next for the little guy.

And to all the armchair urban planners out there, you can see what could have been. For the sake of learning from mistakes, I hope all those architecture and urban planning departments add a healthty dose of political training to their degree programs. Mass transit in Seattle should make for an excellent case study in how a very green city can go very wrong.

Posted in Management | 3 Comments »

This week in the UX-clinic discussion forum: Topic #1 - The frankenstein prototype:

For 3 weeks I’ve been building a design prototype and I’ve earned support from programmers and managers. But now, I’m losing control. The focus of debate has moved from the hallway to the prototype: everyone wants to push the prototype in different directions. We’re adding things that clearly contradict each other and I’m losing control of the (sanity of the) design.

How do I keep the prototype from becoming Frankenstein (an out of control, and very ugly, monster)? I realize I can’t be the prototype dictator, but how can I keep the authority I’ve earned?

- Signed, Avoiding Frankenstein

Posted in Design, Software/Web development, UX-Clinic | No Comments »

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #55 - The happy holiday bonus.

Dear pm-clinic,

I’m a team lead at a small software company. My boss, the CEO, told me I have $5k in bonus money to give away this (U.S.) holiday season and that it’s up to me to figure out how to distribute it. I have a team of 5 people. I’ve never given out bonuses before: what are my alternatives? I’d like to do something performance based, but I’m on my to determine what that system is.

- How to give away money

Posted in Management, Software/Web development | 1 Comment »

Just returned from NYC on a flight from Song, the ill-fated Delta airlines experiment. Without much explanation Delta recently announced Song would be dismantled and its flights would become Delta air routes.

What follows is an experience designer’s critique of flying with Song.

• Personality as experience. From the moment I sat in the waiting area for my outbound flight, I noticed a difference. The brand colors were not a combination of blue, red and white (colors used by almost every major airline) but an off-green. The waiting area displays had sarcastic jokes in them. And the overhead announcements were entertaining and made me want to smile at the staff ( a rare feeling for frequent travelers). This was reflected on the plane: the safety announcements were sung, not spoken, and the song changed every day. A personality for the ariline was chosen and manifested it in the design of everything, and in the choice and rewards for all staff (Begging the question: if your software/website was a person, who would it be? Who would you want it to be? How will you get it closer?)
• Love vs. Annoyance . The risk of having a strong personality (or an experience) is that it’s subjective. In order to make something person A loves, you will always make something person B hates. Most brands chicken out and pick things that A and B accept, but don’t love. Assuming your target market has more of A than B, you’re ok. With Song, at first I thought I was a B. When onboard I was miffed at first by the relentlessly happy, cool vibe present in the onboard staff and all the materials (the safety warnings are done in song, and acted out by the air crew). But over the course of the flight, and the return trip I enjoyed it. I was being served by likeable real people, not robots. It was one of the most enjoyable flights I’ve had.
• Television is the flight opiate. I’m a reader. I bring 3 books when I fly. The TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me was an immediate annoyance and I turned it off. But when I caught my neighbors screen with the ESPN Classic channel on, my eyes lit up. I spent most of the flight watching classic football games and the discovery channel (one of 20 available). Never has a flight flown by so fast. A movie of my choice was available via credit card swipe for $5. The in-flight menu had above average food at reasonable (for airports) prices.
• The business confusion over style vs. experience. It’s not clear why Song was pulled: I haven’t found much analysis online other than reports of low ticket sales (but why?). Given the drops in experience quality across all airlines, and how unpleasant air travel can be for many, a service focused alternative (even at a price) seems a business opportunty. I fear that whatever the failures/mistakes were, good experience design will be lumped into the pile, and it will be some time before Delta, or anyone else invests in this way again.
• Growing brands vs. making them. One guess about why Song is being pulled is their approach to brand. Good brands take time to develop: you can’t always buy your way - you have to earn it. Given the backing of Delta they might have taken on the new brand with the goals of a billion dollar big player in mind, which can lead to marketing distractions (such as a Song store in NYC) over things with direct impact on the bottom line. There was real value in what they offered, but the emhpasis on style and presentation (The Song name, non-traditional colors, general sassyness) over substance (pleasant flights, decent food, high quality service) may have confused potential customers on what Song’s advantages really were.

References:

• Press release about the end of Song airlines.
• Old interview w/ Tim Maples, Song marketing director.
• Brand autopsy’s short critique of Song.

Which airline has the best overall experience? Why? (and if anyone finds other critiques or business commentary on Song, please comment).

Posted in Design | 9 Comments »

This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum: Topic #54 - Winning at schedule chicken.

Dear pm-clinic,

My project team is one of three on a large project. We are currently in a big game of schedule chicken (each team thinks the other team is further behind schedule than they are). The result is escalation: none of the teams are backing down and are protective of their knowingly slipping schedules on the basis that the other projects are slipping worse.

As a leader of my part of the project, how do win this game for my team? Do I just try to get better at playing schedule chicken (how do I do that?) Or should I be looking for ways to defuse the game, and try to get my peers and superiors to replace it with a better game (how do I do that)?

- CSC (Chicken at schedule chicken)

Posted in Management, Software/Web development | No Comments »

News.com has a special issue on the latest generation gap and how differently the current generation of 7-12 year olds uses the Internet. It’s a bit fluffy and positive, sort of like a Time magazine article, but it does quickly hit key points, with some supporting data and commentary.

A recent study from Pew Internet and American Life found that more than half of all teens online–12 million kids–create original material for the Web, whether it’s through a blog, home page or school Web site, with original artwork, photos or video. A large portion of that active group also will creatively “remix” other material from the Web to create something unique.

Taking back the web ( A news.com special report).

But the articles don’t ask questions about about the risks or downsides of these trends. For example:

• In the data sited above: what percentage of all kids are online?
• What about in other countries? Are “the millenials” a U.S. phenomenon? What about Europe and the Far East? ( South Korea is apparently light years ahead)
• Do other (and better) education systems approach/guide youth Internet usage differently?
• Does the amount of time spent online (and on their asses) correlate with youth obesity trends in the U.S (30% of 6-11 year olds overweight, 15% (1 in 7!) obese)?
• The mashup culture is being led by people much older than millenials - why? Which of the trends mentioned are isolated to 6-12 year olds, and which ones cut across age groups (even if only by early-adopters and tech enthusiasts)?

Posted in Web 2.0 / social software | 2 Comments »

Jess McMullin has a good post on design games. Years ago I ran a live design competition as part of an exploration into how to use games to explore and teach design. Jess has a great list of similiar resources, including some I hadn’t seen before.

Posted in Design, Teaching/Training | No Comments »

Today marks the one year anniversary of pm-clinic, a friendly discussion group on leading and managing teams. It’s been a great success, growing to over 500 members but keeping a very high signal to noise ratio.

In the same spirit, I’m pleased to launch ux-clinic. Same basic structure and format, but different domain. We’ll be discussing common situations people who work on web, software UI and interaction design face.

All are welcome to join. I expect the list to be mostly usability engineers, web designers, managers, programmers, information architects and interaction designers, or people that play them on TV.

Over the next two weeks we’ll be self-organizing the list and then kick off the first weekly discussion in December.

So if you want to help shape a new community, join up now. Have questions? Comment here.

Posted in Design | No Comments »

Are you a good person? How do you know? Most of us set our bar for good and bad awfully low. Unless you’re kicking puppies and stealing lunches from homeless children, you probably think you’re doing all right. But not being bad is not the same as being good. And when it comes to making things like software and websites the same rules apply.

Essay: Good, evil and technology.

Posted in Essays | 3 Comments »

Earlier today a brief review and chapter excerpt (13: How to make things happen) appeared on slashdot.org.

I’ve been reading a new book from O’Reilly which, despite my intense aversion to books of this type, outshines its class. Scott Berkun, has written The Art of Project Management. While my own review of it is tardy and still forthcoming, he & the fine folks at ORA have sent us an excerpt. Below is Chapter 13 - well worth reading, and getting the book.

Check it out.

Posted in artofpm reviews | 2 Comments »

The forums are back up and running. If you’ve read the artofpm book or any of my essays and have a question you’d like to see answered, fire away. Anything goes: leadership, design, management, web 2.0, the brooklyn bridge, you ask it, I’ll answer it.

Currently there are 45 questions and answers up there already.

If you’re lazy (Scott raises own hand) feel free to ask your question as a comment here.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

It’s hard to find information on web 2.0 that isn’t highly polarized or self-serving. One great resource, currently my favorite, is programmableweb.com. Unlike other sources John Musser, the industry veteran running the site, reports on what’s happening with a focus on what’s being built rather than what’s being said. His references page is the best one stop shop I know for people playing catchup (or are trapped in acronym hell) and his mashup list will keep you occupied for hours. Highly recommended.

Also of note: The Web 2.0 working group.

Posted in Web 2.0 / social software | No Comments »