Growing a Little Fig

Derek Sivers

In the software development industry, sometimes there can be a disconnect between technical people (TP) and non-technical people (NTP). Fault can be blamed equally upon both parties.

From one point of view, a TP may be talking about something to a NTP in a way that may be way over their head. The NTP may just go along with the conversation because they don't want to feel stupid in front of the TP. Consequently, the TP could take into account the NTP is exactly that, non-technical, and try to simplify what they are talking about. Or, the NTP could speak up and simply state they have no idea what's going on and try to encourage the TP to explain in a different way. After a few months at 8th Light and a few years dating a programmer, I've thought of a few ideas that could help bridge the gap between TP and NTP conversations.

First, a NTP should make an effort to learn a few keywords that would make communicating with the TP easier. In a TP to NTP conversation, we (the NTP) expect the TP to put what they are saying into layman's terms. If the NTP took some time to learn some TP verbiage, this could increase understanding and efficiency whilst easing tensions. 

Second, using metaphors and drawing pictures. Isn't the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words?" If the TP and NTP just can't quite seem to understand each other, try using a metaphor to relate what you're trying to say to something more common. Or, even the worst artist, has the ability to utilize stick figures and circles to explain what they mean if metaphors aren't working.

Third, don't rush the communication and give time to process the correspondence. Writing software is hard, intensive work. Digesting technical jargon is hard, intensive work from a NTP perspective. Neither party wants to spend valuable time going back and forth saying the same thing ten different ways. Giving mutual time respect to both TP and NTP allows both sides to process information at a comfortable rate allotting a more clear understanding. 

Last Friday, Margaret lead a Town Hall meeting on customer service. One of the topics we discussed was giving bad news to clients and how to do it. To expand upon what was discussed at the meeting, below are some things to remember when delivering bad news.

First, in-person is the best, most respectable way to deliver bad news. If there's distance or time constraint, a phone call or Skype/Google Hangout meeting are the next best ways for delivery. Email should be the absolute LAST RESORT!

If you have good news alongside the bad news, start with the good first. A client can tune out the rest of what you have to say if all they hear first are bad items. If you have nothing but bad news, give a fair warning that something unpleasant may be unfolding. Once you have to give the bad news in full, make sure to own up to it. Recognizing the consequences and accepting responsibility are both key to remedying the situation and moving forward. While delivering bad news, be aware of the tone and speed of your voice. Make sure to put aside emotional feeling and give the impression that you are thinking rationally.

While giving the impression that you're thinking rationally, don't be a robot either. Find the happy medium between being calm and and expressing empathy towards your clients situation. Try not to use formal words like, "it's protocol." Instead, explain why it's the way that it is. Try not to harp on negative words and circumstances. Try to spin negative statement  into positive statement just by changing the way you express your thought. While delivering bad news, try to be helpful by giving alternative suggestions. For example, if you can't take on their project, suggest your competitor, your client will probably figure it out on their own anyway and will appreciate your recommendation.

A few months ago, I started learning how to use Google AdWords (GAW) to promote apprenticeship at 8th Light. I can vividly remember how overwhelmed I felt looking at the GAW dashboard for the first time. There was certainly a learning curve of vocabulary and strategy that I wondered if I would ever understand. I did a lot of preliminary research and learned of small business horror stories of dollars wasted on bad strategy.

Fortunately for new users, Google offers free unlimited training for the first six weeks. I made sure to take full advantage of that! It was extremely helpful as I had no idea what I was doing starting out. I took a very broad first attempt at creating ads, adding keywords, and utilizing a very small budget. After a month of zeros across the analytics, I knew organically this wasn't going to work. I had to increase the budget and strategize my keywords. After multiple long calls to GAW support, I was able to optimize the bidding strategy and keywords to get some impressions and clicks on the ads!

After about a month of familiarizing myself with the GAW dashboard, it became less intimidating. The two most significant changes I made to my AdWords strategy was how I was bidding and the formatting of my keywords. Currently, the bidding strategy I'm using is focusing on clicks. AdWords is setting my bids to help maximize appearance within my target budget. This means while bidding to show an ad, GAW is bidding for me based on the quality score of my keywords and ads.

Speaking of keywords, I drastically changed the formatting of keywords. The most successful change I made is utilizing the, "+" sign in the keywords. This match type is known as a broad match modifier. Adding the plus sign in front of words makes sure that those words are always in the search query no matter what. For instance, if in my keywords I have, +chicago +software +apprenticeship and someone searches software apprenticeship in Chicago, based on bidding and quality score, my add will still show up even though the search terms aren't exactly the same.

Utilizing the modified broad search was helpful as the idea of apprenticeship isn't naturally thought of for the software industry. Therefore, I also learned I can use negative keywords. The benefit of negative keywords is used to prevent people that are looking for an apprenticeship that doesn't pertain to software from seeing our apprenticeship ads.

With all forms of technology today, you would assume it would be easy to get a contract signed and returned with no problem. Think again.

Margaret has let me take the lead on the account management of a client. We were making some changes to the project and needed the client to re-sign a new statement of work (SOW) and master service agreement (MSA). Both items are standard business practice at 8th Light and are communicated clearly to every client.

Within each document, we highlight important factors regarding the project. For example, the cost, legalities, projected start and end dates, and other contractual jargon. For this specific project, we all decided to start work the following week. With that being said, we need all contracts signed, returned, and sent to our administrative team before any work would start.

After instructions to the client to sign and scan back the contract, I did not receive anything. After a few follow-up emails, a call, another email stating work cannot begin without the signed contract and the team may no longer be available, and an offer to pick up the contracts from their office; I didn't received either contract back by the close of business on a Friday... with work to supposedly begin Monday.

There's only so much you can do to ensure contracts gets back in a timely manner. Once you have done everything you can, it becomes the clients responsibility as it's their product being built. Around 8 PM on Friday, I did receive an email stating the contracts had been faxed to our Libertyville office. I asked again for them to scan and send me the signed contracts. Luckily, with some quick running around Monday morning, the project did start on time. Whew!

"A degree in CS or IT does make a more, well-rounded programmer." Do you agree or disagree? Not sure? Join our panel of esteemed industry influencers as we take a deep dive into the opinionated world of software development. 

Meet the Panel: Corey Haines | Mark Rickmeier | Ray Hightower

Facilitated By: Dave Moore

Attendee Interaction: Connect with the panelists via Twitter by asking questions or sharing opinions with #controcoding. 

Last week, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with craftsman, Mike Jansen discussing key components to being [or becoming] a good public speaker. Mike and I watched well-known activist and Chef, Jamie Oliver in a Ted Talk called, Teach Every Child About Food. We took brief notes on what was being presented and how it was being presented. The video was extremely engaging, thought-provoking and I learned a lot about the presented societal issue and great speaking behaviors.

Jamie's descriptive opening statistics encapsulated the audiences' attention. He then jumped right into his bio for people who may not be aware of his work. Jamie then dove right into the problem he is trying to solve: educating children and their parents about the importance of understanding food. Jamie utilized scare tactics, stating that kids today were living 10 years less than their parents. To emphasize his points, he used repetitive imagery and words to really drive home his message. Further, he used videos of real-life situations of people living the issue he's trying to combat. By doing this, he created a good emotional connection with the audience that was extremely engaging. To illustrate, he showed a video clip of a classroom of young kids trying to identify common fruit and vegetables. These kids were having trouble identifying the difference between tomatoes and potatoes... Two produce items that look nothing alike. This is precisely the problem Jamie is trying to solve: if they don't know what it is, they won't eat it.

I've been trying to tackle this question for almost a week now. I have such a broad answer because, I LEARNED SO MUCH! I think it was very beneficial starting at 8th Light right around the time when the details of SCNA were starting to be planned. I've tried to narrow what I've learned down to three main takeaways.

Conference planning involves a lot of details.

8th Light employs some pretty amazing people and those people make planning the details mentioned above enjoyable.

After all those details are planned with the great 8th Light team, meeting the SCNA attendees makes all the work worth it.

1. This was my first time being a part of planning a conference. It's crazy the amount of things you think of as you go through the planning process and as you get closer to the conference date. There are also a lot of details you have to take your team's word on, if you've never been to the conference before. It was both an interesting and challenging experience jumping right in. I may have stressed out about it more than I should have but I was happy to be overly invested. I learned that being organized, very communicative, and timely were all extremely important in the success of SCNA. I hope with those practices, SCNA 2014 planning will be a breeze!

2. Planning SCNA would have been a miserable experience if I wasn't privileged to work alongside such great people! By getting involved in the planning process, I was able to get to know a lot of my colleagues really well. I recognized how hardworking, generous, and wonderful they all are to work with. My experience would definitely not have been the same without them!

3. I cannot speak highly enough of the SCNA attendees. They were truly the ones who made all the prep and planning worth it. Their passion for software craftsmanship was both inspiring and invigorating. Within this industry, I would be considered "non-technical," meaning, I can't write a lick of code. Nevertheless, this didn't stop me from engaging with the attendees and becoming motivated by their willingness to learn, collaborate, and be a part of a technical movement.

Sometimes I find it intimidating to collaborate with my fellow apprentices... Only because they are all so brilliant! I feel extremely lucky to surround myself with such smart and established people everyday. It's fun collaborating with everyone on non-technical projects because I get to know my co-workers on a more personal level.

I collaborate every Friday with other apprentices for our weekly 8LU event. Although it can be busy and stressful, I enjoy being able to work with the other apprentices and accomplishing a successful event each Friday!

I also worked really closely with the other apprentices the weekend of SCNA. We were all required to be there as the volunteer committee for the event. I was truly blown away by how hard everyone worked throughout the event. Everyone sustained a high-level of effort, enthusiasm, and hard work which truly made SCNA run extremely smoothly. I kept hearing the volunteer committee asking what else they could do and what else needed to get accomplished. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to volunteer and enjoy SCNA with. I feel really privileged to work with people that so reliable and accountable.

I feel as though my experience at 8th Light as a sales apprentice is pretty different from all the other development apprentices. My days are hectic and scattered, (as previously noted in an earlier post). I don't sit still for long periods of time. I don't have specific coding problems to try to solve. I don't have snippets of code to add to my blog posts. I kind of fly by the seat of pants and see where the day (and Margaret) take me. It's truly difficult to try to describe a day in the life of a sales apprentice because they are like snowflakes, all unique.

Most recently, I've taken over the account management of a small client. I love interacting with the client and developers by renegotiating contracts and being the main communicator. It has been a fun experience and I've been learning a lot from it. I can't wait for more opportunities to have my own clients and start from phase 0.

Speaking of clients, I've been given the lead to choose the holiday gifts for our clients this year. I have been picking my brain trying to think of an unique, applicable gift for all clients. It has been interesting researching a gift that exhibits "craftsmanship". There are a lot of factors to think of when trying to buy a gift for 30+ clients/companies that will please everyone. I think I've narrowed it down to the top three and I plan on getting some insight from my colleagues later this week!

Many of us have heard motivational stories of inspiring teachers encouraging students to blossom and discover their life paths. Fantastic! Peachy! Wonderful! But, what about the teachers on the other end of the spectrum? The ones that have the opposite effect, they influence you to either, a. hate the subject or worse, b. make you think you're "not good" at said subject.

8th grade, Pre-Algebra. The teacher that inspired me to "hate" math and coerced me into thinking that I wasn't good at it. With a pre-existing poor attitude, I entered high school setting myself up to be a math failure. I can vividly remember having arguments with my parents asking, "when in my life, outside of this class, will I ever use square roots?" At only 16 years-old, I knew the single-track, template teaching system wasn't applicable to every single student. However, I had been culturally persuaded to believe that because I didn't learn this way, I wasn't going to easily succeed.

Until recently, I haven't thought much about the impact of my math failures on my adult life. I only bring up these thoughts now because I recently read an essay introduced to me by Jim Suchy, a Craftsman at 8th Light, titled, Lockhart's Lament. According to Lockhart, the way mathematics is being taught in schools today, "has been reduced to a sterile set of 'facts' to be memorized and procedures to be followed." I couldn't agree more, why not teach math in a way that makes logical sense. For instance, when teaching percentages, use restaurant checks and tipping. Two birds with one stone here, life application and understanding as well as the opportunity to teach teenagers dining etiquette (former server speaking here). Lockhart sums it up perfectly, "by removing the creative process and leaving only the results of that process, you virtually guarantee that no one will have any real engagement with the subject."

Now I cannot fully blame my 8th grade teacher for making me "hate" math. "The cultural problem is a self-perpetuating monster: students learn about math from their teachers, and teachers learn about it from their teachers, so this lack of understanding and appreciation for mathematics in our culture replicates itself indefinitely," says Lockhart. My teacher was most likely just following the planned curriculum that I wasn't understanding the first time as he boringly copied formulas from the textbook to the whiteboard. As Lockhart explains, "if everyone were exposed to mathematics in its natural state, with all the challenging fun and surprises that that entails, I think we would see a dramatic change both in the attitude of students toward mathematics, and in our conception of what it means to be 'good at math.'"

I was groomed to believe that I was more of a creative and right-brained thinker. I was never exposed to the concept of math being a creative subject. I truly believe if I had been taught with a more creative approach to mathematics, I would be more confident in the subject today. In the words of Lockhart, "we learn things because they interest us now, not because they might be useful later." Maybe if I had enjoyed learning about math instead of being told and trained to memorize it, I would be in a career using it. Instead, I nervously panic and sweat each time something more complicated than arithmetic comes up.

Lastly, Lockhart states, "mathematics is about removing obstacles to our intuition, and keeping simple things simple." With my newfound approach to mathematics, I will look at the subject much differently... and for the better.

After resurrecting the 8th Light Twitter account in late August, we've seen about a 13% increase in followers to date. That's a good start, but I know I can do better! Luckily, I read an interesting chapter from a book called: The Science of Marketing by Dan Zarrella, specifically, the chapter focusing on Twitter. 

The following are things I learned:

Highly followed accounts tweet more links–these accounts build reach by sharing interesting content, not by being conversational.

Successful accounts tweet around TWENTY-TWO times per day!

As self-reference increases, follower count decreases.

Business Twitter accounts should not be afraid to be authoritative.

Accounts posting 60 to 80% links tend to get the most retweets.

Get more retweets by asking for them.

4 PM = most retweet activity = people become lazy and less witty.

Twitter activity is highest early in the week, most retweeting happens on Friday's. 

On Friday's, go over the best stuff tweeted during the week and re-share.

Many people will retweet a link without actually reading what the link is.

Change up the Tweeting format by including a link in the middle of a post instead of the end.

When sharing your own content on Twitter, slow down the pace.

Tweets with verbs and adverbs work better than tweets with nouns and adjectives.

Saturday and Sunday provide a good channel to tweet because there's less feed competiton aka contra-competitive timing.

I've been a bad apprentice and have neglected to write a blog post about my latest experiences at 8th Light. Every time I sit down to write, I'm interrupted...

< 4 hours later >

I'm back. What was I going to write about before? This happens regularly. Anyway, the focus of my apprenticeship the last month or so has been on SCNA. It started with trying to solicit for sponsorship and has evolved into event planning, organization, attendee management, newsletter deployment, and social media marketing. 

< distraction > 

SCNA starts in month. It has been a great learning experience working with other 8th Lighters and being involved in the planning stages of a tech conference. It has been challenging to get all the details organized. I hope our copious amounts of spreadsheets help the conference run smoothly! Fingers crossed.

I went on my first "official" business trip, which was one night...Baby steps. I attended a few tech social events and had an, 'aha moment' when I ran into the same person at multiple events. A lightbulb went on and networking all made sense.

Margaret uses 5 personal facts to make a personal connection with potential clients. Currently, I'm trying to figure out my own 5...I love my dog (see below), but what-if said 'potential client' is a cat-person, then what? :)

The sales side of things are starting to pick up as Marg has planned for me to do a mock sales pitch soon. I've been doing a lot of observing and I need to start practicing. Otherwise I'll be fumbling over my words and no one is going to want to do work with an inexperienced rookie, even if I am one!

I plan to write a blog post on my mock sales pitch experience as well as SCNA... stay tuned!

I'm almost through my fourth week at 8th Light. Two mannerisms I've noticed:

a lot of people take their shoes off while they work

a lot of people wear plaid

  Last week, I celebrated my 25th birthday. I was lucky enough to grow up in a family that always made my birthday a really special occasion. My gifts may have matured from Barbie dolls to Tiffany rings but the tradition of being treated like a rockstar hasn't diminished in the least. 

My Mom, 1 hour before I made my world debut.

My Dad holding me for the first time. Obviously, I wasn't camera ready yet. Paparazzi, please. 

I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with my parents and the week with my friends and extended family. My Dad gave me White Sox tickets and I brought my friend, Emma, my boyfriend's brother, Matt and his girlfriend, Lauren. Little did we know, they were VIP tickets in the GoldCoast Club! Free food, free booze, and free dessert! Thanks, Dad! What a great birthday surprise! My boyfriend's mom, Karen, and sister, Missy, came into the city from the suburbs just to bring me presents and take me out to lunch! See, rockstar! I went with my foodie bestie, Emma, to The Little Goat Diner for my birthday dinner and it was amazing. We ordered too much food, but what's a birthday without indulging?

Ballers at the White Sox game!

Pre-gluttons @ The Little Goat Diner!

There was a bittersweet ending to my 8/7/13 celebration. As I was embracing my 25th year of life, my once college roommate was losing a battle she had been fighting for 5 years. My friend, roommate, Rush sister, intramural sport teammate, nightly ice cream bingeing partner, and giggling queen passed away on my birthday at the young age of 24. Kate was one of the nicest people I have EVER had the pleasure of knowing. She had a kind heart, optimistically positive attitude, and infectiously fun spirit. 

Lindsey, Me, Kate 

Lindsey had been keeping me updated on Kate's health while she was in and out of the Cleveland Clinic. I tried to plan a trip to visit Kate more than once, but it never happened. I will always feel guilty about that. I should have made the time, she was worth it. Kate was a big influence in my first two years of college. She will always have a starring role in the hilarious memories that were made on the 4th floor of Darrow. We became close friends during a time when the hardest decision we faced was if we were going to class that day. College.Was.Awesome. And I'm glad I was able to experience it with her.

Kate passing away on my birthday is, for lack of a better word, a weird feeling. I attended her services in Toledo, Ohio this week and it was an intensely emotional 2 days. Even though Kate is no longer suffering, it still pains me to think about the great life she wholeheartedly deserves but will never live. It's sad that these circumstances make me realize how much I take for granted and that I need to appreciate all the good in my life. I will forever think of her often, remember to acknowledge all of my good fortunes, and keep on living the way she would have been proud of. 

"You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does..." - Tom Petty