When thinking about the HiSoftware family from the inception until the time I stepped down as Chairman of the Board and CEO, there is one unique trait that held true-Many Voices. By many voices I mean that everyone had the right to question and everyone who was hired was likely to have comments and/or a voice to add to the discussion, (view previous post on up-hiring).
For Example, unless QA approved the release a product could not be released. This meant that if there was a defect that they did not like then the product could not be released. This decision could be discussed and deliberated but there were no closed door meetings where decisions to just release the product in spite of quality issues were made behind anyone’s back, (please view my comment on why QA and Engineering process is important).
Features, new features did happen but they were never one-offs. If enough customers, generally three enterprise customers or ten non-enterprise customers requested something new we would schedule a feature meeting. We would have to understand the impact on: product, QA, Installation, Sales, Services, Documentation and how this all played into the current schedule. If everyone agreed that it could be done without impacting the product or company vision negatively then it was built. Once again notice the importance of the engineering process and quality assurance
Some environments do not allow people to point out defects or to shove them under the desk; in the HiSoftware at that time, I wanted people to point out defects. We used to have bug bashes before the release of products where we had pizza and sodas and the person who found the most defects got a prize like a Borders gift certificate or a day off on a Friday or Monday. The excitement to find defects was beyond imaginable and I should note that there was a complete pride in the product shared by all employees.
I actually remember having employees come in to tell me that I needed to do things differently, to be a better CEO and then give me a list of why and how. I listened, respected the opinion and had some coffee with the person making the suggestions and got back to work! You cannot believe the pride that people have in their company when their voices are heard and opinions are valued! Of course there are down sides with everything but an open door policy where all voices are heard is essential to great companies!
From features to quality assurance I have discussed why many voices matter, but I don’t want to forget the frontline, technical support. This is on many occasions where the “rubber meets the road”. To empower the employees-we gave all the players including sales, anyone who dealt with the product or customer service, access to the support database and mailing lists. We did this because the voices of the customers needed to be heard. The individual in charge of customer support served as the customer advocate and they also had the ability to hold up the release of a product until they felt it was ready to go to the customer.
Lastly, could you imagine writing documentation without being privy to the support database or customer advocates or engineers? The task is very difficult, as you will not know what to correct in your writing or what errata to add. In many cases the documentation lead to changes in usage patterns or workflows.
So to summarize some key points on the importance of many voices of product development:
- All people dealing with the product or customers should have access to the support database
- The person in charge of customer support should have “stop ship” authority
- The person in charge of QA should have “stop ship” authority
- The person in charge of engineering should have “stop ship” authority
- There should be a process on how new features are added
- All employees should have the right to point out what they consider miss- management as a matter of policy
- A open door policy should literally and figuratively be instituted
- Beyond just allowing multiple opinions, leadership should also act on the same opinions.
Have a great Sunday and don’t forget to check out another one of my books, Understanding Accessibility at http://www.understandingaccessibility.com/
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