 | 11:22 am - The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure
Although I don't feel like taking the time to look for it right now, there's a story in my blog that I want to expound on.
We're in a meeting. The boss is explaining to everyone how great the marketing fluff for my product is and how all products should have this (stupid) personas document that explains the audience and the features and direction of the product.
When she takes a break from praising, I point out that the document is more than a year old and very out of date and was written 2 marketing dudes ago, and the current marketing dude refuses to update the document because "the product is a moving target." As if the point of the document wasn't to SET the freaking target. Anyway, getting back to the point of this which was that when I pointed out to my boss, she told me that I need to tell her when things like this happen. It's her job to make me successful and that means getting rid of any impediments in my way. So I say that now I've notified her. And I send her a follow-up email.
The next day, I get back a reply that says, I should talk to the marketing guy, interview him to get his perspective on where the product is and is going and write that down for posterity. Like I hadn't tried that. The marketing dude changed his mind regularly and refused to acknowledge (as they usually do) that there had ever been a change in direction. And if I could pin him down to one thing, wouldn't I have done that already? So to sum up, she did nothing but provide a useless idea that anyone with half a brain would have already tried. She made no attempt to contact the marketing guy or to have the document updated.
Fast-forward to yesterday. I get an email from Lanna saying that she's concerned about her ability to document this one element of the product.
The element in question is absolutely critical documentation wise because it's the first thing a user sees when they start the product.
I write back basically that: This is absolutely critical. What happens if you reshuffle your remaining tasks to do this one first.
And she wrote back: I can't do it without support from some patient person ie: your or the QE guy. NOT the developers, and NOT the Tech sup rep.
So I thought about it for a minute and then wrote to the QE manager asking if I could have the QE guy for a couple of days to help Lanna.
He wrote back and said that would be fine and I passed the word back to Lanna.
And I thought, maybe I could really do this; be a manager. I'm not perfect by any means, there are things I still don't understand about the process or the product, and it's hard to keep everything in the air at once, and I feel really behind, but I don't hang my people out to dry. I don't send them mixed messages much, and when I do, I recognize that I've changed my mind and admit it upfront. I listen to input (most of the time). But the thing I most like is that I'm not completely tainted by DaBoss. I'm better than that. And this proves it. I didn't drop the ball or pass it back to Lanna. I got involved and tried to solve the problem. And yes, I went home with a strong feeling of job satisfaction, for yesterday, if only for one day, I failed to suck.
Current Mood:  pleased
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