A funny thing happened on the way to the launch…
As my good friend Joel Knowling likes to say, ”This ain’t my first rodeo”. Joel sells scissor lift equipment, which is about the farthest thing there is from Web 2.0. But some phrases just apply universally.
A week ago we went into public beta. All the late nights and last minute decisions and family neglect…like I said, done this before. And just like all the other times, we forgot a few things. So when this happens, a good team will take the ‘all hands on deck approach’ and parcel out the work for all to share. At these times – actually, most of the time - startup CEOs are just another warm body with a pulse. Don’t get me wrong; this is part of the charm of a startup.
So of all the parts that we overlooked, one of them was ‘so who will respond to user FEEDBACK comments?’ So I volunteered. Immediately some of the engineers asked if they could be copied on my responses. Apparently this was not their first rodeo either. Heck, the US government is based on a series of checks and balances – and look how well it’s doing lately? ;-) So this should work well within our little company as well. So now among my other statesmanlike duties as CEO – such as keeping Alex’s kitchen/office stocked with bottled water and peanut M&M’s – I am also the voice of the FEEDBACK link.
Let me tell you, this is one task I am really enjoying. The rules are pretty simple: I have to respond to every question. The challenge is the tug between my desire to respond positively to every request while knowing that my engineering team is watching me for commitments made in public.
So I thought I’d talk about one of the wins that occurred recently. After we released last week, a lot of people asked ‘How do I Delete a Notarized page?’ My responses are all slightly different as I am avoiding standard ‘form’ answers, so here is a typical one:
The FEEDBACK:
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 2:56 PM
To: Feedback
Subject: Feedback - Question: deleting notaries?
I do have a question, or perhaps just commentary - I can’t seem to find a delete option for a notary. I’m sure there must be a way to delete a site?
Thank you, XXX
My response:
Hi XXX,
We took out Delete as it was giving us fits when someone shared a page and then deleted it. So we made Delete sit in the corner until it could behave itself. We have since come to terms with Delete and it will be released in our update release later this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
pete
Upon seeing this question come up repeatedly, the engineering team, in a blatant act of insubordination, fixed the problem, tested the fix and released it the next day. (Note: I forgot to mention that it was my call to disable the Delete key when we discovered that it was misbehaving). So I got to send out the following email to the dozen or so folks who asked about Delete:
Hi,
We added Delete as a button on the View Notaries page. There is nothing you need to do; the next time you go to the View Notaries page you should see Delete at the top of the right navigation window next to View, Share, etc.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
pete
Which generated responses from users:
that was quick, thanks!
That’s a fast turnaround on a request!
Which of course makes everyone here feel great.
So what is the lesson to be learned here? Open communication is a good thing. A very good thing. In this case, open communications is keeping the CEO (me) honest and responsible to our users and to those developing and testing the product. So he (me) can’t make impossible commitments without risking revolt within the company. It’s all good, from where I sit.
pete
