Recently I learned that our development manager is having all of our developers read Repeat After Me: I Am Not In The Software Business. I hadn’t read that blog post so I went to it and read it.
Some days the sun shines even when it is raining. Reading that post made this such a day. When we started Spider Strategies, the four of us spent a long time writing our Mission and Vision. In particular, it was very important that we make ourselves different in one particular way:
“Our key distinguisher is, and will always be, our customers.
In today’s world of corporate performance management software, we see the customer left out of this equation all too often. The common formula seems to be simply codifying industry theory and delivering that template via outdated technology.”
Over the past four years, we haven’t changed either our Mission or our Vision. Nor, over the past four years, have we made it a particular point to stress them with our employees. Yet, today, I find that our development manager is passing on the spirit of our Mission and Vision through things like Repeat After Me: I Am Not In The Software Business.
When we say that “Our key distinguisher is, and will always be, our customers.”, we are saying to our employees exactly what Christopher Hawkins says to the software developer community:
“You are not an artiste.
You are not even in the software business.
You are in the problem-solving business.
More to the point, you are in the business-problem-solving business.
The technology problems you solve should always be in the context of solving a business problem.
If the solution to a particular business problem offers less benefit than the effort required to solve it, you should be working to solve a different problem.”
It may be a cloudy, dreary April day in Minnesota today, but for me the sun is shining.
Wow. This was really nice to see.
It makes my day that I’ve made your day with that post! I feel very strongly about solving real problems and not tweedling about with technology issues for technology’s own sake.
You guys sound like you have your heads screwed on straight, and your product looks great. Thanks for reading my stuff, and thanks for writing about it!
This is a great blog Mike and does make a lot of sense, especially when i think about it in the context of all my interactions with my former college mates who have spent their last seven years in the software business. I don’t remember any of them talking about their jobs or their contributions in the context of solving any real business problems.
Cheers!