Our customers can be unexpectedly, hilariously great sometimes. It’s not at all uncommon for one of us on the support team to post something a customer said in Campfire, because “this lady just made my day!” or “this guy was so funny and nice!”
Now, we’re empowered to do right by our customers, so that’s part of it—we can all take care of billing issues or ID merges or whatever our users need without going to a manager. (Psst: there is no manager.) When we’re able to fix a problem within a few minutes or we prove to be real people rather than robots, that tends to pleasantly surprise people, and they react accordingly. Awesomeness begets awesomeness.
Super speedy, plain and clear communication – didn’t feel like a call-centre experience – was quite obvious that Jim knew what he was talking about rather than just reading from a script. Got the exact answers and actions that I needed. Not used to this level of service – feel a bit dazed ;-)
But we don’t deserve all the credit. Our customers just tend to be savvy, and kind, and they consistently disprove the popular consensus that people on the Internet suck.
No problem. Machines don’t mess up near as often as often as people. So odds are I just didn’t save it correctly. Thank you again for your time and trying to help.
Chase answered my question quickly and completely. He also threw in “have an awesome Tuesday” which is a mildly absurd thing thing to wish someone as it is usually weekends which are “awesome”. I’m gonna run with it though and try to make this day “awesome”. I already high-fived my dog. He seemed confused.
A surprising number of folks write back just to say thank you. They don’t have to—it’s our job to help. But it’s still nice to hear and gives us warm fuzzies.
You know what Kristin, you just made my day … and restored my faith (a bit) in our species.
Sometimes they go beyond that, even. Out of gratitude or wackiness or whatever, they send us photos and videos of their pets, or links to memes.
Thank you. I attached a flying unicorn to show my appreciation.
Some of our San Francisco customers know Merissa is a huge Giants fan, and a few submitted support tickets to tell her they were excited for her during the 2012 World Series. People will sometimes write in just to say they love Basecamp, or to wish us happy holidays.
Just want to say Merry Christmas guys … we’ve been using Basecamp for many years and continue to love the service. Keep up the good work and hope to be on your service for years to come. Here’s a big thank you. Thanks to the web-based nature of work I can stay in touch while getting some awesome snow on holiday in Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan!
Those of us in support are here because we genuinely enjoy helping—but you folks make it easy. Thanks!
My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, “So? Did you learn anything today?” But not my mother. “Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a good question today?”
That difference – asking good questions – made me become a scientist.
When you’re building a new product, you’re often thinking about all the new things people are going to be able to do with it. Now they can do this, now they can do that. Exciting!
But there’s a better question to ask: What are people going to stop doing once they start using your product?
What does your product replace? What are they switching from? How did they do the job before your product came along?
Habit, momentum, familiarity, anxiety of the unknown – these are incredibly hard bonds to break. When you try to sell someone something, you have to overcome those bonds. You have to break the grip of that gravity.
So, when you’re thinking about your product, think about what it replaces, not just what it offers. What are you asking people to leave behind when they move forward with you? How hard will that be for them? How can you help them overcome everything that’s tugging them in the opposite direction?
Clay Shirky on why love makes open source communities work.
Since its launch, the all new Basecamp hadn’t had a dedicated Help site that was actually, well… helpful. Last month, the Support team and I changed all of that.
The previous, crusty excuse of a Help page we had for Basecamp was:
A list of answers to questions no one was asking
A dead end that didn’t encourage discovery
A mystery to our Support team because they couldn’t update it
Previous version that didn’t answer real questions
It needed an upgrade. It needed a rewrite and redesign. It needed to put power back in the Support team’s hands.
This is a “how the sausage gets made” technical talk with plenty of hairy details about implementation: the approach to software design/architecture, the thought process on UI details and corner cases, and JavaScript tips/tricks discovered along the way.
Broadly, he’ll talk about his approach to building a “desktoppy” app in the browser with HTML5.
Adrian is one of the smart ones. If you’re in Chicago, don’t miss this talk. We’re limiting the talk to 45 people, and tickets will go fast, so register today and don’t miss it.
About once a month we start an internal discussion on Basecamp about what people have been reading lately. It’s a great way to get suggestions for good books. So why not try to see how it’d work on this blog. Here are five of the best books I’ve read in the last few months:
The Intelligent Investor: Benjamin Graham’s immortal tome on value investing cuts right through the bullshit of the short-term stock market swings and valuation bubbles. He draws on examples from the stock market from the late 1800s until 1970s. The latest edition then contains chapter commentary with examples from the 2000s. It’s amazing how little has changed. As Graham says, “in the short term, the stock market behaves like a voting machine, but in the long term it acts like a weighing machine”. If you read just one book on the market or investing, make it this one.
The New Jim Crow: Heart-breaking account of how the American justice system has been perverted through the War on Drugs to lock up utterly disproportionate number of blacks and other minorities. It then details the hopeless life that awaits those who are branded felons for the rest of their life by excluding them from public assistance, jobs, and housing. The book is full of real-life case stories that should make even the most ardent drug warrior’s stomach in disgust. Quick read too and great writing.
Riding Man: Ad man decides to quit his job to follow his dream of racing the Isle of Man TT. Great story telling, great example of how it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
Why Nations Fail: A thorough look through history describing why some nations rise to prosperity and others linger in poverty. It’s a little slow to get going, but once you get rolling it’s hard to put it down.
Insanely Simple: Yes, there’s enough Steve Jobs hero worship tomes to last anyone a lifetime, but this one is full of specific examples that you can use in your own business. Written by an ad man who worked with Jobs on a number of projects.
The last few years have seen an explosion in new ways of visualizing data. There are new classes, consultants, startups, and competitions. Some of these new and more “daring” visualizations are great. Some are not so great – many “infographics” are more like infauxgraphics.
In everyday business intelligence (the “real world”), the focus isn’t on visualizing information, it’s on solving problems, and I’ve found that upwards of 95% of problems can be addressed using one of three visualizations:
When you want to show how something has changed over time, use a line chart.
When you want to show how something is distributed, use a histogram.
When you want to display summary information, use a table.
These are all relatively “safe” displays of information, and some will criticize me as resistant to change and fearful of experimentation. It’s not fear that keeps me coming back to these charts time and time again: it’s for three very real and practical reasons.
It is not my job … to prevent my children from feeling frustration, fear, or discomfort. If I do, I have robbed them of the opportunity to learn that those things are not the end of the world, and can be overcome or used to their advantage.
Doing something the first time is a challenge. I have 2 young kids, and I watch them struggle with the most rudimentary things. Eventually they figure it out. Usually it comes with tears and pleading. But that’s how they’ll learn to do the next thing. That’s how they’ll get the confidence to take on the next challenge. That’s how you level up.
Learning to program
I was fortunate enough to take a programming class at The Starter League last fall. The word on the street is Ruby on Rails (the programming framework we used) is so easy: “You can make a blog in 5 minutes.” Jeff Cohen and Raghu Betina are amazing teachers. They taught me that, yes Rails is easy, but first you need to feel frustration and discomfort before you can really learn.
The first four weeks of class was comprised of handwriting Ruby code without Rails. It was frustrating because “I thought I could do this in 5 minutes.” Maddening because “I have to do this every time!?” Enlightening because once I learned about what Rails did (after 4 weeks), how it worked with Ruby, my mind was open. I was like Neo in The Matrix when he sees the world decoded.
Make it “idiot-proof”
Are we doing ourselves a disservice by building conveniences into our products? As makers we’re always trying to add convenience for customers. We all try to build features and products that lessen friction.
We never stop learning after childhood though. Maybe things shouldn’t be too easy. Friction is good. That’s how we learn.
Is idiot-proofing for idiots?
At CES earlier this month there were cars that drove and parked themselves. That is truly amazing technology. First you had to shift your own gears with manual transmission. Then automakers created automatic transmission. The car knows when to shift. You don’t need to think about it. Now they’re developing self-driving cars. They’re making cars idiot-proof. Consider a generation that will never know how to drive a car.
I took a road trip last summer. Against my better judgement I took a sketchy dirt road because my GPS navigation told me to. I drove for what seemed like hours down a dirt road not knowing where it would lead. If I had read a paper map I would have discovered that the road I was driving on was taking me a few miles away from where I wanted to go.
What’s the perfect balance for making things easy, but still difficult enough to make it a worthwhile experience? Is idiot-proofing for idiots, or am I an idiot for thinking so?
Back in November I said we were looking for an iOS protoyper. I probably heard from about a hundred people who were interested in the position.
In the end, one guy stood out above all the rest.
His name is Travis Jeffery. Today is his first day at 37signals.
Besides having iOS code/design chops, he knows his way around Ruby, Rails, and Javascript. He’s active in open source, too. He’s sharp, thoughtful, and has a knack for details that make an interaction special.
Travis and I have already started working on an app together. We’re excited to see where it goes.
Everyone, say hi to Travis.
