I was having lunch today with some editors of a local weekly. After listening to them talk about what they do I realized that we do it too. We’re editors.
They edit articles, we edit software.
We prune it. We clip off the extra features like they clip off the extra words. We trim the interface like they trim a sentence. We chop products in half like they ask for 5000 words instead of 10,000.
The editing process is what makes a great product. Editing the feature list, editing customer requests, editing the interface, editing the code, editing the marketing, editing the copywriting. It’s not about designing or writing or coding, it’s about trimming those weeds back before they ruin the lawn.
So keep that in mind when you write, design, code, or promote. Good editors build great software.
You’re much less likely to develop a clue if you have a lot of cash. When you have a lot of cash, you can delude yourself for a very long time and still pay the bills. There’s nothing that will bring realism into your world as quickly as realizing that you’re out of cash. That is a smack of real life that will instill sense in almost anybody.
Highrise now has custom fields!
For example, you can add a custom field called “Referred by” to keep track of who referred a customer to you. Or “Spouse’s name” so you’ll never forget the name of the husband or wife of one of your contacts. Or maybe a field called “University” to keep track of which college someone went to. Or maybe you just want to keep track of a “Customer ID”. Custom fields make it all possible.
New in Highrise: Infinite scrolling
Browsing activity about your Highrise Contacts, Cases and Deals is now much faster and more fun. You can just scroll through activity streams to see everything—no need to click ‘next page’. When you reach the end of the page, Highrise automatically loads any additional items.
London web agency: “Highrise Deals are great for building up a picture of cash flow for the coming months”
“Tags may be something you see all over the web, but don’t underestimate their power in the context of a CRM. Make sure you get all users to conform to the same tagging system, this means that when you need to find an expert in SEO or a list of your previous clients, you’ll be able to get them in the click of a button.”
Basecamp More control over to-do permissions in Basecamp
“Now, if you restrict somebody’s permission to only ‘Messages & Files’, they will no longer be able to check off to-do items. You will have to give people ‘plus To-dos’ access in order to allow them to check off items. By default, anyone you invite has full access (messages and files, to-dos and milestones). It’s up to you if you’d like to restrict their permission after they are invited.”
New in Basecamp: Share files with your Free plan
By popular demand we’ve added 10 MB of file storage to every Free Basecamp account! Now you can share files, documents, images, and designs with your clients or team.
New in Basecamp: Faster time entry
Before this change, entering time in Basecamp projects required navigating three pull-down menus to select the month, day and year. It was slow and required too many clicks. Those pull-downs are now replaced by a single field that shows the full date in plain text. Clicking the field pops up a small calendar—choose the day with just a click.
David: Something that matters when you’re trying to pick a business partner is that it can’t just be about the craft. If all I was interested in doing was programming, then I don’t think I would have been a good fit for a business partner. If you want to be a partner in a business, you have to be willing to wear many more hats than just that of your craft. You have to dive into all sorts of issues: personnel, building a company, finance, marketing. There are so many other things than just the technical aspect of it.
Jason: I also think it’s important to make sure that you’ve worked with this person for a while. I get emails occasionally from people starting businesses looking for business partners. They’re like, “Hey, I just met this guy who’s a programmer. Should we go 50/50 on something?” It’s like a marriage. You should date for a while. You have to work with somebody and get to know them. You’ve got to make sure you can get along and you can stand someone for a long period of time. It’s important to work with somebody first before you link up in legal terms, because a business is a legal entity and it can be messy if things don’t work out.
David: I’ve seen it not work out a couple of times for people. It’s incredibly painful. Once you’ve split things up into equity and somebody owns a part of your company, it is incredibly painful to divorce yourself from that person. You really have to be sure that it’s a good fit.
Jason 04 Mar 2006 — What’s the most ignored paradox in software development? Every time you add something you take something away.
Screen real estate. Interface clarity. Simplified testing. Shorter development time. Certainty. Agility. Managability. Familiarity. Adding anything dilutes everything else. That’s not always a bad thing, just be aware of it. Be aware of the trade-offs.
The dilution effect is why maintaining a clear vision for your product is so important. Without a clear understanding of the limits and boundaries of your product, the product will morph into something you no longer recognize. Or worse, something you can no longer manage or control.
A product people loved can turn into a product people liked. Then the product people liked can turn into the product people can live with. Then the product people can live with can turn into the product people can live without.
Of course the reverse can also happen. A product people can live without can become a product people love, but once you’re at the love stage it can turn around on you just as fast.
This reality reveals itself on release day. The first thing you’ll hear from customers that love your product is how they’d love it even more if it did this or that also. How you handle the “also” is what separates greatness from mediocrity from failure.
Jamis’ wife, an avid knitter, vowed not to buy new yarn this year — and she’s finding the self-imposed constraint to be fantastic fuel for the creative process. “Honestly, if I had not been constrained by my stash, I don’t think I would have come out with a project half so wonderful. My creativity and problem-solving skills were forced into action in a way they would not have been if I had purchased the right amount of yarn to knit the original dress. Who knew limits could be so liberating?”
Feb 16, 2006 – The best designers and the best programmers aren’t the ones with the best skills, or the nimblest fingers, or the ones who can rock and roll with Photoshop or vim, they are the ones that can determine what just doesn’t matter. That’s where the real gains are made.
What question would you like to ask David and/or Jason? Leave it as a comment. (You can hear previous Q&A with them on episode 8, episode 10, and episode 11 of the 37signals Podcast.)
January 8, 2006 – Face it: Technology is a commodity these days. If you can do it, someone else can do it. And it’s likely they can do it better. What really makes the difference is design, copywriting, execution, clarity, passion, and the overall customer experience. The stuff you can’t specifically define or bulletpoint are the things that matter.
