Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

There comes a time where you have a difference of opinion from your customer.  This may be due to personal taste, or it may be a misunderstanding.  There are even cases where a customer insists on a path that goes against your experience, morals, ethics, or is otherwise non-negotiable.  There is not one answer for all of these situations so let's look at reasons why you should hold your ground. You Are The Expert, But They Sign The Check I think the toughest of these situations is when you are a paid consultant or expert.  The customer has come to you for expert advice.  However, they decide to ignore that information.  When this occurs, do not take it personally and remember that you are an advisor, not a decider.  The customer may not always be right in a technical sense, but that does not mean they are prohibited from being incorrect.  In fact, a consultant that cannot accept customers going against recommendations at times will not be successful.  Your role is to advise not to be all-knowing. Time, Effort, and Compensation When the disagreement moves away from advice and into how you do your job, then things change.  This is a common challenge of IT projects.  Customers want the best deal and sometimes will push to get a fixed bid or low rate based on their estimation of scope.  When your experience tells you their estimates are wrong, it can be a tough call to make.  Do you pass on a project that may not pay what you want or do you lock in some work?  In my experience, this is where it is best to hold your ground.  You always want to be flexible but giving in too much can be a lose-lose situation.  They get less than they wanted while you feel taken advantage of.

We all like to work through the problems we have been presented.  However, this is not the fastest way to a solution.  When we are in an office, we can pester our co-workers.  On the other hand, we can always use search engines to pester the entire Internet instead. Search Engines Require Thoughtful Questions The first thing to know about search engines is how to properly ask a question.  Although most of them will handle standard English sentences that approach will not always return the best results.  This can cost minutes or even hours of time as you vet the various answers.  These engines work off of keywords and phrases, so it helps to use those in phrasing the search terms or question.  Likewise, specifics always help.  The more specific the subject, the more likely the top results are what you need. For example, "Java Spring Authentication" will not retrieve results as useful as "Tutorial Spring Authentication 4.0 STS Tomcat MySQL."  General questions return a broad result set.  In this way, search engines are no different from human beings. Refine The Search The good news with these sites is that you can always try again.  When a glance through the titles of the original results does not seem to be useful, you can add terms to the search.  The initial results can be helpful in improving the search as you go.  Look for keywords or topics in the result set that can be used to find more results like those.  In this episode, we look at these simple steps and then some ways to improve your skills and make even better use of these tools.

Eating the Frog is a term that may be new to you.  Simply put, this is the idea of getting the things done that you want to do the least.  It is a popular way to improve productivity and get things done.  However, it is also a practice that can help with reducing stress and increasing happiness.  In this episode, we look at how doing what you dislike is a key to happiness. Removing Obstacles is Key To Reducing Stress Depression and lack of productivity go hand in hand.  Likewise, productivity and happiness are often related.  These are all complicated concepts, so the cause and effect of them are also a little muddy.  We can improve productivity through a lot of methods.  One of the best is reducing our "dead time" and getting a quick start.  The dread and included foot-dragging we do with undesirable tasks are a few of many contributors to the productivity reducers.  Thus, we sometimes are the most significant obstacle to our ability to get things done. Worry Equals Stress We worry about the things we have on our mental "to-do" list.  They are not always on our mind.  However, the more things drag out, the more they take up our mental energy.  When we dwell on the items, we dread it causes stress.  In fact, that is almost the definition of fear and worry.  Thus, one of the best ways to reduce stress is to remove the things we do not look forward to.  Think about it.  What makes you happier?  Thinking about your next vacation, or about your next visit to the dentist?  When you put the tasks that create the most stress in your review mirror your mental attitude improves.  Retirement is making this a full-time job.  When you retire, in theory, you only have tasks to do that fall in the category of pleasant or fun. Links and Resources Learn More About Eating The Frog

In this episode, we take the risk of self-promotion and look at the elements of a good mastermind program.  We put our money where our mouth is in this respect.  The program we recommend happens to look a lot like ours.  However, this episode is more than an advertisement.  We lay out some features that you can add to yours or look for when selecting one. Accountability is Key To a Mastermind Program I have found that the greatest value of a program like this is being held accountable.  It also is what we strive for every time our program is reviewed.  This focus makes perfect sense when the goal of a mastermind program is to make everyone more effective.  We teach and learn in every meeting.  Thus, finding ways to practice and enforce what we have learned is important for its success.  Accountability is the path to this goal.  We look for ways to incorporate team discussions and feedback into our daily work.  Then we check in on each other to help us review and grade the changes we make. Everyone Contributes Another primary factor of a good mastermind program is participation.  This is not a spectator sport.  Every member should be taking steps from meeting to meeting that can be discussed.  The best mastermind groups also have a group approach to the topics and focus.  When everyone is contributing to the direction that helps ensure that everyone gets value from the meetings and the group. Links and Resources Check Out Our Program (and join us)

In case you have not noticed, mobile applications are all the rage.  In fact, the very definition of mobile is constantly evolving as well.  The apps that were aimed at tablets and phones now include those aimed at more devices.  These include devices like Google home and Amazon Alexa as well as general IOT devices.  This flood of platforms makes the native vs. mobile approach to building applications a key consideration. Native vs. Mobile Friendly Can Be Simple The choice between the two options can be a given in some cases.  The requirements of your solution may dictate one or the other.  For example, a need to work in a disconnected state eliminates responsive.  On the other hand, a requirement to support several platforms or work from a browser would remove the native solution option. These rules are not iron-clad, but they can make it obvious what your choice needs to be.  A start from a solid foundation of requirements is critical for being able to make the quick decision in these instances.  Luckily, these requirements center around the end-users and how they use the solution.  These are the features that can easily be decided at the start of a project. However, It Might Come Down To Details Once you get past the sort of requirements that can dictate this decision, the number of considerations grow substantially.  Cost is always a factor.  However, maintenance, skillsets, market penetration of platforms all come into play.  These are only the beginning factors.  Response times can often be important, as well as security, and even perception.  Do not forget that web applications and native mobile applications are often perceived very differently by users.  Even the simple things like registering on a website compared to downloading an app can be factors. The good news is that the native vs. mobile friendly decision can be easy to make.  Unfortunately, it can also be very complicated.  Even worse, the decision can profoundly impact whether your solution is a wild success or a dismal failure.

The modern landscape in almost every line of business makes it less likely than ever that we will stay in one job throughout our career.  Switching careers has even become more common as the Internet has opened up new avenues and lowered barriers to entry.  That being said, in this episode, we look at the pros and cons for ourselves and our employees of moving around. Switching Careers Can Be A Small Step Technology ties together a lot of businesses and pursuits.  It has even become a sort of common denominator.  For example, Microsoft Office skills can be useful in almost every industry and every job.  Email is equally as pervasive.  When you add to this how the Internet has reduced the barriers to entry for many jobs, switching a career is easier than ever.  The re-education and re-tooling that was required in the past have been almost eliminated. Job Hopping Has Its Pluses and Minuses The bulk of this episode covers the pros and cons of someone moving jobs.  There is a lot to consider about a prospective employee and their employment history.  Likewise, you need to look closely at your history whether you have had one job ever, or switch jobs weekly.  In all of these cases, the important information is what the roles and responsibilities of those positions were.  There are non-work concerns like loyalty and focus.  However, you can achieve a very similar skill progression by hopping jobs or by staying put and getting the right assignments at that one job.

We get into a line of business to crush it.  At least, I assume that is our goal.  I cannot think of anyone that launched a business with the goal of barely getting by or outright failure.  Crushing it requires a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  However, there are things we can do to make success more likely. Do What You Love The most important part of crushing it is having a desire to see your goals accomplished.  When you focus on success rather than the steps along the way, you are almost guaranteed to fail.  This may seem a little confusing, but when your goal is the end (money, sales, fane, etc.) you will not have the energy to accomplish the means (solving a problem, providing a service, etc.). Crushing It is Not The Goal While we are talking about confusing concepts, let's consider the goal itself.  When we want to crush it we will not be successful unless we have something we truly want to crush.  Success comes from passion and it has to be for something other than mere success.  For example, the comedian Eddie Murphy did not get into comedy and acting to be successful, he wanted to entertain people and that lead to success.  This is the problem with a lot of "get rich" plans.  The goal for those plans is getting rich instead of the work required to get on a path to riches. The hard work for success cannot be avoided.  However, when you do what you love the hard work becomes a joy.  Focus on doing something well first, crushing it will follow.

The journey to a product launch can seem incredibly long.  However, the final steps in polishing a product for commercial availability cannot be ignored.  Doing so risks sinking the product or at least slowing its adoption. Commercial Products are Different A key point of this episode is that commercial software carries higher expectations than other types.  Whether it feels that way or not, there is far less selling required for other applications.  Bugs are part of any application, but workarounds and delays to fixes are easier to forgive for personal and internal applications.  A customer that paid money for your product is not going to be happy to hear that they need to "outsmart" a bug rather than it being fixed. A Product Launch is More Than "Ship It" The details are what make a commercial product.  Many of these features and aspects are easy to forget.  They are just that pervasive.  Things like documentation, install guides, user manuals, useful technical documentation, system requirements, and more, are all needed.  Your future customers are new to your product so they need to be told how to get started and how to use it.  They also expect things like messages and notifications to be properly spelled. There is always an excitement to launch a product after all that time was invested in it.  However, don't forget to cross all your T's and dot all your I's to help improve your odds of a successful launch.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is the joy of a team victory.  We can celebrate and be proud of individual accomplishments.  However, it is better when you can share the joy with others that were part of the struggle.  We can do a lot to improve our lives, but the way to make the most impact is to find others to share your journey. A Team Victory Can Come At Any Time In sports a team is well-defined.  There are players, coaches, managers, etc. that contribute in various ways.  We also see this in business.  If you have a paycheck signed by the same person, then you are on the same team.  Of course, politics and self-interest can spoil any of these team situations, but ideally, teammates work together.  The point is to try to build a team where possible and avoid being a problem-solving loner. Strength in Numbers Some situations obviously are better with a team.  American football is a perfect example.  If there were only one player, it would be hard to "build a pocket" pass to a receiver, or hike, set, and kick a field goal.  Business is not the same.  We often find situations where either we want to go it alone, or a coworker takes on a challenge without looking for help.  However, this is rarely a good approach.  Even though we can throw too many people at a problem, that "too many" number is almost never "2 or more."  Working together as a team to solve problems helps reduce stress and improve productivity.

A challenge for many IT workers is business networking.  We chose out career often as a desire to avoid dealing with people more than we have to.  We are often introverts and not very comfortable in a crowd.  That makes it even harder for us to find our way to a useful discussion in a networking environment. Business Networking Is Critical The problem is, of course, that we have to network to build a customer list and become successful.  The good news is that we do not have to suffer through these situations.  A good script and routine can help us avoid the uncomfortable "winging it" situation.  Instead of having to grope for words, we can recite a message we want to share and simplify our interactions.  This approach may not be ideal, but it does allow us to get over the hump of an introduction when we are in these large group situations.  At that point, we might be able to pique enough interest to shrink the conversation to a few interested parties.  That is a win-win. Fall Back On Your Brand One of the best things about a personal brand is using that as an introduction that is better than a name.  Instead of "Hi I'm Rob the programmer" you can say "Hi, My company is BizSolv, we solve problems for small businesses."  This introduction keeps you on message (solve problems for small businesses) and when your primary point of introduction is something others are looking for they will be drawn in.  At that point, small talk often dissipates, and you can get down to business where you are much more comfortable.