Software born of pressure and fire

Creating software products is an interesting process. The best products that I have created have been because everyone is passionate about the end result and everyone envolved has a strong opinion. This might sound like a hellish torture to put ones self through because there are generally disagreements that need to get vetted through confrontation. However, there are many reasons that I feel it creates a better product.

1. Too many of the right type of cooks is a good thing

When you get a bunch of smart people together to make something who all have strong opinions can be very frustrating. Everyone sees things differently and thinks that their perspectives are correct. This can create a highly charged situation where ideas live and die by their ability to be justified. What kind of cooks are best for this type of scenario? The types of cooks who can defend their ideas but know when an idea makes more sense than theirs, even if its defense can’t be articulated better than yours. You want the types of ‘cooks’ who understand that at the end of the day everyone is there to create something cool and just want to be heard. Disagreements can’t be taken personally and emotions must be maintained with in reasonable bounds.

2. Disagreements make a product better

Disagreeing with a feature, solution, or design is a great thing that only makes the end product better. It makes the end product better because it forces one to justify it’s existence in the software. If it’s reasoning isn’t obvious or can’t be justified then most likely the feature or solution doesn’t work.

3. Everyone should be passionate about what they are doing

Anything you are working on, if you want it to be great, you should be passionate about. When people are passionate about the products that they are working on, they will have opinions. Opinions generally mean that there has been some thought put into how something should manifest itself. You want people who have put thought into solutions because thats where answers come from. If someone doesn’t care about what they are working on and are indifferent about a decision, it’s not good for the product and doesn’t help make progress. Compare that to asking someone how something should work and getting an opinionated answer backed up by their reasoning.

4. Selling your justifications and solutions go hand in hand

The average Joe would not realize how much sales goes into creating a product. You have to sell everyone your working with on the feature set, the architecture, the design, the colors, the interaction methods, the list goes on and on. In most cases the ability for one to sell their peers on an approach is what separates someone who’s ideas get implemented vs someone who’s ideas get shot down.

5. Consensus building with your opinion

Building consensus can be tough to accomplish. It’s a pain when you have a successful approach and are unable to correctly articulate why it’s better with out saying, “thats just my opinion”. You can’t build consensus with opinions period. Everyone has opinions and opinions matter as much as Bill Clintons thoughts on Particle Physics. Dont’ ever say, “thats just my opinion” if you ever want to build consensus. You need to justify your reasoning and say, “this way is better because of X, Y, and Z”.