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Quick Post On The Most Important IT Lesson I Ever Learned

April 21, 2008 17:12 by author

I don't use Twitter but I know a lot of people who do and the blogosphere covers it pretty extensively so I know about the problems they've had over the weekend.

Today they finally made a post on the official Twitter Blog about these problems...

We're aware of this, we realize that it's annoying, and we're meeting today about how to best finish up this project and clean up any remaining bugs. Thanks to everyone who checked in with us on Satisfaction, @replies, and email over the weekend. Overall, completing this memcache project is a big win that will lead to increased stability.

The most important lesson I've learned in IT isn't a technical one it's a social one.

Always say you're sorry!

Even if you aren't sure you're at fault its better to say your sorry than to not. Do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE try to paint it as if you're suffering with your user. Saying "we realize that it's annoying" is like the plumber who flooded your kitchen making a joke about giving you an indoor pool.

Its important to remember that no one is going to "call you on it" if you don't apologize. What they will do is silently resent you and, as that resentment festers, judge you more harshly in the future. There's a reason pride is considered the worst of the seven deadly sins.

People want to be respected and people like to forgive. Ask their forgiveness and you'll almost certainly get it. They'll probably like you more for being humble. Letting foolish pride or lack of empathy create resentment between you and your user is a big mistake that can be easily avoided. Isn't it worth the two simple words?

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April 21. 2008 19:56

Interesting that you took away a much different message from that blurb than I did. At least, I think you did, if I'm reading between the lines of your post correctly (always a danger, I'll admit).

It seems that you're annoyed by the message, because they say "we realize its annoying"?

I actually felt like it was a pretty human message and wasn't at all irked by it. Not sure the plumber analogy you make holds water (*groan*), because a) you're paying the plumber and b) he's making a joke at your expense after screwing up *your* house. In this case, the "plumber" screwed up his own house, but its a house he has left open for us all to come over and play in. It's hard to suggest he owes us an apology for breaking something he made and gives away for free...

But that begs a bigger question. What if the Twitter crew just decided "Ah, screw it." and shut the servers down? Has Twitter gotten important enough that it needs some kind of corporate support to keep the servers running? Or does it even have that kind of support already?

Thanks for all the hard work you do on this blog. Its always an interesting read.

Pete S

April 21. 2008 21:47

Hey Pete, thanks for dropping by.

Actually I was looking at it from Twitter people’s point of view. I don’t use Twitter so I’m not annoyed in the slightest. In fact, when twitter fails a good portion of bloggers make these really dramatic posts where they talk like the world is ending and, to be honest, I find those kind of amusing. So if anything I’m partial to Twitter outages.

But from Twitter’s perspective…well…ok, there’s two things here.

One, as much as I agree that people whine too much over free stuff the truth is you have to keep your customers happy even if you give your service away for free. Because someday you are going to need those customers (Twitter doesn’t seem to know how they are going to make money yet but when they figure it out they’ll be counting on their user base). The way I see it there’s a balance between useful features and a person’s feelings about a company. If a customer starts to hate your company enough it doesn’t matter how much better your product is they won’t go near you. Twitter still can’t afford to start losing customers to Pownce or anyone else (which I think goes to your question of “what if Twitter decided to shut down”)

On my post, essentially what I was trying to say is an apology costs you nothing and makes the customers who are upset feel better so you might as well do it even if you aren’t to blame. The only thing holding you back is being too proud to apologize for something that you don’t think is your fault. But that pride doesn’t get you anything tangible.

I guess what it comes down to for me is that I went through a good portion essentially thinking “most people are rational and those who aren’t should be” Now I’ve come to the point where, if I can placate an irrational person without hurting myself any, I just go ahead and do it.

Tom

April 21. 2008 22:45

Just as a follow up to my last comment, this post is exactly what I'm talking about...

www.scripting.com/.../...rategyForTwitterOuta.html

Had Twitter stayed up I never would have gotten the pleasure of seeing someone actually form a Twitter Contingency plan.

Tom

April 21. 2008 23:34

Hi Tom,

Well after my last comment I poked around the Twitter site a bit, and feel a bit differently now. (I should've done that *first* of course.) I didn't realize that Twitter was a company with job postings and the like. So yeah, if they're going to be hiring people (who are then depending on the continued existence of Twitter to feed their families), they need to act like a "real" company and treat users as customers, which means taking outages a lot more seriously.

Side note: I'm still really curious as to how they're going to make money. Presumably they want to build it up, sell it off and let the buyers figure out how to monetize it?

And yeah, it's hard to argue with the basic idea of your post; sorry I got hung up in the minutia.

Best,

Pete S

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About Me

Hi, I’m Tom and I run the IT department for a non-profit agency which provides treatment to special-needs children. Though I will (like any blogger) comment on technology in general my main goal is to detail how I’m trying to use technology to help treat the children we serve and its my hope that blogging will allow me to connect with people who can help in that goal.

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