Bill Gates: Film Critic
In his Microsoft blog, Todd Bishop highlights a 2003 email from Bill Gates detailing the frustration felt when attempting to update Movie Maker (c/o Compete On Usability).
Gates recently commented on this during a farewell event,
“One of the newspapers had some e-mail that I sent about how maybe Windows could have been better at something, and they said, ‘This is a shocking e-mail. Shocking!’ And I said, ‘What do you think I do all day? Sending an e-mail like that, that is my job. That’s what it’s all about. We’re here to make things better.”
My own comment on his response has nothing to do with usability, but everything to do with a comment made by Ledwell in regards to Gates’ email:
“…it takes a lot more than one-off emails to inculcate the cultural and corporate values needed to ship products with superior usability.”
I’ve nearly completed Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior, a terrific read from the team that brought us Peopleware. One of those patterns is the “Film Critic”:
Film Critic: Team members or corporate spectators who have determined that the value they add to the project lies in pointing out what has gone wrong or is going wrong, but who take no personal accountability to ensure that things go right.
What really makes a Film Critic however, is the belief that one’s success can be separated from the success of the project in question. Gates may be an exception, but for many of us whose entire office buildings can be cleaned by a single person each night, the luxury of purely spectating does not exist.
Film critics rarely have a positive effect on a project, and often a negative one. A good friend once told me that you don’t have to reply to every email, and I took that to heart - emails from critics should get a quick scan and end up in the bin.
If you’d like to reply, here are some suggestions:
- Would they like to donate time to test new features?
- Can they provide resources (either $ or people or both)?
- Do they have any specific input from customers that would help?
- How about unique insight that their position affords them?
Do you have any film critics in your organization? The next time someone berates the usability of your project, challenge them to constructively contribute.