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List:       kde-panel-devel
Subject:    Re: Survey to prepare 'Next Workspace Iteration' sprint
From:       Björn Balazs <bjoern.balazs () user-prompt ! com>
Date:       2012-06-04 21:57:22
Message-ID: 3145139.q7O7BRZ0Gx () linux-b13x ! site
[Download RAW message or body]

Aaron, all,

thanks for your mail. It is good to adress these kinds of worries directly =
- =

and before the survey gets started. I actually get confronted with them oft=
en =

in my work. =


I personally think we do not need to worry. In most projects I worked with, =

people tend to agree with me at latest at the end of the project ;)

Let me explain a bit - I hope you put the worries aside as well:

We are not asking people how to build the bridge in terms of e.g. static =

calculations. These have to be done by an engineer. No discussion about thi=
s.

What I try to do with this survey, is to ask users / the community to repor=
t =

about their life - or to stay in the picture: let them imagine where the =

bridge could be built and how the existence of the bridge would change thei=
r =

life. =


By this, the only thing we do is looking for inspiration as input for our =

sprint.

Most of what you say about how good products are developed is right. Just y=
our =

preassumptions are wrong. We are not asking users to code, neither to provi=
de =

solutions, nor do we promise to do anything... It really has the simple tas=
k =

of getting inspired.

(I have actually changed the first page a bit, to more actively adress, tha=
t =

we do not promise anything).

There are of course superior techniques to understand users (you mention =

observation) - but we are simply not in the position to do this right now - =

and there also surely is room for improvement in this survey. I would love =
to =

take some more time to let it mature more - but I am sure that the inspirat=
ion =

we get from it, will benefit the results of the sprint - so I personally th=
ink =

it is ok to start it now as it is. =


Another aspect is, that I think it is most important to involve as many peo=
ple =

as possible into the development of (Free) Software Products. This will lea=
d =

to better products, more (loyal) users, more advertising and more volunteer=
s =

that participate, e.g. in bug triaging or translation. People will identify =

with a product they feel they have influenced - they will get a feeling of =

self efficacy. Of course this will not be the result of a one-time survey, =
but =

gathering experiences with this kind of approach might bring us into the =

situation of a cultural change in KDE, that is less developer-centric and m=
ore =

focussed on the users.

That said, I hope you will agree, that we might not benefit from this surve=
y, =

but we will surely not do any harm by starting the survey. So why not take =
the =

chance?

As time progresses and we need some time to run the study, I will delay the =

start a bit. If anyone still feels uncomfortable with it, I would ask to =

actually post a 'veto' with the next 18 hours (that would be 18:00 in CEST)=
. =

If there is none, I will start the study and post it on the planet. Hope th=
is =

ok for everyone.

Of course, I am more than happy about any suggestion for an improvement of =
the =

survey. Personnally I hope I find some time tomorrow to look at it again.

Cheers,
Bj=F6rn


Am Montag, 4. Juni 2012, 20:17:27 schrieb Aaron J. Seigo:
> On Sunday, June 3, 2012 19:25:05 Bj=F6rn Balazs wrote:
> > I have tried to build upon the vision formulated by Aaron. Target audie=
nce
> =

> these are the emails i really struggle with writing.
> =

> on the one hand, i'm really excited that people have the enthusiasm to do
> this kind of work and are putting the effort in to make it happen. i don't
> want to blunt that one bit. in fact, i want to encourage it.
> =

> on the other hand, i'm confident that this approach will result in a train
> wreck.
> =

> so i'm suck in a position where i want to encourage the motivation but
> discourage the application of it. it is hard to do both at the same time,
> and i hope i don't screw it up completely :)
> =

> so ... why do i think this will be a train wreck?
> =

> for the same reason i should never, ever be asked by the engineer
> responsible for building a new bridge in my city how i think it should be
> built. i don't know. it isn't my area of expertise. i'll come up with
> SOMETHING for them if they really want me to, but my answer is going to be
> pretty naive. there is no way i can do better because i lack both the
> training and that data needed to formulate great input.
> =

> that describes 99.9% of our users when it comes to these kinds of questio=
ns.
> =

> over the years i've found that when i observe, for instance, that people
> have lots of files many will say "no i don't." then i walk them through a=
ll
> the files they have: emails, music, video, pictures they took with their
> camera and/or phone, bookmarks, ebooks, work/school docs ... it's usually
> pretty fun to actually tally it up with them because most people do not
> realize the extent of their data.
> =

> and that's the easiest and most obvious part of the sentence "I have huge
> number of files, devices, people I know, network services I use and I use=
 my
> computer for multiple and very different tasks (e.g. work, entertainment,
> personal communication, school)."
> =

> =

> next: when you ask someone what they want, if you don't deliver it, you w=
ill
> disappoint them. so this survey is askking for ideas that are probably
> unworkable while simultaneously setting up our most ardent users for
> disappointment all at once. :/
> =

> =

> it gets better though: someone may want the best twitter+facebook platform
> EVARRR!!!!111!! but that may simply not turn us on as developers. we may
> find that maybe 1 or 2 of us will work on it. and maybe they won't even
> understand why the "best twitter+facebook platform evar" is useful or
> important, they just do it for their love of our users.
> =

> the result will be flat, uninspired and probably not as good as if they w=
ere
> making something with a philosophy they understood.
> =

> the opposite direction is a lot easier: formulate a vision, understand it,
> know it, breath it, love it ... our users will too.
> =

> so IMHO and IME this is going about it in exactly the opposite direction =
if
> we want a great chance at good results.
> =

> =

> in a phrase:
> =

> 					this is not how to do it.
> =

> the upcoming sprint needs to, must be, driven by people who will be invol=
ved
> in making the solutions and who understand the challenges intimately and
> with a reasonable degree of topic appropriate competence.
> =

> so before we go and create problems for a project i've put a number of ye=
ars
> into and am now trying to turn into a day job for myself and others ..
> let's discuss HOW to get the information we want before we start
> implementing such methods.
> =

> an even better starting point might be to discuss WHAT information we nee=
d.
> =

> or .. we could wait until the sprint starts. i can do a bit of an
> orientation via a google hangout with the attendees to point things in a
> reasonable direction. this is what we have done for the last 3 years, and
> tokamaks have been remarkably productive.
> =

> =

> =

> p.s. and why isn't this "Tokamak 5" and instead morphed into the nebulous
> "Next Workspace Iteration Sprint" which does nothing to build on the
> community platform we have going here, alienating just about everyone
> because it is neither known (and therefore comfortable) nor well defined
> (literally it means: we're doing something next .. iteratively .. in the
> workspace .. but what exactly?)
-- =

Dipl.-Psych. Bj=F6rn Balazs
Business Management & Research
T +49 30 6098548-21 | M +49 179 4541949

User Prompt GmbH | Psychologic IT Expertise =

Gr=FCnberger Str. 49, 10245 Berlin | www.user-prompt.com =

HRB 142277 | AG Berlin Charlottenburg | Gesch=E4ftsf=FChrer Bj=F6rn Balazs
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