Working Side-by-Side with Users Testing Features
Today I got the chance to work side-by-side with a user that was testing changes to this project I had been making over the last few days. Normally, they'd be testing and writing up a ton of trouble tickets and then I'd have to go through all the effort of finding the duplicates, thinning them down, filling out the paperwork... it's all a lot easier if they just ask me to sit with them and we can work though things so that they understand what's going on under the covers.
Thankfully, today I was able to do just that. A user asked me if I wanted to sit with him or have him file a bunch of tickets. I picked the former, in a heartbeat.
It was amazingly simple. Walk this user through a few screens, explaining the details of what's happening under the covers to him and all of a sudden, things became crystal clear. It's amazing what a little bit of good, honest communication will do to help a situation. In this project, it's been seriously lacking, and the project has suffered for it. I'd like to think that maybe things are changing - at least for me.
Sitting with users and explaining the same thing a dozen times is not wonderful but it sure beats the alternative - a user gets frustrated because they're convinced that the code isn't working right, and then you try to explain it to them, and they have a bias now to see the error as an error as opposed to just a misunderstanding.
I hope this continues... I'm going to do my best to make sure it continues. I think it's the only way to really save this project.