This was a good week, May 5th to 11th. In many respects it was a total success.
It started off with me crying in church on Sunday, and then that afternoon I went on a little bicycle ride. My first bicycle ride outdoors of the year. I definitely can't run right now, but I can bicycle, so for the month of May I will try to focus on bicycling and try to go most days because it's a great way to get back in shape. On my bicycle I don't feel the pressure to run sub 8 minute miles, or have a certain heart rate. Bicycling is so variable due to the wind alone, let alone altitude or climbs that you can have a high heart rate going into the wind on flat ground at 13 miles per hour, and a lower heart rate going up a category one climb at 13 miles per hour with the wind at your back. In short, I'm so out of shape I just need time doing cardio exercises, and bicycling and walking are the two of the moment.
Needless to say, my ankle is improving. People tell me it's miraculous, and I agree, but I also don't have much reference. This whole injury has reinforced how blessed I am to have the skills I do, and also to have done all of the things I have done in the past. I climbed Mt. Everest! I ran 154 miles in 24 hours! I ran a 2:30:20 marathon! It's possible I never surpass any of those three feats, so I need to appreciate having been able to do that at all.
Work is going well again. The customer and us are in a much better place than we were two weeks ago. We're communicating, lots of people, from our side and theirs, are involved in the conversations. We're solving problems. This is engineering, we'll figure it out, as long as we communicate with each other and have patience when we don't understand where someone is coming from.
A few weeks ago at work we had an engineering meeting with seven women and three men. It was the first time I remember in my career an engineering meeting with more women than men. Since that time we have had a couple engineering meetings with more women than men. One of my coworkers, a recent college grad, when I mentioned how it was a new experience for me, said, "when I was in college when we were working on projects sometimes we had more men than women and sometimes we had more women than men." And that is how I want to think of it. And honestly I might already be mentally there. When I go into meetings, where I don't check the list of attendees ahead of time, I want to live in a world, or work in a company, where there might be more women than men in the meeting. It's not a requirement at all, but I like that humbling feeling when people are filtering into the room and suddenly there are five women (all engineers) and me. It's a little scary, because suddenly I'm afraid I will say the wrong thing, because I'm basically never outnumbered by women in my life. Do women feel like that when they are outnumbered by men in a meeting room? I asked several of my female coworkers if I am a male chauvinist, and they've all said no so far, but I worry about it. And I also tell them to let me know if or when I say something inappropriate.
That being said, I'm not sure 50% parity in occupations is actually what gender equality means. I don't know that women will ever be 50% of all engineers. I don't know than men will ever be 50% of elementary school teachers and nurses. Maybe, and that would be great, but I don't think that's the yardstick to use. I say that because the variation over different years, companies, and regions mean that 60%/40% splits and 70%/30% splits could easily happen locally, in both male dominate or female dominate directions in a world where men and women are treated equally in the workforce. Personally, and I'm sure people will disagree with me, but I think having equal pay for men and women for the same job is a great yardstick, and I also think having women in management, in particular senior management is another great yardstick. That being said, the job(s) should ideally go to the most qualified person or people, even if that most qualified person is another white male. After all, in the USA there are a lot of hard working white males.
I have said for years, after my unemployment of 2010, that year made me more compassionate and more cutthroat than I was before 2010. What I mean, in this scenario, is I understand how an interviewee might feel discriminated against for something outside of his or her control. In my case it was not having internships, and having an MIT and NASA fellowship. Two caution flags that scared potential employers away. Sure those were mostly my choices, but I didn't know in 2006, 2007 and 2008 that 2009 and 2010 was going to be the worst recession in 70 years. In other words, I've been delighted to have several of the applicants we have recently had because they are incredible, and at my former employer, we would not have gotten those very well qualified applicants, and even if we did, we might have passed on them because they didn't seem to fit the "culture". By the same token, I'm going to try and be amazing at my job so that employers are afraid to not hire me, even though lots of people could do what I do. That being said, I think my current company might be the last traditional full time engineering job I have as an employee. Being an entrepreneur of some sort is wildly interesting to me at the moment.
Since the last three paragraphs are probably sexist and discriminatory and offensive, I want to explain why I went ahead and if you are reading this I must have clicked publish. The world is changing, in my life time, and I want to record it, and share it with people who don't circulate in the same circle of people that I do. If I don't say I want to work in a world where there might possibly be more women than men in an engineering meeting, who will? Equality isn't just a conversation for the Op-Ed writers at big city newspapers. Since I am involved in hiring new employees, I'm part of the conversation. Years ago I was out at a bar with five men and the conversation turned to objectifying several women that we all knew, and I was disgusted, as were two others at the table. That's my fear, that if I don't say something about equality, however unenlightened my comments are, I could live in a world where that kind of toxic conversation happens at work and permeates our whole culture.
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Physical Therapy is Pretty Hard
The first couple physical therapy (PT) visits were like a deep tissue massage. I was mostly just worked on. I didn't do much, I just kind of sat there while M manipulated my ankle. I would walk out sore, but that's to be expected. However, the manipulation part is pretty small now, and I end up having to do a number of exercises now, which are not easy.
For example, while standing on one leg, my bad leg, on a 2 inch thick foam mat, I need to bend over and reach across my body to touch something, like a counter. It's super hard! I spend a quarter of the exercise just wobbling back and forth trying to get my balance. That being said, it's the kind of exercise I think that would be good to do in normal life just to keep your balance. I think it will help my poor slacklining.
The last visit my torturer (physical therapist) M came up with a new exercise. Putting a band around my bad ankle, below the actual ankle, that was attached to a couch or anchor of some sort behind me. Then with my feet about one foot apart side to side and my good foot a foot ahead of my back foot, in other words a narrow staggered stance, I would try to squat down. The band will then pull on my talus bone, which is sticking a little and doesn't have the range of motion needed, yet. Wow it hurts! Not in a damaging way, but I squat like four inches and it feels like my ankle is getting stabbed.
In short, I now understand why people might quit going to PT. It's hard and once you get to a certain level, it's like, 'I don't want to be tortured.' That's not me. I have a strange relationship with pain so a big part of me hopes if I keep going to PT, eventually I'll be better than I was last year. Meaning, I will be stronger, more well rounded, more durable because I will have addressed the small muscles and ligaments in my body necessary to do crazy stuff.
For example, while standing on one leg, my bad leg, on a 2 inch thick foam mat, I need to bend over and reach across my body to touch something, like a counter. It's super hard! I spend a quarter of the exercise just wobbling back and forth trying to get my balance. That being said, it's the kind of exercise I think that would be good to do in normal life just to keep your balance. I think it will help my poor slacklining.
The last visit my torturer (physical therapist) M came up with a new exercise. Putting a band around my bad ankle, below the actual ankle, that was attached to a couch or anchor of some sort behind me. Then with my feet about one foot apart side to side and my good foot a foot ahead of my back foot, in other words a narrow staggered stance, I would try to squat down. The band will then pull on my talus bone, which is sticking a little and doesn't have the range of motion needed, yet. Wow it hurts! Not in a damaging way, but I squat like four inches and it feels like my ankle is getting stabbed.
In short, I now understand why people might quit going to PT. It's hard and once you get to a certain level, it's like, 'I don't want to be tortured.' That's not me. I have a strange relationship with pain so a big part of me hopes if I keep going to PT, eventually I'll be better than I was last year. Meaning, I will be stronger, more well rounded, more durable because I will have addressed the small muscles and ligaments in my body necessary to do crazy stuff.
Monday, May 6, 2019
Colorado Startup Life: Week 34
I had a really good week! Of course it was capped by five of my friends hiking Pikes Peak in nearly winter conditions. It was even the first 14er for three of them.
The trip to Atlanta was really good! Both them and us have had a lot of people start in the last four to six months, even in the last month, so it was good to reset the relationship in person. Additionally, our CEO was on the trip, and having not spent a lot of time with him, I was unsure of his response to the trip. Fortunately, from my perspective, he had essentially 100% the same reaction I did! I was not expecting that. No doubt loyal readers could tell that my confidence in my company was flagging a bit the last couple weeks. We still certainly have our issues, but the guy at the top is not oblivious at all, and I told him I would work at least a month for him without pay. He has my confidence.
On a different note, we had our first person voluntarily leave the company announce the intention this week. So far, in nearly four years of existence, one person was fired, which is really our fault for not screening for exactly the skills we were looking for, and now the first person is leaving. Here is one article shedding light on where we are. And here is an article, in a great series about startup growth, about our current phase!
I had two physical therapy sessions this week, and they both were a workout! Wow! my ankle is as sore after a PT session as it feels being an idiot on Pikes Peak. I am very excited by the progress I am making and very thankful to God that this injury appears to be quite minor.
The weather has turned warmer and I am taking little walks daily both around the parking lot at work, and also in the evenings in my local park. This injury has shown me how beautiful a little flat walk on a paved trail around a subdivision can be!
The trip to Atlanta was really good! Both them and us have had a lot of people start in the last four to six months, even in the last month, so it was good to reset the relationship in person. Additionally, our CEO was on the trip, and having not spent a lot of time with him, I was unsure of his response to the trip. Fortunately, from my perspective, he had essentially 100% the same reaction I did! I was not expecting that. No doubt loyal readers could tell that my confidence in my company was flagging a bit the last couple weeks. We still certainly have our issues, but the guy at the top is not oblivious at all, and I told him I would work at least a month for him without pay. He has my confidence.
On a different note, we had our first person voluntarily leave the company announce the intention this week. So far, in nearly four years of existence, one person was fired, which is really our fault for not screening for exactly the skills we were looking for, and now the first person is leaving. Here is one article shedding light on where we are. And here is an article, in a great series about startup growth, about our current phase!
I had two physical therapy sessions this week, and they both were a workout! Wow! my ankle is as sore after a PT session as it feels being an idiot on Pikes Peak. I am very excited by the progress I am making and very thankful to God that this injury appears to be quite minor.
The weather has turned warmer and I am taking little walks daily both around the parking lot at work, and also in the evenings in my local park. This injury has shown me how beautiful a little flat walk on a paved trail around a subdivision can be!
Sunday, May 5, 2019
It was stupid and I did it anyway.
I cried in church this morning during the sermon. The topic was Jesus on the road to Emmaus, "walking" with two of his disciples.
Yesterday I tried to hike up Pikes Peak via the Northwest Slopes route, about 14 miles round trip. I failed.
I did a two mile hike with 500 feet of elevation gain and loss last Saturday and I was making great progress this past week, so I thought there was about a 30%-40% chance of actually making the summit. Which is enough for me to try. Plus, I have 26 14ers left to do, and I want to finish them this year which means taking advantage of good weather days before all of the snow has melted or I am 100% recovered. Pikes Peak is the easiest one I have left within a four hour drive of Longmont. I announced my intentions for a 14 mile 8-12 hour adventure to my coworkers and six of them decided to join me!
I left my apartment at 3:30 in the morning, stopped at a coworker's apartment in Longmont at 3:45, another coworker's in Louisville at 4:05, another coworker's in Broomfield at 4:20, and then another coworker's to change vehicles in Westminster at 4:35, and then the seventh coworker in Highlands Ranch at 5:15. The seven of us carpooled down to the trailhead getting there about 7 AM and starting hiking shortly after. I quickly led us on a wrong turn wasting about a half mile. Initially the trail was good. Stable footing, very shallow grade. I was feeling great! Out with friends on a beautiful day, life is good! My ankle wasn't feeling too bad, and the adrenaline of attempting a 14er was coursing through me so I wasn't feeling all the pain.
Near treeline the route became very steep and only one of the six people with me know how to properly flat foot and break trail, so either him or I led, which tired me out and put my ankle at poor angles, which strained it more. It was a struggle, but it was okay. I've had worse. I put myself about at a D in terms of how I was doing. When we crested the broad ridge the trail leveled out a bit and we made good progress, but even some slight downhills were torture on my ankle. I had a few moments where I choked up and my eyes watered. I didn't exactly cry, but I was close. There were a lot of emotions going through my head.
The last year has not been totally delightful. I had a pulmonary embolism, which can kill people. Fortunately I am here, and my dream for nearly a decade of being on the USA 100 km team was fulfilled, but I was unable to even run 9:30 pace consistently and it is not a race experience I want to repeat. Then I broke my leg and strained my ankle ligaments. The recovery is going excellent! People can lose their foot from especially bad ankle crush injuries. My mom is battling cancer. It seems to be going very well, but this past fall it was not going well, and people die from cancer. Another relative had cancer and a different relative had a health scare last summer, all in the past year. My mortality and fragility has been fully reinforced. Are my competitive running days over? Is going to high altitude too great of a risk for me? As I was doing this difficult and painful thing yesterday I was on cloud nine, high from the prospect that I could still go into the mountains. Why me? And I mean that in the most positive way, that others will never experience even the minor mellow hike I experienced yesterday. Plus it was only eight weeks after a serious injury. Even with all of these adversities, I have the ability to hike from 9,700 feet up to 13,000 feet over 6.5 miles on mostly snowy terrain. Why has God so blessed me with these great abilities?
We reached the first road crossing and I was still optimistic, however in the short less than half mile section to the next road crossing we went up and down on snow that led to some post holing and my ankle just couldn't take the irregularity. I felt like an F, I had failed, it was time to call it quits, at approximately 11:30 AM. One of my fellow hikers is recovering from a metatarsal stress fracture and he called it day too. We hitchhiked down in a rental car thanks to a nice couple (including a helicopter pilot) from Utah. The two of us spent the rest of the day bumming around Colorado Springs down town, eating, drinking, and napping in a park with the homeless people. As we grew worried about our friends we finally heard from them at 7:30 PM, only an hour from when were were planning to call Teller County search and rescue. They all made it down safe! Despite it being harder than they expected, they summitted and had fun! I was afraid when they picked us up at 8:40 PM for the drive home that they would want to kill me.
One of my [probably genetic] gifts is acute inflammation. My body will swell up and then recover quickly from traumatic things. My ankle yesterday afternoon grew, probably a quarter to half inch in diameter due to the twisting on uneven ground. However, today, after getting some sleep, and icing it it actually doesn't feel too bad or look terribly big. It's still clearly bigger than my right ankle, but it's been that way for eight weeks. I'm going to wear the ankle brace most of today, because I can feel my ankle is weak, but frankly it feels better than I expected after the stupidness that I put it through.
So this morning in church, when the sermon was on Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, I cried. For years I've through of my running, especially my long runs, as dancing with God and I think of hiking and climbing in the mountains as spending my time in the greatest cathedrals in the world. Yet today, I felt for the first time that my limping slow walk is also with God. He meets us where we are at, when we are hurting and desperate and sad, and doing things which are probably detrimental to ourselves.
I feel that these many experiences I have had in the last year are a lesson to me that my time on earth is limited. I need to speak out. I can't stay silent. I can't leave things until tomorrow. No guarantees that I actually make any changes to my life, but I am definitely thinking about the big things I want to accomplish in life and doing them sooner rather than later.
Yesterday I tried to hike up Pikes Peak via the Northwest Slopes route, about 14 miles round trip. I failed.
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| Pikes Peak Strava Activity |
I left my apartment at 3:30 in the morning, stopped at a coworker's apartment in Longmont at 3:45, another coworker's in Louisville at 4:05, another coworker's in Broomfield at 4:20, and then another coworker's to change vehicles in Westminster at 4:35, and then the seventh coworker in Highlands Ranch at 5:15. The seven of us carpooled down to the trailhead getting there about 7 AM and starting hiking shortly after. I quickly led us on a wrong turn wasting about a half mile. Initially the trail was good. Stable footing, very shallow grade. I was feeling great! Out with friends on a beautiful day, life is good! My ankle wasn't feeling too bad, and the adrenaline of attempting a 14er was coursing through me so I wasn't feeling all the pain.
Near treeline the route became very steep and only one of the six people with me know how to properly flat foot and break trail, so either him or I led, which tired me out and put my ankle at poor angles, which strained it more. It was a struggle, but it was okay. I've had worse. I put myself about at a D in terms of how I was doing. When we crested the broad ridge the trail leveled out a bit and we made good progress, but even some slight downhills were torture on my ankle. I had a few moments where I choked up and my eyes watered. I didn't exactly cry, but I was close. There were a lot of emotions going through my head.
The last year has not been totally delightful. I had a pulmonary embolism, which can kill people. Fortunately I am here, and my dream for nearly a decade of being on the USA 100 km team was fulfilled, but I was unable to even run 9:30 pace consistently and it is not a race experience I want to repeat. Then I broke my leg and strained my ankle ligaments. The recovery is going excellent! People can lose their foot from especially bad ankle crush injuries. My mom is battling cancer. It seems to be going very well, but this past fall it was not going well, and people die from cancer. Another relative had cancer and a different relative had a health scare last summer, all in the past year. My mortality and fragility has been fully reinforced. Are my competitive running days over? Is going to high altitude too great of a risk for me? As I was doing this difficult and painful thing yesterday I was on cloud nine, high from the prospect that I could still go into the mountains. Why me? And I mean that in the most positive way, that others will never experience even the minor mellow hike I experienced yesterday. Plus it was only eight weeks after a serious injury. Even with all of these adversities, I have the ability to hike from 9,700 feet up to 13,000 feet over 6.5 miles on mostly snowy terrain. Why has God so blessed me with these great abilities?
We reached the first road crossing and I was still optimistic, however in the short less than half mile section to the next road crossing we went up and down on snow that led to some post holing and my ankle just couldn't take the irregularity. I felt like an F, I had failed, it was time to call it quits, at approximately 11:30 AM. One of my fellow hikers is recovering from a metatarsal stress fracture and he called it day too. We hitchhiked down in a rental car thanks to a nice couple (including a helicopter pilot) from Utah. The two of us spent the rest of the day bumming around Colorado Springs down town, eating, drinking, and napping in a park with the homeless people. As we grew worried about our friends we finally heard from them at 7:30 PM, only an hour from when were were planning to call Teller County search and rescue. They all made it down safe! Despite it being harder than they expected, they summitted and had fun! I was afraid when they picked us up at 8:40 PM for the drive home that they would want to kill me.
One of my [probably genetic] gifts is acute inflammation. My body will swell up and then recover quickly from traumatic things. My ankle yesterday afternoon grew, probably a quarter to half inch in diameter due to the twisting on uneven ground. However, today, after getting some sleep, and icing it it actually doesn't feel too bad or look terribly big. It's still clearly bigger than my right ankle, but it's been that way for eight weeks. I'm going to wear the ankle brace most of today, because I can feel my ankle is weak, but frankly it feels better than I expected after the stupidness that I put it through.
So this morning in church, when the sermon was on Jesus walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, I cried. For years I've through of my running, especially my long runs, as dancing with God and I think of hiking and climbing in the mountains as spending my time in the greatest cathedrals in the world. Yet today, I felt for the first time that my limping slow walk is also with God. He meets us where we are at, when we are hurting and desperate and sad, and doing things which are probably detrimental to ourselves.
I feel that these many experiences I have had in the last year are a lesson to me that my time on earth is limited. I need to speak out. I can't stay silent. I can't leave things until tomorrow. No guarantees that I actually make any changes to my life, but I am definitely thinking about the big things I want to accomplish in life and doing them sooner rather than later.
Monday, April 29, 2019
Physical Therapy is Pretty Cool
I started going to physical therapy last week, and wow what a difference is makes! After every visit I have walked out the door with a little more flexibility than I came in with. I've been to physical therapy before for more minor injuries, and it's helped, but with a much more dramatic injury, the recovery steps have been more dramatic. Turns out ankles are pretty complicated, and when you don't flex it much for six weeks it gets stiff in between several different bones. So I'm dealing with a lot of soreness both in physical therapy and just walking around. It's all part of the recovery process, and I'm thankful that I can walk as well as I do already. Power sports injuries often end up crushing joints, and even leading to amputations.
The point is, when you get hurt, spend the time getting better. It can be painful in recovery, but every little increase on the road to full physical ability is totally worth it!
The point is, when you get hurt, spend the time getting better. It can be painful in recovery, but every little increase on the road to full physical ability is totally worth it!
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Colorado Startup Life: Week 33
April 21 to 27, was a much better week at work than the last two weeks! From top to bottom in the organization I saw a renewed interest in solving the customer's problem, and not just making a cool product and expecting customers to show up and buy it. I expressed my opinion to the relevant people in the previous weeks in nearly the same words I used in my blog, and I see the change happening. Instead of the customer visit being just two people as it was originally planned, it will be five people, including me.
Another concern has popped up in my mind, are we growing too fast? I'm a big fan of organic growth. Put another way, I think a mountaineer should slowly build up skills on easy routes and short mountains before tackling hard routes and tall mountains. In other words, I don't see us having enough customer delivery contracts to justify the number of people we are hiring. That could all change with the stroke of a pen, but I'd rather us sign that contract and then hire people than hire people and hope we sign that contract.
It's fascinating to see these issues. At a 180 year old company, these things just aren't issues. Management understands responding to the customer in a timely manner, the importance of face to face meetings, and doesn't grow faster than sales dictate. So it's fun to watch the flip side of that. Although it is like being in the TV series Silicon Valley with it's ups and downs. The hard part is that it seems there is no middle ground. Either we're going to be successful, and I'm going to be rich, or we're not going to survive. That being said, given our current contracts I like to imagine that worst case scenario all but four people are laid off and those four would then have a nice little lifestyle business selling our most mature product. Kind of like this. Frankly, if I was one of the laid off people, I'd do just fine, in fact, I can think of a couple uses for our one small existing product at the moment that I would then have the time to create a new product around.
My ankle has greatly improved! I even went for a two mile hike on Saturday! I started Physical therapy and went twice this week, and had a deep tissue massage which have all helped my to have a greater range of motion in my ankle. I again went rock climbing indoor this week, and did three 5.10s, which is pretty incredible in my mind for having a kneed high boot on. I even ditched the ankle brace on Saturday!
I hope you had a good week too!
Another concern has popped up in my mind, are we growing too fast? I'm a big fan of organic growth. Put another way, I think a mountaineer should slowly build up skills on easy routes and short mountains before tackling hard routes and tall mountains. In other words, I don't see us having enough customer delivery contracts to justify the number of people we are hiring. That could all change with the stroke of a pen, but I'd rather us sign that contract and then hire people than hire people and hope we sign that contract.
It's fascinating to see these issues. At a 180 year old company, these things just aren't issues. Management understands responding to the customer in a timely manner, the importance of face to face meetings, and doesn't grow faster than sales dictate. So it's fun to watch the flip side of that. Although it is like being in the TV series Silicon Valley with it's ups and downs. The hard part is that it seems there is no middle ground. Either we're going to be successful, and I'm going to be rich, or we're not going to survive. That being said, given our current contracts I like to imagine that worst case scenario all but four people are laid off and those four would then have a nice little lifestyle business selling our most mature product. Kind of like this. Frankly, if I was one of the laid off people, I'd do just fine, in fact, I can think of a couple uses for our one small existing product at the moment that I would then have the time to create a new product around.
My ankle has greatly improved! I even went for a two mile hike on Saturday! I started Physical therapy and went twice this week, and had a deep tissue massage which have all helped my to have a greater range of motion in my ankle. I again went rock climbing indoor this week, and did three 5.10s, which is pretty incredible in my mind for having a kneed high boot on. I even ditched the ankle brace on Saturday!
I hope you had a good week too!
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Colorado Startup Life: Weeks 31 and 32
April 7th to 20th. These were the worst two weeks I have had since I moved here. I've had worse weeks in the past, but it's frustrating when the issue or issues seem preventable from my perspective.
We have essentially one real paying customer. We have two more strong leads, where they are beginning to build their product around our product, but they are years away from production. We have a couple huge leads too, from established players in the industry who might like us to develop a product from scratch, but until the contract is signed and some money is in the bank, they aren't really real. A few months ago, we made a change to the geometry of our product, making it larger. This really matters to the customer. Unfortunately no one communicated this change to the customer, despite the fact that they are the ones that requested the feature that we had to enlarge the product to achieve. In other words, they asked for it, we made it happen (which was and still is a difficult technical problem), but we made the geometry somewhat larger than originally agreed to, because we couldn't get it to work with a smaller geometry.
Back at my old corporate job, as soon as there is a problem, you sort it out at your desk for perhaps few hours, confirm it is a problem, and then let all the stakeholders know as soon as possible. I used to have near daily communication with Germany in one job and South Korea in another because of the challenges we were encountering throughout development. I expected to have a similar role here, yet I have not interacted with the customer at all. Which I thought was totally fine because others were handling it, but then they fail to notify the customer of a change like this, for months, and I'm embarrassed. What amateurs! Instead of being a fast moving startup, in this particular area we're slower than a 180 year old company!
The customer is always right. That's not strictly true, but I think it's the best starting point. If you spend all of your effort showing the customer they are wrong, eventually they'll probably leave for someone else, who they FEEL solves their problem better. Every business is a mix of quality, service, and price to their customers. If you ignore service you had better have excellent quality and a bargain price.
I work with a lot of smart people, who are younger than me. I don't like the word smart because it implies there is a dumb, and I think everyone has some ability to contribute, and talents that others do not have. So we'll say book smart people who went to Harvard and MIT and worked at prestigious companies. They don't always have the most humility. I would have never thought back in 2013 through 2016 when I worked a few weekends a summer at a winery just how much I would learn from that job! It was generally very low stress because I didn't need the paycheck and it was something to do that made money, and my coworkers were great. However, a few times we would have a customer who just ruined everyone's day. The wine is terrible, he wants a different bottle. The pizza is terrible, remake it. Why haven't you been back to fill up our water glasses? The sun changed and we want to move seats. To top it all off, no tip when he pays.
What I learned in that little part time service job is that with almost every customer interaction there is the ability to diffuse a tense situation and have a positive outcome. People get upset in restaurants all the time, and a free bottle of wine, or an extra pitcher of water, or some free breadsticks, or better yet checking on their table every three minutes instead of every six minutes, goes such a long way toward giving them a positive experience. It's the same in business to business customer service. You can't make everyone happy, and sometimes you really need to ditch the worst customers because they aren't worth it, but the majority of time you can make the situation better. Unfortunately I don't think many of my coworkers have ever had those sort of fast paced customer service jobs where you have 80 customer interactions in a four hour shift. You learn very fast with that kind of volume. In the corporate world customer interactions happen one or two emails per day or maybe two meetings per week. It takes forever to learn the same lessons, and the stakes are much higher than missing an eight dollar tip.
The result of all of this is that I'm traveling to Atlanta next week with four of my coworkers to have a day of meetings at the customer's location and reset the relationship. We need them. We might not always need them, but at this point we do.
In other news, I'm walking much much better! The knee high inflatable boot came off April 11th, and I switched to an ankle brace, which allows about 15 degrees of flex versus the boot allowing maybe five degrees. My step count has climbed from about 2000 steps per day to averaging about 8000.
My parents, sister, and her fiancé, came for Easter! We had a great time! It was great to get to know my sister's fiancé a little better. I picked out a new suit for their wedding, which I am a groomsman. Getting a suit was pushed on me, although I have wanted to get a nice tailored suit for years and I guess this is my chance. It's going to be a rather bold blue, so I'm a bit nervous that it won't be appropriate for situations where I want to blend in a little. My sister's wedding is probably going to cost me around $2000 in total, and I'm not even planning to get her a present. I'm probably going to elope if I ever get married...
We have essentially one real paying customer. We have two more strong leads, where they are beginning to build their product around our product, but they are years away from production. We have a couple huge leads too, from established players in the industry who might like us to develop a product from scratch, but until the contract is signed and some money is in the bank, they aren't really real. A few months ago, we made a change to the geometry of our product, making it larger. This really matters to the customer. Unfortunately no one communicated this change to the customer, despite the fact that they are the ones that requested the feature that we had to enlarge the product to achieve. In other words, they asked for it, we made it happen (which was and still is a difficult technical problem), but we made the geometry somewhat larger than originally agreed to, because we couldn't get it to work with a smaller geometry.
Back at my old corporate job, as soon as there is a problem, you sort it out at your desk for perhaps few hours, confirm it is a problem, and then let all the stakeholders know as soon as possible. I used to have near daily communication with Germany in one job and South Korea in another because of the challenges we were encountering throughout development. I expected to have a similar role here, yet I have not interacted with the customer at all. Which I thought was totally fine because others were handling it, but then they fail to notify the customer of a change like this, for months, and I'm embarrassed. What amateurs! Instead of being a fast moving startup, in this particular area we're slower than a 180 year old company!
The customer is always right. That's not strictly true, but I think it's the best starting point. If you spend all of your effort showing the customer they are wrong, eventually they'll probably leave for someone else, who they FEEL solves their problem better. Every business is a mix of quality, service, and price to their customers. If you ignore service you had better have excellent quality and a bargain price.
I work with a lot of smart people, who are younger than me. I don't like the word smart because it implies there is a dumb, and I think everyone has some ability to contribute, and talents that others do not have. So we'll say book smart people who went to Harvard and MIT and worked at prestigious companies. They don't always have the most humility. I would have never thought back in 2013 through 2016 when I worked a few weekends a summer at a winery just how much I would learn from that job! It was generally very low stress because I didn't need the paycheck and it was something to do that made money, and my coworkers were great. However, a few times we would have a customer who just ruined everyone's day. The wine is terrible, he wants a different bottle. The pizza is terrible, remake it. Why haven't you been back to fill up our water glasses? The sun changed and we want to move seats. To top it all off, no tip when he pays.
What I learned in that little part time service job is that with almost every customer interaction there is the ability to diffuse a tense situation and have a positive outcome. People get upset in restaurants all the time, and a free bottle of wine, or an extra pitcher of water, or some free breadsticks, or better yet checking on their table every three minutes instead of every six minutes, goes such a long way toward giving them a positive experience. It's the same in business to business customer service. You can't make everyone happy, and sometimes you really need to ditch the worst customers because they aren't worth it, but the majority of time you can make the situation better. Unfortunately I don't think many of my coworkers have ever had those sort of fast paced customer service jobs where you have 80 customer interactions in a four hour shift. You learn very fast with that kind of volume. In the corporate world customer interactions happen one or two emails per day or maybe two meetings per week. It takes forever to learn the same lessons, and the stakes are much higher than missing an eight dollar tip.
The result of all of this is that I'm traveling to Atlanta next week with four of my coworkers to have a day of meetings at the customer's location and reset the relationship. We need them. We might not always need them, but at this point we do.
In other news, I'm walking much much better! The knee high inflatable boot came off April 11th, and I switched to an ankle brace, which allows about 15 degrees of flex versus the boot allowing maybe five degrees. My step count has climbed from about 2000 steps per day to averaging about 8000.
My parents, sister, and her fiancé, came for Easter! We had a great time! It was great to get to know my sister's fiancé a little better. I picked out a new suit for their wedding, which I am a groomsman. Getting a suit was pushed on me, although I have wanted to get a nice tailored suit for years and I guess this is my chance. It's going to be a rather bold blue, so I'm a bit nervous that it won't be appropriate for situations where I want to blend in a little. My sister's wedding is probably going to cost me around $2000 in total, and I'm not even planning to get her a present. I'm probably going to elope if I ever get married...
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