Comments on: Want to build great software? Get your culture right first.

By: Following the herd into bad corporate culture

Following the herd into bad corporate culture — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:26:21 +0000

[...] also: Want to build great software? Get your culture right first. [...]

By: Case study: the user experience of kalahari.com, one year later

Case study: the user experience of kalahari.com, one year later — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:30:09 +0000

[...] from where it needs to be. And I know everyone on the team feels this way. We set out to build a culture of quality above all else, and it physically hurts when you have to make compromises and do something that’s counter to [...]

By: Rian

Rian — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:53:14 +0000

Yep, try to stay away from Mumford, The National, and Bon Iver at work

Glad the post helped.

By: Gideon

Gideon — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:24:17 +0000

Hey Rian, you’re probably tired of hearing from me

Something bad happened to me at work today and I felt like giving up to put it mildly.
I just read your piece and it’s like everything just became clear to me.

I will NEVER give up on quality, team communication, being genuinely humble and wanting to learn.

PS Maybe some of the emotion I felt was because I was listening to Mumford and Sons

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:55:50 +0000

Will do, maybe the large organisations I’ve worked with just sucked too much, or my influence never quite strong enough!

By: Rian

Rian — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:33:31 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Mike. Good perspective and I agree, a truly healthy culture will be visible outside the organization simply by looking at the site/product (like the Zappos example you used).

It can certainly be a frustrating road to get there, yes, but I still believe it’s possible even in large organizations, so let’s keep trying…

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:17:41 +0000

The biggest challenge I see with creating a team culture within an organisation that doesn’t share the same commitment is you are pushing water uphill to get that culture externally visible. You need it externally visible to get the full benefits of the effort it takes to form and crystallise it. An example, if I was a “normal” visitor to your site and came across a bug I wouldn’t know that you care about having a “high fix:complain ratio” (most sites don’t!). I only know because I’ve seen you speak and witnessed the passion that you have that I would (and have) emailed you with it. On the other side, consider Zappos … their culture is so baked into the customer perception of them that people will pick up the phone to call with issues and have an expectation that they will care and deal with it.

I’m not saying don’t try, just prepare to be frustrated when it appears the public perception of the organisation you’re a component of appears to actively contradict what you want to achieve!