An inescapable fact of life in web development and product design is meetings. Frankly when I was first freelancing I thought the notion of the hours long info share was sort of a myth; as I began to work in teams later I realized they were not mythical, but rather nightmarish. Often, meetings would drag on for hours or even consume entire workdays. It seemed that no one was able to hold focus for much longer than an hour, but the meetings would continue anyway. In fact, these marathons stretched the meaning of the term meetings and veered dangerously toward seminars. Most of them had no real agendas, and almost everyone in the meeting was seeing new information for the first time.

I found myself yesterday in a planning session with a large group of people. We were asked to, among other things, talk a little bit about the stuff we’re asked to do too often in our office lives. Unsurprisingly almost every group mentioned meetings. So the object of this post is to share some ideas for making meetings—something I stress really are important in development—something more useful than they may be for you right now.

I. Meeting types
Meetings are not one-size-fits-all. In so many offices, meetings are held because it “seems like the right thing to do”; you want to build consensus for a project, or take the pulse of several team members about their status while on a project and a meeting with everyone involved seems like the best way. Instead, consider a ten minute standup meeting—all parties standing and looking directly at the features, code or colors in question. Another type of meeting that happens constantly is a document review, where a team might get together to go over a timeline or other shared document. The kiss of death in these meetings is twofold: letting them run over about half an hour, and not giving all attendees an opportunity to see the document beforehand. I can’t think of anything more frustrating than watching someone edit a spreadsheet on an overhead projector that I have either never seen before, or that I only occupy a couple of rows in.

In short, keep meeting relevant and short. When only three people need to talk, three people should talk. Avoid concepts and words, and seek concrete actions that you can dole out to everyone at the table. It may seem childish, obvious, or elementary at first to hear yourself saying, “Bob, crank this widget”—but when everyone leaves the room feeling like they have something real to do, they feel much better.

II. Handouts
In our office we’ve gotten as far as doing meeting agendas, and they really help. Agendas at least make participants feel like there’s a map out of the madness, and if all else fails it’s something you can point to to get back on track. One thing we don’t do is a pre-meeting info share of some kind. The pre-meet can be a short email sent to everyone invited that says:

“Hi all-

We’ll be meeting about Project X Wednesday @ 11am. The agenda is attached to this email. At this meeting the project planner, Bob, will expect the following from the team:

• Sue: Wireframes uploaded to Basecamp
• Erik: An answer from Google about the foo API
• Matt: Status update on the data import scripts from WordPress to Joomla

This gives you guys two more full days to bash these things out. You can expect another task from the list at the end of the meeting.

See you then!

-Bob”

The pre-meet puts everyone on the same page. It takes the meeting from the land of the abstract concept to the land of the concrete task check-in. We have to assume that no one is going to do meeting specific preparation, so substitute the actual work for the meeting related busy work and then talk about that.

It might also be a good idea to send along your meeting agenda, as suggested in the example. If it isn’t ready yet, try to send it along no more or less than one day before the meeting. More than two days no one remembers, and twenty∏ minutes before you might as well not bother.

III. Meeting math
If all else fails, and you literally cannot get a hold on meetings consider this formula.

E(Employees) x Pr(Pay rate) x Ml(Meeting length)

If the cost of the meeting in contrast to the profit or cost of your project makes you want to jump out of a window , someone may end up managing meetings for you.

Warning: This is a post about my job. If you think you may be offended by such a thing, now would be a good time to close this tab.

I have a friend who’s almost universally joshed for being the guy most likely to march into work early Monday morning and announce he hasn’t slept in days, because he’s been coding his way through some problem. For months I had no idea what he was talking about; I was able to turn work off if I wanted to once I walked through the door, so why couldn’t he? Slowly, given enough time pressure, almost any designer or developer can start doing the same thing. I realized this when I sat in front of my Mac Book Pro on Sunday and coded for fourteen straight hours—really only breaking for the bathroom and to eat. The reasons for this are myriad, and are the basis for an anecdote about deadlines and such.

Our company has a tendency to talk about things a lot. Given almost any project, we can find a way to have at least a dozen meetings just about how to get started. Once we’ve figured that out, we’ll have a dozen more to decide what the next steps are. The meetings we tend not to have are the ones about scope, requirements or audience. These things always seem to be someone else’s job. The head of the department I’m attached to has it far worse than me, however, as he gets pulled into essentially every meeting ever planned; it’s left to him to sit through them all offering advice and guidance where applicable, and making the hard choices about milestones and even some development issues. It’s fair to say that we have a ‘meeting culture’, and that we tend to manage by committee. This often leads to deadlines that are set by such committees.

What tends to happen when committees don’t know much about requirements or project scope is that boat docks get built in the desert; one hand is totally unaware of the difficulty (or triviality) of the tasks being performed by the other, unrealistic deadlines are set, and the end product is a mess. I found this out the hard way with my last product launch, which was governed by an arbitrary deadline that could only be met by means of several 90 hour work weeks in the dev room. The “extra time” needed to make things better after launch was almost exactly the amount of time the dev team asked for on the front end of the project. Score one for the immovable, immutable deadline. In the interest of fairness I do understand the business case for setting deadlines and/or milestones on major projects; in large organizations it’s often necessary to attach revenue to projects that haven’t happened just yet.

I guess the only advice I have for planning a project is this: understand that most of what you’ll be doing in the initial phases is really only a guess, and that you need to check your work frequently against your map to make sure you’re on track. You need to give your people the leeway to say “this map does not match this road”, and change the map. But I also understand why this is so hard to do. It’s very difficult, especially in an overcrowded and ever more cutthroat online market, to take the time to breathe through a milestone meeting where you hear things are slipping. It’s also difficult to trust that the project is worth the extra weeks of design and testing and coding and recoding; but if you show up for work everyday anyhow, then you must believe that at least a little, right?

Today when I sat in a meeting and heard all of those things happening—the deadline slipping, the map changing, the request for more time—I felt as though cooler heads had prevailed. I felt like the project managers were sticking their necks out for the dev team, and that my fourteen hour coding sprees might no longer be necessary. Even though I left the office tired of meetings I felt renewed to some degree, even if for a few minutes. Will we return to endless meetings and arbitrary deadlines? Of course we will, but for today we can pretend there is no phantom deadline. That’s worth a meeting or two for me.

Related update: I’ve just been directed to the WikiPedia entry for “Scrum“, a project management system that seems to have some really nice ideas. Your mileage may vary.

So this is what happens: you get married, you buy a house, you have babies. We are stuck on the middle part.

We’ve seen 15 properties in just a few short weeks, and we’re tired. The two offers we’ve made (hey, we’re picky) have come in short. So far, the whole process seems inelegant and labor intensive–and there aren’t many houses around here worth seeing. Only one has really caught my eye–the 1936 Sears Craftsman pictured here–but alas, our offer was low for this one too.

So it’s a work in progress, this home buying business. We’ll get there, and soon all my Apple crap will have a place to live and I’ll have an office to do freelance (lots of freelance) from. Until then, anyone know of any great Craftsman houses going cheap on this side of the swamp?

Instead of a complete rundown of the last few days with the iPhone, I thought I might post a few small observations. In short this thing really lives up to (most of) its hype, and is a really compelling and enjoyable device to use.

• Speaker volume. It’s just not loud enough. Neither is the ringer really, and it may shed a little light on just how Apple thinks of the iPhone: as an iPod first and all the other things in descending order from there. I say this because using the phone while you have the earbuds on is a perfect experience in terms of sound levels. When the iPhone is in the car seat next to you and the AC is blasting and NPR is on, though, keep an eye out for calls.
• The interface is even better than you think. Using your fingers to navigate through screens of data feels perfectly natural. I’ve not had one single person, regardless of age or experience level, be stumped about how things work. I do need to explain the home button a little, but after that they’re off to the races. I’m still marvelling over the little details, like the recent calls screen; there’s so much in just that one small screen that’s communicated so effectively, and all without clutter or having to tap into other screens.
• I am going to drop this thing. It’s just a matter of time. The bead blasted finish is just not enough to hold onto.
• Prepare to be mobbed. Everyone is writing about this right now, but be prepared to give spontaneous iPhone demos at Starbuck’s and the grocery store and the bar, or anywhere else you try and take a phone call.
• The camera is really pretty good. Don’t go ditching your Canon DSLR just yet, but it’s more than enough for the occasional snap in terms of color and sharpness. No dedicated shutter button on the device (only a “soft button”) is a pain, though.
• I have no idea what the “right” way is to carry this thing. My old phone, a Samsung A900, would have cost around $129 had it not been a gift from my lovely wife. You can see for yourself how much an iPhone will set you back. My point of course is that carrying the iPhone around with is sort of a scary affair, and there are some places I would just not be interested in taking it–like the beach or something. Maybe folks with Treos or Blackberrys feel similar?

All in all, good stuff. Where’s the 1.1 update? I want more stuff to tinker with.

Although some of you (one of you) is probably waiting on part 2 of the iPhone review, I thought I might relate something else that’s been going on around here. Frankly, I’m experiencing iPhone overload and, well, this is sort of interesting.

My wife and I may be moving into a new house. We’re approaching the whole thing with more than a little bit of caution, and trying to weigh all the possible angles with definite consideration; who wants to get stuck in a terrible house that looked nice from the curb but is obviously haunted by pirate ghosts? In any case part of this process is looking at our current monthly expenses, trimming what we can and dropping what we don’t need. It also means doing the “pre-qualification dance”. This means calling various private and/or government institutions and asking for things, which never works out very well for me. I spend a few hours every month fighting with Sprint or Time Warner, and my wife spends about the same amount of time just with out current rental agency on random mammal invaders. These calls are normally stressful, long and unproductive. But this week I’ve discovered an untapped vein of karma and good will.

A few days ago I need a three year old W2 form. I called the IRS for a reprint and after a brief hold I spoke with a very pleasant IRS employee (oxy moron, if there ever was one) who not only was glad to fax me a copy, but would call me back when I was near my office fax machine and send it to me. She called me back at the very minute she’d promised to, and even explained the transcript to me. Then, last night I had to call Netflix to admit to them that a DVD had gone missing, swallowed up by the monster that is a wedding and a honeymoon. The rep congratulated me on my wedding, cheerfully forgave me the loss of the DVD and even told me how to easily combine my account and Shannon’s while saving me eight dollars. I was on a roll, so I called Time Warner Cable to argue my bill, like every month.

The vein of karma sputtered and coughed, as I was treated to possibly the rudest phone rep in the history of customer service. Finally, in shock, I simply hung up the phone and got myself a beer. Had the well finally run dry? Were the bad old days here again? I called Time Warner again, hoping for someone other then Eva Braun.

Unbelievably the next rep I spoke to was not only polite, but was apologetic on the previous one’s behalf. She expressed what seemed like genuine sympathy (even irritation) for Time Warner’s tendency to double- and over-bill us, fixed it and took my payment without a service charge. Before I hung up I told her, “You’ve just demonstrated one of the major principles of customer service: I would have given this money to any rep, but giving it to the nice rep made it hurt less.” And it kept my karma flow intact. So, what else should I do with all this good will the universe is pointing at me? Maybe this is the week to try fugu.

After some handwringing and discussion, the iPhone came home with us on Saturday afternoon. I’ve had one full day to live with it–enough time to form that blissful first opinion, and here it is.

First of all, the buying experience associated with buying an iPhone is exhilarating. The overwhelming media blitz for this thing makes buying one feel more like buying a Lexus than a wireless phone. As I stood in line with three other people buying them, we were gazed upon by other Apple Store patrons. It was frankly a little unnerving. Also, each phone is packaged deliberately differently than the iPods, and is even given to you to take home in a specially designed cardboard “bag” with black ribbon drawstrings. Carrying it through the mall I realized just how different it would be using the iPhone: anyone under the age of 30 was peering down at it surreptitiously as I passed.

I: Activation

Despite the horror stories circulating after the release on the 29th, my iPhone activation took about 5 minutes including the “paperwork” and sync. The iTunes-based setup worked without a hitch, and I noticed that mine had even shipped with a full battery. I dropped a few albums on it and got ready to poke around a bit.

II: First details

The device itself is stunning. The iPhone is more diminutive than even its PR suggests, and it’s thinner than my 30 GB iPod 5G. It feels good in the hand, it at times a little awkward to hold. The screen is razor sharp and exceptionally bright, and displayed photos with startling sharpness. In the first ten minutes out of the box I was speeding through the UI with ease, zooming photos with the “pinch” for the amusement of my wife.

III: Wifi trials

Let’s start by admitting that EDGE is pathetic. Its download speeds approach dialup for most tasks, and are bearable really only for email. I’d hate to be forced to use the Google Maps app with anything other than pure wifi, which was my first struggle. I had a fair amount of difficulty getting the iPhone to see my Belkin 54G wireless router, and after three resets apiece I decided to walk down the street to see if iPhone could see my local coffee shop’s wifi. Inexplicably my router appeared as I rounded the stairs on our second floor, 30 feet from the router I’d previously been practically on top of. I’m still not certain what finally made the iPhone see my router, but it’s been seeing wireless networks all weekend now and joining them without complaint. Oh well. Being outside gave me a chance to sample call quality and the iPod feature.

IV: iPod and calls

As I bopped down to the coffee shop, I flipped through some albums in the iPod. Every aspect of the UI is gorgeous, even the plain vanilla (read: non-Cover Flow) list views. Menus float and glide as if real world objects, and there’s no detectable lag between finger gestures and the virtual controls. I settled on some Bjork to listen to, and seconds into the first track my wife called. The iPod seamlessly trimmed the volume down to zero, paused my music and asked me whether I wanted to take the call; being ever the UX developer I couldn’t resist a quick chuckle at the perfection that incoming call had triggered. In quick succession this tiny little gadget had made about five right decisions about my user experience. I accepted the call and was very pleased with the audio quality, especially over the included headset. I poked around the internet a bit over wifi, and was very pleased with Safari’s speed and responsiveness. Every mobile browser I’ve ever used has some quirks, but other than the lack of Flash support Safari doesn’t really have any. After a while you stop throwing websites at it expecting it to break or truncate your sites, a la Opera Mobile or the PSP browser. Soon, you’re just surfing and taking it for granted. Mission accomplished, Apple. Time for some email.

V: Email

When you sync iPhone for the first time, it attempts to copy your email accounts from Apple Mail. You’ll find that when you click (tap?) mail for the first time that it’s ready to go as long as there are working accounts on your Mac. Over wifi speed was excellent. There are a lot of complaints about the Mail app on iPhone, from the ordering of messages (new on top, and no you can’t change it) to the way it supports Gmail. None of those things bothered me as much as not being able to use the mail app in landscape mode like Safari. I’m hoping this works in future versions. Replying to mail is a breeze, and once you get used to the admittedly awkward keyboard you find you can tap out an email response with four or five complete (correctly spelled) sentences in about two minutes.

At the end of day one, I had sent an email browsed the web and even shot a picture or two. The camera is better than average, but still just a wireless phone camera lacking a few things–see number 1 here. I had yet to delve into some of the meatier apps like Google maps or the calendar. All that would happen on day two…

TO BE CONTINUED…

The stars and planets aligned today, and I found myself in the Apple store with my lovely new wife buying a lovely new iPhone. I’m exhausted from gazing upon the sheer glory of both today, but I promise a full report tomorrow replete with pictures. In a word: believe.

So, if you’ve had the misfortune of spending more than fifteen minutes around me lately my speech has probably sounded like the title of this post. For that, I would like to formally apologize. I had a three hour dream about the iPhone last night, a fact that actually makes me a little worried. It did make me some fried squid, in an apparent homage to the “calamari finder” television commercial.

But seriously, the iPhone fund is open for donations. I think we could make this a really funny internet meme. Like, there’ll be a picture of me looking sort of aloof and it will say, “I can has iphone?” or “My iphone: let me show you it. My iphone.” Then udnerneath a link to paypal where you can send me your dollar. It’ll be great. My poor wife–whom I have driven thoroughly insane with this quest, and who deserves the largest apology–thanks you in advance.

And probably doesn’t think this is funny at all.

I have returned with aching feet from an exploration of Montreal. Oh, and as of 2:15 PM last Saturday, June 23rd I am married. I left my phone charger somewhere above Vermont I think (in case you’ve called and think I’m dead), and our house is full of gifts, the volume and size of which basically demand that we buy a house; our apartment, while spacious, simply can’t hold this much stuff. I’m pushing for that house to be in Canada, now that I’ve witnessed first hand the miracle that is a French-speaking city. I’ve hauled out all my Rush records and insist on greeting everyone here with “bonjour” or “bonsoir”, even though it makes checkout people visibly consternated and perhaps a bit hostile.

Getting married was easier than they tell you. Going on a honeymoon was significantly more difficult. But no matter the level of difficulty of all the background activities the important thing is that for 10 days we were surrounded by friends and family or on vacation, and everyday when I woke up I was face to face with the easiest and number one best decision I’ve ever made. Every American, especially the ones who think we live in the best country ever, needs to visit Canada at least once. Canada is clean, polite, and has its priorities in fucking order. Want to know how many times I read about Paris Hilton in the newspaper or saw her on TV not counting the times I flipped past CNN? Zero. Goose egg. Zilch. It was really nice. Being even a temporary participant in a society like that makes you realize just how much brainwashing we go through on a daily basis in the US, making us the irritable frat boys of the world. Oh well. I’m off the soap crate for now I guess, except to say that flying out of an airport where no one knows that the fuck the “TSA” is is a nice experience.

Security Person: Sir, what are you doing?
Me: (Taking complete contents of bag out–including laptop–and removing shoes and socks.) Getting ready to go through security. Duh.
Security Person: Oh. Well, we can just put your things through this powerful x-ray machine. It seems to work much better than having some asshole getting $6.15 an hour paw through your stuff and treat you like a terrorist just for trying to get to Washington Dulles Airport.
Me: (Weeping.)
Security Person: Sir? Here, let me help you.
Me: (More weeping.)

Later, after I put on a pair of shoes my wife bought for me I found myself stuck with a shoebox and plastic bag. Hopefully, I approached an attendant in the airport terminal and told her about buying the shoes, and not being able to fit the box into the trash. I told her I was hesitant to simply put it next to the trash lest someone think it was a bomb. She laughed kindly. “Oh no, that’s fine. This is Canada. Everything isn’t a bomb here. Are your shoes comfortable? They look very nice.”

In two days, I’ll be getting married. After that, I’ll be in Montreal for our honeymoon–not unable to post, but probably unwilling. I’ve maybe mentioned all of this before, almost certainly if I know you in real life, but I’m extremely excited and nervous. For ten days we’ll be either surrounded by friends and family or on vacation in another country; I happen to think that despite the obvious stresses of planning such a thing that this is a wonderful way to begin a life with another person.

Anyone who has suggestions of things to do while in Montreal or Quebec City who happens across the blogint he next eight days or so should feel welcomed to leave comments on this post. We’d really love to have a few more activities than we need while we’re there. Besides, after watching Sicko Canada seems like a nice place to live permanently.