Articles for category: Delivery

April 12, 2016

Greg Thomas

Standards before Knowledge

Creating a standard off of a hunch is a risky endeavour, especially if that standard is meant to be used by everyone. For instance, there is no way I could write a standard today on the proper implementations of TypeScript.  I do not know enough to do it.  T-SQL coding?  For sure, I’ve used it at length and could throw something together.  But am I the guru and all knowing power behind T-SQL? Not a chance. But I have foundational knowledge to start something that can be built on and grown for years to come.  Building standards for a group is not

Own your Niche

Speciality or Everything – it’s always the same battle. Will being a generalist at everything be what propels my career or will focussing on my niche give me the expertise I need to be “that guy” that everyone comes to for answers. When you are a generalist, you need to get used to being spread thin, there is no ifs and/or buts about.  You know a bit about everything, people from all over the place will start coming to you for a variety of things – sales questions, product management ideas, design problems, code reviews, platform integration, etc, etc. When

March 24, 2016

Greg Thomas

Out the Door vs Off your Plate

There is a difference between getting something out the door vs getting it off your plate.  You might think they are similar in part because they both involve completing something, to some degree, however with closer inspection you start to see the difference. Out the Door You’ve been on this for awhile and now’s the time to make the push. Build something and deliver it. Work hard towards the end to push something out the door for people to use. Bring the team together to drive towards an end goal that needs to happen. Get customer feedback through the trial process to

March 23, 2016

Greg Thomas

Doing work in Typical Time

When something comes across your desk, that something being; Bugs A new feature A napkin with some requirements on it A blackbox that no one has ever seen but has to be tested That new project that doesn’t push the envelope, but takes it, rips it up and creates a new one. The first question is always the same; “When can you have it done?” And the first thing that goes through your mind, everyone’s mind is always the same… “Wasn’t expecting this today, got a lot on my plate, how do I fit this in?” And from there we

March 11, 2016

Greg Thomas

That Amazing Kind of Customer Service

Last week I was travelling quite a bit and had a number of opportunities to encounter customer service. This isn’t about the bad kind, this is about the good, really, really good kind. From the moment I walked in I was blown away – and not just by one person, but by the entire organization – person at the desk, person at the door, person in the hallway, etc.  I encountered, easily 5 – 6 people that continued that mantra of amazing customer experience.  Obviously the remarkable piece is that this was not solely one person, but rather many people, in teams