Chances are, if you’re reading this you’re a member of at least one loyalty program. While the days of the key ring with a dozen fobs are fading into the rear view mirror, the proliferation of rewards programs won’t be stopping any time soon. As an original member Burger King kids club (I was the one with the green sunglasses and skateboard) I’ve seen a lot of really cool loyalty programs, and I’ve also seen some really ineffective ones. A poorly executed loyalty program can alienate your most valuable customers, and cost you a hell of a lot of money doing it. Here are the most common mistakes that companies make. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you really want to know how the sausage is made?

It’s all a matter of perspective. We allow our customers to peek behind the curtain as much as they like, but not all of them want to be involved in the minutae. Want to have a daily check-in call with your team lead? Sure thing. Want to find know what tools we use to automate our regression testing? Maybe, maybe not.

If I’m in the market for 100 lbs of Boudin, the merchant should probably find out why I’m buying it in order to help uncover which parts of the process I would care about. They’d probably ask a lot of questions.  Are you reselling it? Do you have any allergies? How drunk are your guests going to be? Do you want to see the slaughter-room? Why not? Where are you going? Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of people call me up when they need custom software to solve a problem. While each project is a little bit different, they typically fall within a few categories of maintainable software solutions. I’ve learned a valuable lesson about categories though: Sometimes you have to throw them out the window to clearly understand a problem…

Growing up I read a lot of Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve got every anthology including the leather-bound edition. As much as I love reading them, I find myself having to refocus halfway through a single strip. I tend to think that I know the ending to a given strip or series, and I skip ahead.

Oh, this is the one where he collects all the UPCs and gets a propeller beanie. I’m going to flip a few pages and see the look on his face when he doesn’t take off! Read the rest of this entry »

Are you on the verge of a mutiny?

For my Mom’s birthday I decided it would be nice if I bought her a computer. (Moms are funny; she had purchased three PCs for my brother and me before we were out of the house, but she never had the desire to learn to use one herself.)

We went out to the electronics store one day to pick out the one that she wanted. Her two biggest requirements were that she needed to access washingtonpost.com, and she wanted to learn to play Scrabble online. We ended up picking out a pretty generic machine with a decent amount of memory and some antivirus software for all of the “free iPod” ads I was sure she would click on.

This was six years ago, and she was happy as she could be. I was too, albeit completely unprepared for how good she would get at Scrabble. Then I had to go and screw it all up. Read the rest of this entry »

By Eric Sollenberger:

The BCS formula has determined that Auburn and Oregon will square off in the BCS National
Championship Game. What does this have to do with your company’s legacy system? More
than you might think.

One: It sounded like a good idea at the time.

As strange as it may sound, the BCS system was created to solve a problem. The old
way of crowning a national champion failed for the first time in 1992. Mark Brunell’s
Washington Huskies had won their bowl game and finished the season undefeated. In
most seasons this would have been enough to secure the national championship, but
this year was different. The University of Miami (featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) Read the rest of this entry »

The BCS formula has determined that Auburn and Oregon will square off in the BCS National Championship Game. What does this have to do with your company’s legacy system? More than you might think.

One: It sounded like a good idea at the time.

As strange as it may sound, the BCS system was created to solve a problem. The old way of crowning a national champion failed for the first time in 1992. Mark Brunell’s Washington Huskies had won their bowl game and finished the season undefeated. In most seasons this would have been enough to secure the national championship, but this year was different. The University of Miami (featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) had likewise finished the regular season undefeated and pummeled Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Although The Rock would go on to claim to be “The People’s Champion,” the national title was declared a tie. Everyone threw a big fit because there were two national champions, and America doesn’t do ties. Something had to be done—and the solution was to be the Bowl Championship Series. The BCS ranking formula would include the opinions of people who talk about sports on TV, coaches who are allowed to vote for their own teams, and six computers that would calculate secret algorithms. What could possibly go wrong? Read the rest of this entry »