Welcome Number 7941

I’d like for you to take a moment and imagine that today is your first day at a new company.  You enter the building wearing the carefully selected slacks and shirt ironed the night before.  You’re filled with nervous energy, but confident, because out of the fifty plus candidates, who did they select to write their new custom software solution?  That’s right, you.

The friendly HR rep that recruited you shakes your hand and leads you to a large conference room where you attend a new hire orientation.  You’re promptly handed an employee handbook the size of a telephone book and sit down.  Opening to a random page on Computer/IT Usage policies you learn that it’s against company policies to look at **cough** questionable **cough** images on company computers.  Interesting, you think to yourself, I figured that was common knowledge.

Over the next four hours you listen to HR representatives speak about company history, company policies, and benefits.  You fill out form after form of information asking for social security numbers, driver’s license number, passport number and other private information.  You’re handed a badge with an employee number, 7941. Read the rest of this entry »

Headspring’s latest new hire is Cedric Yao, Senior Consultant.  We’re really excited to have him on board, and I am super excited to get a fresh addition into this series.

Cedric has been in Austin for a few years, and just welcomed his first born son into the family 5 weeks ago!  We talked about Austin, why working here is so much fun, and what we really love about technology.  As it turns out we share a lot of the same interests in bringing together communities through technology.  His experiences are going to be a real help to me with planning and preparation for Headspring’s Central Texas Give Camp in September.

Here’s how the rest of our conversation went: Read the rest of this entry »

Perfectionist (my rough definition):  Someone who wants to always do things without errors or mistakes, without considering the costs incurred or likelihood of attainment.

Summary

In this article I share my personal struggles with unproductive perfectionism in my work.  I point out how much “true perfection” really costs, and that it often isn’t even possible.  I discuss why overcoming perfectionism is important, and share some strategies I’ve found useful for balancing passion and perfectionism.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Nolan and I’m a recovering perfectionist.  I love software development and I’m very passionate about what I do.  The problem is, sometimes I care too much and passion turns into perfectionism.

I started thinking about this after my first post.  I was checking it to see if there were any comments I needed to respond to.  I’d written the article over a week before it was published, so I casually glanced over it.  While reading I suddenly realized I’d completely left a word out of a sentence.  I was mortified.  I’d proofread it at least three times and had gotten someone else to look over it.  How could this have happened?  My first blog post and I’d failed to do it “right”. Read the rest of this entry »

In September of 2007, I joined Headspring as the CTO.  Now I serve as President and Chief Operating Officer.  When I joined, there were 4 other employees including the original founder serving as CEO.  He founded the company in 2001.  It has always been professional services, but the strategy has changed a few times over the years.  I started my career as a developer in the mid nineties, and now I’m an executive with lots of great developers that I support.  Like most, our company runs on metrics.  As a manager, I understand their worth.  Earlier in my career, I had no idea.

Every day, I glance at our operational dashboard.  While I won’t share full screen-shots yet, I want to share some of the graphs I use every day to ensure the company is doing well.  Consider this graph.

Read the rest of this entry »

Outside of one six-month period at my last job, I’ve always shared an office with my boss.  It’s not easy.  In fact, it’s not really that easy to share work space with anyone.  Obviously noise is an issue – noisy talking, breathing, typing, eating etc.  With a boss, noise is even more difficult to cope with because usually your preferences come second to theirs.  Also, sharing work space with a boss grays boundaries of the appropriate use of time and conversation.  You have to be on time (all the time), constantly focused, and prepared to smile politely for every interruption.  Furthermore, the two of you are much more exposed to each other’s shortcomings than anyone would prefer. Your boss is there to micro-manage every conversation or task, and you are there to witness every breakdown or breach of authority.

Here are some important facts:

1. Your boss wants personal space too
2. You’re probably not going to get it

So… Read the rest of this entry »

I have never met a printer I liked. They break all the time, they are buggy and noisy, and cartridges are way too expensive.

Printers are a terrible bane on my existence, and I have made a purpose to rid myself of needing them at all. I have come to realize that I am not alone in this grievance, and going on without the need for a frustrating printer is no longer a difficult task. Google Docs, EchoSign and a whole host of other cloud-based offerings have significantly reduced our reliance on printers, and they have added years back to my life.

But this post isn’t all about how much I hate printers – it’s old news. I work for a technology company, and technology is about new news. Read the rest of this entry »

I come from a long list of companies that “talk the talk” about how valuable their employees are.  It comes from a good place, and it’s rarely insincere.  In my opinion, and you may disagree, most people are good people – even your boss and your boss’s boss.

However, “walking the walk” is extremely difficult, and my experience of the corporate world has shown me the implementation of all those good intentions usually turns out a little lack luster.  Treating everyone equally, rewarding good service, or fostering an open environment for communication is all fine and good when sales are up, negativity is down and there are only great things to say.  But there is often a huge disconnect between what a company tells their employees is encouraged, and what they show them when the going gets tough. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll start with the tip, then unpack the reason why it works and explain how to apply it. To avoid those hemming and hawing filler words—um, y’know, like—and give your presentations the polish of eloquence: Read the rest of this entry »

Alonso Robles is our newest Principal Consultant at Headspring, and has quickly become an office favorite.  He is very enthusiastic about working here, and even wrote a blog the other day expressing this sentiment.  But the thing I’ve noticed about Alonso is that he is enthusiastic about everything – his family, his projects, his clients.  He’s a refreshingly happy addition, and great for conversation.  Here was how ours went this morning: Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Missal, Senior Consultant at Headspring, is our newest addition to the team.  His background is mostly in web development using ASP.NET and MVC in the eCommerce industry.  At his last job, J&P Cycles, he helped create a system for allowing third-party widgets to more clearly communicate with each other, therefore allowing his team to better understand and utilize information picked up from visitors of the site.  Yes, Chris is the guy that knows how to see everything that you see on the internet.  But for good, not for bad!

And his interests don’t stop there.  He’s currently learning Python, and along with coding, he likes disc golf and bowling.  He just moved to Austin from Iowa, and is really looking forward to getting into the social scene.  “The developer community is so lively here that I’ll be looking to get involved with groups that are passionate about making their communities so wonderful,” said Chris.

Here is how the rest of our talk went: Read the rest of this entry »