No 'God Mode': Live With Limitations You Impose on Users
“Get rid of 10 minute video limit” was high on our 2007 YouTube task list, and although it took several years longer than I had expected, we were eventually able to grant ‘long uploads’ to all users in good standing.
During the interim period plenty of folks at Google would ping me about getting their limit removed as we had for partners, politicians and advertisers. These requests ranged from random colleagues to Google executives.
But regardless of my familiarity or their status, I delivered the same message: "No."
Yes, telling a VP that their kid’s graduation video would need to be split into 10 minute segments likely qualifies as a Career Limiting Move, but it was an important decision. We needed to experience the product as our community did and not solve problems for ourselves that we weren’t also solving for them.
So while God Mode might be essential for debugging or internal efficiency, be careful to not create a distorted reality. Your users are likely on worse hardware with slower connections. They bump against your system limits all the time. The best way to motivate and fix problems is to encounter these same frustrations, and make sure your executives do as well.
Open for New & Exciting Opportunities for Personal & Professional Growth
11 年A leader leads by example, is viewed as human, and knows his people well enough to utilize their strengths in the best suited positions for them. Employee growth and recognition are also crucial elements in everyone's success.
100% Disabled Medically Retired Due to Kidney Disease Stage 5 Hoping for a transplant at Dell Seton Medical Center in 2025 or 2026
11 年Great post, well written and accurate the customer experience is one that everyone should be conscience of whether they are designing products, providing services or assisting with life cycle mgmt. In the end regardless of industry it ALL comes down to one thing - the customer experience.
Author
11 年With IT out of the back room and now sitting in the middle of the business, we do need to share the frustrations, and appreciate the value of making these frustrations go away. Could not agree more with Hunter, except perhaps rename it techie mode.
Xenca Shareholding Associate
11 年Why VP's and senior management seem to expect privileges we 'mere mortals' aren't entitled to is beyond me at times. Such people aremeant to be leaders and as such should be setting the example for the rest of us. When they expect (demand) more than their customers (or underlings), it smacks one rule for us and another for everyone else. It's hardly surprising that customers feel they aren't getting a good service under such circumstances. What seems even more surprising is the companies who behave this way don't understand why customers complain at such treatment.