[thelist] Do they know what they are doing?

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Tue Sep 19 11:41:50 CDT 2000


> From: Peter Small <peter at genps.demon.co.uk>
> 
> I'm not expecting everyone to be competent. That wasn't the point I
> was making. It just seems, from what I'm hearing everywhere, that the
> complete solution providers (as opposed to the technical specialists)
> have an extremely high proportion of people who don't really know what
> they are doing. Unlike most other business areas, the incompetent seem
> to be the vast majority.

think about the environments...

- software development shop... would they even know how to hire a 
creative guy?  what to look for?  what web skills to ask for?  would 
they do the web stuff, or let the creative guy do it?  and then, how 
do you get a creative guy to stick around when he could make 
more elsewhere and work in an environment that promotes 
creativity as opposed to a more rigid SDM?  if the creative guy is 
bad enough, he'll have nowhere else to go...

- ad agency... would they even know how to hire a tech?  what to 
look for?  what programming skills to ask for?  would they do the 
web stuff, or let the tech guy do it?  and then, how do you get a 
tech guy to stick around when he could make more elsewhere and 
work in an environment that promotes an efficient SDM as opposed 
to a more touchy-feely creative process?  if the tech guy is bad 
enough, he'll have nowhere else to go...

ultimately, if you are a programmer who works in an ad agency, are 
you comfortable with the client seeing "mockups" of interfaces 
done in Quark that you'll have to make work?  and if you're a web 
developer in a software shop, are you comfortable with the client 
seeing win32 apps with combo-boxes and interactive tables for 
interface elements knowing you have to make it happen in HTML?

that's why an organization tends to lean to one side or the other... 
thankfully here we've got a two houses under one roof, all of whom 
are very good...






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