Today's communication experience: How far we've come

Experience, Technology 4 Responses »
Jun 282007

Alex wrote a very interesting post on sharing our lives in little pieces. He talks about how various new web technologies allow us to share pieces of our lives in different ways. Alex really captures the way I feel about social web tools such as blogging and Facebook- I feel that they give me a place to share a glimpse of my life that I might not have shared otherwise, and they let me do it easily. Blogging lets me share my thoughts through casual posts and Facebook lets me share my travels through casual photos.

This got me thinking about how far we’ve come with today’s web technology and about how easy it is to communicate and share. It reminded me of my childhood memories of how my mom shared her new life in America with her parents who were back in Korea. My mom and dad were born and raised in Korea, and moved to the US after college in the 1960s. In those days, international travel was expensive and seldom done, international phone calls were expensive and seldom used, and pictures took days to get developed… and you had to wait until you finished the roll of film to get it developed! So, my mom communicated with her parents by writing letters and sending them through “air mail”.

I remember my mom sitting in the spot in the living room where the sunlight shined through the windows, with a warm cup of coffee in her hands as she thought about what to write, and then handwriting a letter to her parents on special “air mail” paper, the kind with a red- and blue-striped border. I think she might have been restricted to writing everything on one page. Imagine the adventure of moving to a foreign country at a time when it was hard to communicate back home with your family and friends. Imagine wanting to share stories about your new life in America, your husband’s career, your three kids’ lives, and your adventures about living in a foreign country while learning a new culture and language. Imagine being restricted to a one-page, hand-written letter that takes one or two weeks to get delivered and waiting another one or two weeks to get a response.

Today, I probably travel to Asia more often than my mom wrote letters or called home. I can send an email or publish a blog post that can be read instantly by people around the world at the click of a button. I can snap a picture on my digital camera and share it easily and instantly. I can call my mom and dad from practically anywhere using my mobile phone. Let’s take a moment to celebrate on how far we’ve come!

Now for the next phase. I am fortunate that my friends and loved ones live in places where they can get to a computer and get to the internet, though admittedly they do this with varying degrees of ease and regularity. But, I still know many people who have made the pilgrimmage to a new country but have friends and family in places where they can not connect to the web easily and regularly and in a cost-effective way.

Where are these people who can’t get connected easily in a cost-effective way?
What can we do to help them get connected?
If we look ahead a few years, how will they be connected with the rest of the world?

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Posted by susiewee at 5:21 am

Does your work environment resemble The Office?

Career tips No Responses »
Jun 262007

Last week I was talking to some friends about their work environment. I was hearing some stories that were a little hard for me to believe. All of a sudden, a little lightbulb went off in my head. I asked them, “Have you seen that show The Office? What do you think about that show?” They laughed and said that they thought it was funny. I said I thought it was funny too. Then I asked, “Can you relate to the show? Does your work environment actually resemble The Office?” They started nodding vigorously, and without hesitation they decisively, independently, and in unison said “YES! Our work is definitely like The Office!” (By the way, they work at different places.) They then went into a bunch of real-life work stories that sounded a lot like the kinds of things you might see on the show.

I was absolutely stunned. My introduction to The Office was through in-flight entertainment on business trips. I do think the show is funny, but I thought it was an extreme exaggeration and I thought it did not accurately resemble any real-life work environment. While I have seen a few strange situations at work, I could not relate to The Office in my own daily work environment as the norm. Now, I have to say, I think Dilbert is very funny. And, to be honest, I can relate to a number of Dilbertisms in my own daily work experiences. Since I’m a manager, I might even be one of the characters sometimes. But The Office? I can’t really relate to that at all.

I have to say, my career advice to my friends was that if you want to have an upwardly mobile career, then you better get a better work environment and surround yourself with really good people. Now, I don’t mean to be judgmental, and staying in such a work environment and may be a fine choice for you. But, for those of you who aspire to have a more professional work environment, I just wanted to let you know that such work environments do exist, so you could look for them.

And, by the way, I am not at all against the show. I think it’s funny and I’m glad it makes people laugh. And Kudos to the producers of the current and preceeding versions for making such a classic.

Back to real-life work environments.  I’m curious to hear from all of you:

Does your work environment resemble The Office? 
If not, do you believe that there exist work environments that do?
Does your work environment resemble Dilbert? 
What is your advice for people who work in office environments that resemble The Office?

Help me understand this!

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Posted by susiewee at 11:54 am

Don't forget to breathe

Career tips 6 Responses »
Jun 242007

Sounds kind of silly out of context, but those of you who work out know exactly what this means. When you’re doing something tough at the gym like lifting weights, doing pushups, or striking a strange yoga pose, then it’s kind of natural to hold your breath and stop breathing. If you’re lucky, you have someone nearby who will remind you to breathe. And, if you do breathe, then the oxygen will flow through your body, your muscles, and your mind and you’ll be able to perform better, think more clearly, and last longer.

It’s funny how something so natural (actually, required!), such as breathing, gets completely forgotten when you’re doing something hard!

This makes me think about what other otherwise-second-nature things we forget to do when things get tough at work and in our careers.

Let’s make a list together- I’ll start!

  1. Don’t forget to breathe: This applies when you work out, but this applies to work too. If you’re in a situation where you’re getting nervous or emotional inside about something, then take a deep breath, regain your composure, and then find a way to approach it constructively.

  2. Be polite: When things get tough and you are working towards a tight deadline, the first thing to go might be your politeness. You don’t intend to be mean, but others might perceive your actions that way. So, even when things get tough, remember the basics: Say Hello. Ask nicely. Say Please. Say Thank You. Smile. Share.

  3. Tell people where you’re going: When you start getting on a roll or getting busy, your tendency might be to concentrate on the tasks at hand and forget to tell people where you are going, both physically and in your mind (your co-workers are not mind-readers!). At home, you probably tell people when you’re going to the store, going on a trip, or going to work. Do this at work too! Tell people when you’re going somewhere physically, and tell them what you did when you get back. And, tell people where you are going in your mind, for example, what you have planned for the meeting objectives and what you’re shooting for in your career! (I forget this one all the time.)

  4. Express yourself: Say what you want. Say what you think. Say what you’re worried about. Now, don’t be the ultimate complainer and don’t be such a doubting Tom that you bring everyone else down. Life’s too short for living life that way, at work and at home! But you can be professional and let people know what your concerns are and find constructive ways to solve them.

  5. Call for help when you’re hurt: When you physically get hurt, you probably yelp or make a face and you probably ask one or more trusted people what you should do about your injury. If you injury is serious enough, you probably even go to the hospital or see a doctor. This applies to work too. If you get hurt at work, find a trustworthy co-worker or boss, let them know what your injury is, and ask them for advice on what you should do.

  6. Tell people what you’re thinking: Ask questions when you don’t understand something. Speak up when you have an opinion. You probably do this with your friends and family. Do this at work too.

  7. Ask for directions when you’re lost: Okay, maybe this is not second nature for everyone. But it does help to talk to people about your career and your goals, and to ask for directions. If you feel lost in your career, don’t worry. I have a secret to share- everyone feels this way at times, even the most seemingly successful people you know, including your VPs and CEOs! It helps to talk to people because 1) it will actually make you think about what your career direction and goals are, 2) it will encourage the other person to share their insights with you from their perspective (maybe they will even share their own career direction and goals with you!), and 3) you won’t be going through all this alone!

  8. Take trips: Every so often you get to the point where you need to take a break and you go on an outing or a trip. Maybe you go on a long vacation, maybe a weekend trip, maybe a day trip, or maybe just a couple hours out. You might be visiting somewhere new, trying out new foods, relaxing, or being adventurous. Afterwards, you’re probably glad you took the time to take the trip. When you’re at work, you should do the same. Take a trip and visit somewhere new, e.g., visit a different business unit, a different company, or talk to someone in a different job function. Just try to learn something new. This will be refreshing, and may give you new ideas and insights on how to do your own job better.

  9. Celebrate! In real life, you celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, and you probably toast the little things. Do this at work, too. Celebrate your and your co-workers’ accomplishments, however big or little.

Let’s flesh out this list together!

Do you find any of these tips helpful?
Do you agree or disagree with any of them?
Do you have suggestions for other tips?
What other otherwise-second-nature-things do we forget to do at work and in our careers?

I’d love to hear your ideas!

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Posted by susiewee at 11:50 pm

Erik Mazzone's Top 10 Tips for Meeting Etiquette

Career tips No Responses »
Jun 222007

One of the best things about blogging is virtually meeting people who you never would have met otherwise. Erik Mazzone is one of the interesting people I’ve been very glad to meet along the way. He has an interesting blog that I really enjoy reading. It’s a funny connection because of our different backgrounds. I’m a research lab director, and grew up in the research and engineering ranks. Erik is a career consultant for lawyers, and was a practicing lawyer.

Erik works daily with lawyers. I work daily with technologists and business people. We resonate with each other on many of our posts, but a funny thing happened. I posted my “Top 10 tips for how to talk in groups” and invited people to make comments and add their own tips to the list. Erik came in with a very different set of tips!

My tips were geared for the quiet people who have great ideas but have not yet mastered how to insert themselves into a group discussion. This reflects the state of many researchers (and people in general) who I know, so I was basically encouraging them to speak up more. Erik’s tips (you can see them in the blog post comments) were more geared for talkative people who tend to speak up a lot, and perhaps even too much. They were geared for a very different audience and work environment. We started talking, and I thought it would be good (and fun) for him to make a top 10 tips list, too. He came up with a great list which I call “Erik Mazzone’s Top 10 Tips for Meeting Etiquette“! Enjoy!

Quiet people- Go to my tips!
Talkative people- Go to Erik’s tips!
Everybody- Take a peek at the other tips!
Let’s have more productive meetings together! :)

And, if you are yet another type of person- then help us understand your type and maybe we can turn it into another set of tips!

So, here are a few questions:

Which type of person are you? What do you think of your tips?
What do you think of the tips for the other type of people? Any tips to add?
What are you your experiences of being in meetings with people of the other type? Be honest (and funny, if you like)!

Feel free to comment on Erik’s blog or here… We will stay linked.

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Posted by susiewee at 10:40 pm

Rotating blog post styles

Uncategorized 2 Responses »
Jun 192007

I was comparing notes with Alex about blog post styles. I’ve been blogging for a few months now, so I’m probably still in the ”finding my voice” phase. One thing that I’ve been doing is changing things up by rotating styles between a serious post, a silly post, a technology post, a research post, a management post, a teamwork post, a sports post, and so on. My hope is that there will be a little something for different readers… so I don’t bore or lose a particular class of readers for too long. Does this defy conventional blog wisdom?

Another advantage of rotating styles is that I can follow more silly posts with more serious ones. I’m not sure why, but for some reason I feel the need to do this… perhaps so that people don’t think I’ve totally lost it. (Feel free to psychoanalyze me with that confession.) Well, the joke was on me. I posted “The man pays!” and “I’m a Guitar Hero!” with the full intention of following up with a serious post, but then our access system was upgraded into a form that was incompatible with our blog editing and commenting software. So, I haven’t been able to post a more serious follow-up until now!

This raises a few questions:

First, what do you think about rotating styles? Should I go with the more conventional approach of choosing an audience and sticking with one style? Or, is this approach of rotating styles okay? Does this defy conventional blog wisdom?

Second, this upgrade accident forced me to sit on a “silly post” for a couple weeks, which actually made me feel a little uncomfortable. What do you think of silly posts on a corporate blog? What do you think about me sitting on a silly post for a while?

Finally, on a personal note, please let me know if you have any feedback or advice for me on blog post styles. What styles/posts have you liked or disliked? What would you like to see more or less of?

Most importantly, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to visit and read my blog! I deeply apologize for losing any comments you might have submitted in the last week. Again, thank you for visiting!

Posted by susiewee at 4:07 pm

I'm a Guitar Hero!

Experience, Technology No Responses »
Jun 052007

I’m a guitar hero!

Well, okay, maybe I’m not a guitar hero. But I kind of feel like one when I play Guitar Hero II on my Xbox 360.

For those of you who are not familiar, Guitar Hero II is one of the latest crazes in gaming. It’s a game made by Red Octane and it runs on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Like the Nintendo Wii, it seems to have achieved the ultimate balance of being loved by hardcore gamers and casual gamers, while also appealing to non-traditional gamers, thus expanding the gaming segment. People say it’s a great party game. And, hardcore gamers are saying that their spouses and significant others who never touch games are actually having a great time with it. I can definitely see why. I love it, and as I play I start to wonder what it takes to design great games…

Guitar Hero basics

You have a plastic guitar with one strummer and 5 color-coded frets. The game has loud music and cheering fans. A stream of notes runs down the screen in the form of 5 color-coded circles that light up according to the song. The goal of the game is to press the appropriate color-coded frets and strum at the same time that the color-coded circles cross a line. Every time you hit a note, you get a guitar sound.

It sounds simple, but it’s not easy. The notes can stream at you pretty quickly, and you can set the difficulty level to make it as challenging as you like. At the more difficult levels, the speed of the notes and the finger combinations can get pretty tricky… and your fingers can quickly end up in knots!

Fun and excitement

Red Octane knows how to make the game fun! When you hit a note, the color-coded circle explodes in a really satisfying way. The little explosion makes you feel good! Also, I said that when you hit a note you get a guitar sound. Well, it’s not just any guitar sound; it’s what I call a Digitally Fortified guitar sound. In other words, when you hit a note, you are rewarded with the digitally fortified guitar sound that the guitarists from Van Halen, Cheap Trick, the Police, and Motley Crue would have made. Yeah! As I play, I get so immersed that I forget I have a plastic guitar with no strings and I actually believe that I’m playing the digitally fortified music!

Guitar Player or Guitar Hero?

Now, it’s one thing to be a guitar player, but it’s another to be a guitar hero! What’s the difference? The fans! As I play a song, my fans move from cheering to booing, depending on how well I’m playing. If I really screw up, then they boo me more and more and eventually they just throw me off stage. If I’m jamming and I’m hitting all the notes, my fans get louder and louder and they really cheer me on. If I get through enough songs, they even ask me for an encore! And, of course, I’m always playing to a standing room only crowd. Hey, when you’re good, you’re good! What can I say?

Simplicity of design

Now to the main point of my post. I played a lot of music when I was a kid, and I even played the guitar for a year. I have to say, though, if you asked me to design “Guitar Hero”, I probably would have ended up with “Learn how to play the guitar with Susie Wee”. Hmmm, not very exciting. So, let’s dig a little deeper.

What are the key characteristics that make the game fun?

  1. It’s challenging. You can adjust the difficulty level. You can turn it down if it’s too hard, and you can turn it up if it’s too easy.

  2. It’s rewarding. If you play well, you get Digitally Fortified guitar sounds and loud cheering fans!

  3. It’s immersive and exciting. You won’t be daydreaming as you play this game. You’ll get booed off stage when you’re not up to par, but you’ll get standing ovations and be asked for encores when you’re at your best!

  4. It’s skill-based. As you play, you increase you skill and your abilities. And, you can tell when you’re getting better.

  5. It’s simple and intuitive. You can just pick up the guitar and figure out how to play. All you have to do is fret and strum. Yep, that’s all there is to it. ;)

The first four all make sense. I find the last one to be very tricky. How do you design a game that is simple and intuitive enough to play, and yet has all the challenge, reward, and excitement to make it fun?

The thing that I find really fascinating is how they abstracted the guitar. As I said, I grew up playing music and I played the guitar for a year. I probably would have made 4 or 5 or 6 strings, not just one strummer. I probably would have used music notes, not just color-coded circles streaming down the screen. I probably would have started you with baby songs to make it easier, which would have made it less interesting for you. I probably would have taught you how to read music, and you might be pretty good at reading music after getting to the more advanced levels…

But, in all reality, my game wouldn’t have been so fun, so you probably never would have heard of it, and you never would have paid $90 bucks for it, and even if you did somehow get it to it you probably would have gotten bored before getting to the higher levels.

I would have made it too much like the real thing. I wouldn’t have abstracted out enough things to make it broadly accessible to the public. I don’t think I would have come up with the Digitally Fortified guitar sounds! I don’t think I would have gotten so serious about designing in the digital cheering fans! (But I love my digital cheering fans!)

Well, the good thing is that I know that “making fun games” is not my calling. So, I’ll just keep on building the technology enablers… And I’ll let the game developers make the fun games for the masses!

I’ll just be the Guitar Hero! Rock on!!!

p.s. I don’t mean to mislead you. I have somehow become a Guitar Hero, without being a Guitar Player. (They are not the same!) And, I didn’t say I was a good Guitar Hero. But, my digital fans seem to love me none the less.

Questions:

What do you think of Guitar Hero?

How would you have designed Guitar Hero?

If you’re a musician, what would you have abstracted out? What would you have left in?

How do you make a fun game in an area that you know too much about?

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Posted by susiewee at 3:35 am

"The man pays!"

Experience 4 Responses »
Jun 012007

I was in New Orleans earlier this week to attend an IEEE editorial board meeting. I landed at 11pm on Sunday, and my meeting was at 11am on Monday, and I was flying out at 5pm on Monday. So, my only free time to see New Orleans was Monday morning before 11am. My colleague/friend from Singapore was also in town for the meeting, so we got up early and went to Café Du Monde for their piping hot beignets and chicory coffee… Yummmm!!!

After we finished our delicious beignets and coffee, we went to the shop across the street to buy touristy souvenirs. Since my colleague and I are both of Asian descent, we got into a big, rowdy fight over who will pay. We raised our voices, threw our elbows to block each other out, and vigorously waived our credit cards… each of us hoping that one of the two shopkeepers would take our credit card and put the fight to an end.

The shopkeepers were two little hometown ladies who probably spent their entire lives in New Orleans. They just sat there with stoic looks on their faces, watching the two of us as we took turns jumping around making our arguments and duking it out. They sat very still and quietly as they watched us, with just their eyes shifting from me to my colleague and back as we made our points. My biggest argument was that I’m from the US and my colleague is from Singapore, and since we were in my country I was the host and I should pay. I thought this was a really good argument and I was sure I had the fight in the bag.

Finally, the referees, I mean shopkeepers, had to declare the outcome. One of the little ladies spoke with a booming southern drawl, “The man pays!”, or more accurately, “The maaaaaannnnnn paaaayyyyyyyzzzzzzz!”. As soon as she said it, the other woman started nodding her head in violent agreement and said in an equally booming southern drawl, “Yeeesssssssss. The maaaaaaannn should paaaaayyyy!”. I was stunned. I tried my arguments one more time, but I realized it was pointless and I had to declare defeat. My colleague won and paid for the t-shirts. They wouldn’t even touch my credit card.

I was absolutely stunned at the simplicity and decisiveness of the answer. I grew up in a small town in Western New York, but since then I spent 10 years in Boston and now 10 years in Silicon Valley. I have a decent salary and some management authority, so naturally I insist on paying for things quite often, and I often win. So, when the woman boomed “The man pays!”, it really caught me by surprise and reality hit me like a ton of bricks! I suddenly realized I was in the south. I suddenly realized that much of the world is not like me and my Silicon Valley friends and globe-trotting colleagues. And I suddenly realized how much of an anomaly I am compared to much of the world.

Then, I began to wonder… what kind of mobile and media technology would these people actually use? What kind of user experience would it have to deliver to be useful to the two little ladies in the little shop? What kind of service would it have to provide? How much, or more accurately, how little would it have to cost for them to buy it? Hmmmm….

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Posted by susiewee at 5:47 am
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