Posted on January 23, 2006 at 10:07 AM in @earthlink
Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.
Spending a few days in EarthLink's Pasadena offices was a bit like visiting long lost relatives. We had something in common, but I didn't know exactly what to expect, and I'm sure they felt likewise. Are they the weird cousins or am I? I guess we both are. It turned out to be an excellent trip, and I'm indebted to the kindness and hospitality of everyone I met out there.
Creepiest part of trip -- finding out they drink this stuff like water out there.
Maybe it was just because I was hanging out with insane Frenchman Chris Holland, but the phrase I kept hearing in our Pasadena offices was "insanely useful."
It's a goal that runs through everything we're developing right now, from new voice applications/services to innovative options for broadband access, to the web applications and enhancements on the way in the coming year. We’re working to take the existing and emerging technologies out there right now, and think them through to make them as accessible and useful as possible for the average user. As Portal Group Product Manager Scott Frost put it, it's much easier to develop an application that's fancy and complicated and offers a zillion options for the user than it is to develop one that's simple, intuitive, straightforward, and truly useful.
In the coming days and weeks, I look forward to exposing some of the thinking behind our development process, from the perspective of the product management and development teams themselves. What impressed me most about what I learned in Pasadena were the principles at play behind the scenes. In the end, you’ll judge for yourself how approachable and useful our products and services are. I look forward to sharing some of the ideas behind the finished products.
Comments
At least they drink the A level stuff.
Posted by DKM | January 23, 2006 12:14 PM
When Diet Coke runs out, which is about 2 hours after they re-stock the vending machine, this glass cleaner stuff goes a long way :)
That's how we write "transparent" code >8)
Posted by chris holland | January 23, 2006 5:45 PM