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ConCallNotes06142006

[Login] Change #11 by Byrne Reese at 2006-06-14 18:11:20.

Meeting Details

Wednesday, June 14, 2006, 10:00AM PST

Agenda

• Welcome and Introductions
• Developer Site Tour
• Best Practices Discussion

Notes and Scratch Pad

• Showed users the developer site, and wiki
• Please feel free to blog about the developer site
• Introduction to code.sixapart.com
• Where to find MT's code in our SVN repos
• More info to be provided by Byrne later

Best Practices - Lessons from the Field

• Tim Appnel

  • 95% politics/policy with a customer, 5% MT
  • Dealing with 8-10 people to get your work done
  • Be prepared for the politics of customers
  • Advice - don't be afraid to ask to be paid for this "stuff?" (Tim to elaborate)
  • Leaving money on the table - "what? that's all it costs?"
  • Advice - invest in understanding the customer's culture
  • Be prepared for things to take months to get something done.
  • Many customers seems to be interested in evaluating... (what are the challenges with this?)
  • Be mindful of helping people "covering their own butt"
  • A lot of customers are concerns about security. A lot of customers ask for a security audit.

• Joe

  • A lot of PR fears:
  • Someone (employees, researchers, and customers?) would say something they shouldn't
  • What is the process/work flow?
  • Universal fear of change
  • People are anti-Perl, they are language centric, "We are a java shop only."
  • Some people will perceive MT as a threat to their current domain of expertise: will MT replace Vinette? uh-oh.

• Jay

  • It is important to communicate to customers that they don't have to own the maintenence of the code/project.
  • Customers get the reliability of Six Apart software
  • But also sell yourself as an on-going service provider (Byrne)

• Jesse

  • "What you are doing is NOT different"
  • What is the best way to implement static pages?
  • What is the best way to implement author backends?

• Are there common customer objections that people encounter in the field?

• Are there common IT objections that people encounter in the field?

• How do we make people feel safe with Perl?

• Can we do a security audit on the MT code?

• How do we make customers feel comfortable with the security of Movable Type?

• Note: ProNet really needs access to these security certifications.

• We need a Movable Type Architecture Guide! How do you leverage multiple blogs, how to do you best leverage MT a large scale CMS?

• Advice - make your customer a hero!

• What are customers typically interested in?

  • They want to feel safe with this technology. They are looking to augment existing systems with blogging technology and software.
  • Advice - follow up with customers several months after the engagement ends to see if they have more questions, or to see if you could sell your services more deeply into the organization.

[Login] Change #11 by Byrne Reese at 2006-06-14 18:11:20.