Secret Server Blog  

• Thycotic.com  

Non-Technology Thinking

Synchronized, sealed, variable, interface and even tool. These words all conjure up very specific things in the mind of a programmer or IT person. Much to my surprise they hold very different meanings for non-technology people - well at least the word “tool”. This last week, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Arlington Business Council. It was their spring kick off event and it was very well organized and attended.

The variety of the business people present was quite amazing - from Creative Facilitating to Marketing Professionals to a Personal Conciergeand evena Photographer and that was just my table! To put this in context, I am used to attending programmer events or Microsoft Partner events where everyone is either into C#/VB.NET or AppDev (Application Development), BizDev (Business Development) or Managed Services (those wonderful folks who manage your servers and networks for your small to midsize business). I promptly sat down at the table where the conversation was to be “Tools for your Business” thinking that I could learn the pains of different businesses and what software we could build to solve these issues - yes, I admit it, I was looking to sponge off some smart people for ideas.

We started witha pleasant green salad with raspberry vinaigrette. Introductions went around the table and then a conversation began on tools to use to grow a fledgling business. The central idea that emerged was delegation. In growing Thycotic, delegation has been key in moving to each next level so I was very much in agreement but then it hit me. They considered delegation a tool … we then moved on to further tools such as Asking for Referrals. This was clearly not what I had expected … in my mind a tool isa BlackBerry, mobile device or a piece of software. I would consider delegation simply a technique or process but not a tool. Maybe it is just my immersion in technology or my lack of exposure to non-technology focused people but I struggled a little with this leap.

Needless to say but I did not get any new software potential ideas from the group but I did gain some insight on the world outside of IT and how sometimes our ideas and thinking do not translate well. This is definitely food for thought (by the way, the hangar steak, risotto and desserts at Restaurant Vero were also fabulous!). I think any Independent Software Vendor (ISV) should consider this carefully when looking to solve problems in the real world. Remember to think in terms of business, pains and solving real day to day problems rather than simply technology. Remember also to understand and communicate in the language of your customer.

Have you had any strange technology moments with non-technology people?

Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of Thycotic Software, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washington DC. Our product, Secret Server is a enterprise password manager system for teams to secure their passwords. Where do you keep your passwords or do you still use the samepassword everywhere?

Comments

• Recent Posts

  • Critique of “The Leadership Advantage”
  • AJAX Integration for Secret Server
  • From solo developer to team coder (TDD, C# and Mocks)
  • Self-Paced Certification Preparation with uCertify PrepKits
  • Secret Server on the Treo 700
  • A sign that you are no longer a startup.
  • Code Camps this weekend!
  • When you apply for a job, read the job posting!
  • Secret Server at FOSE 2008
  • Don’t miss the Nova Code Camp South this weekend!
  • Can you find the bug in this code? (THE FIX)
  • For once, not blogging wasn’t my fault
  • Can you find the bug in this code?
  • Learning from your Burn Down chart
  • Please question the need for whitespace

• Archives

  Select Month January 2009  (4) April 2008  (5) March 2008  (10) February 2008  (1) January 2008  (4) December 2007  (2) November 2007  (2) October 2007  (2) August 2007  (1) July 2007  (2) June 2007  (3) May 2007  (3) April 2007  (3) March 2007  (7) February 2007  (4) January 2007  (4) December 2006  (1) November 2006  (3) October 2006  (6) August 2006  (2) July 2006  (2) June 2006  (2) May 2006  (3) April 2006  (4) March 2006  (4) February 2006  (2) January 2006  (5) December 2005  (9) November 2005  (1) October 2005  (2) September 2005  (9) August 2005  (2) July 2005  (2) June 2005  (3) May 2005  (4) April 2005  (6) March 2005  (5) February 2005  (1) January 2005  (3) December 2004  (3) November 2004  (8) October 2004  (12) September 2004  (5) August 2004  (1) July 2004  (3) June 2004  (1) May 2004  (6) April 2004  (2) March 2004  (3) February 2004  (5) January 2004  (2) December 2003  (3) October 2003  (2) September 2003  (2) August 2003  (1)
•