Suggestion on Coms and updates

[Jilas671]

I hope this is the right place to add this.  Fully understand there is a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes and that makes it hard to get updates out on both software and just general messages.  So this is very much meant to help reduce one aspect of the work load, and more importantly manage the expectations of us the customers. 

So a few thoughts:

1) With the software side, unless a update totally brakes things, that these are pushed out on a regular basis on the same day each week (e.g have a patch Tuesday), of course assuming an update is ready.

2) When patches do go out, there is a change log somewhere on what has updated and equally what has not been addressed. Maybe this needs to be central list (or a locked forum post, so its just easier to search on and monitor and lets everyone look back on what was done previous.

3) Perhaps on another fixed day say a Monday, a simple update post, to say this is what's planned for the coming week, which could also highlight whether there is a patch for Tuesday and any issues that are hopefully being looked at or addressed.

The week time period listed above is just an example, if could also be fortnightly, just needs to be happen on a regular basis, even if there is no news.  It's a great way to keep people happy.

 

Finally what other ways can the community help you, to help us.

For example, I don't think anyone expects you to buy and have access to every single remote, so providing the tools for us to help capture those remotes that are in the wild would be so useful (for both sides) but agree there would need to be a sign off process to confirm if things are done right.  I purchased up a usb module with my remotes for that very idea.

 

Just with some of this I'd hope it would make life a little easier for you to plan, and lets you most importantly manage our expectations as to when to check back, or if you need feedback when you need it by.  Then we know when to put aside time if there is something new we want to test out.  I won't go into details here, but until some aspects are added/modified, I just have two nice paperweights in there boxes.

And I truly hope this does not feel like I'm trying to "teach you to suck eggs".  Apologies if it does, just trying to offer useful ideas.
 

[Nathan]

7 hours ago, Jilas671 said:

Finally what other ways can the community help you, to help us.

For example, I don't think anyone expects you to buy and have access to every single remote, so providing the tools for us to help capture those remotes that are in the wild would be so useful (for both sides) but agree there would need to be a sign off process to confirm if things are done right.  I purchased up a usb module with my remotes for that very idea.

This ability is actually built into the Skip and is part of the planned upcoming updates, just not ready for prime time yet.

You can actually also capture using a Flirc USB with IR Debugging turned on. It's awkward to use though and not everyone has a Flirc USB, so it's not always something we push.

Thanks for the suggestions! The team is quite tiny at the moment, so we don't really have a standardized development and release cycle built up yet, but as we grow, I think your suggestions are absolutely a great way to go. 

[Jilas671]

Many thanks for the info on the Fliirc USB and the debug interface I will take a look at it, as I bought one with the remotes on the off chance this might be the case.  For sure making that easier will be good, as then we can send in remotes which will be a huge benefit to all I suspect.

And glad the suggestions were appreciated, just as I've seen large companies that just don't get the idea of managing expectations and wonder why they have a bad reputation and customers move away (energy suppliers, mobile operators, ISP's etc...)

In tiny teams I'd suggest it's can be even more useful, as if gives the team, the permission to ignore doing something until a specific time.  As long as you stick to those timings, this builds the trust, and lets you focus more. 

I've used this in large IT teams as well as a tiny 3 person support team.  In the latter case, they tried it on an massive systems failure (didn't get why I asked them to do it) but they provided regular updates to some very upset customers, even when they had nothing to add, and the customers went from shouting, and within 3-4 updates, they calmed down, started to say thanks, and even asking if there is anything they could do to help the team!!  (the team then went... wow that was amazing! and continued to use the idea going forward).

So you might be surprised by it.  The ideas are from my experiences of taking specific elements from ITIL, a framework which is huge, but has elements that are useful.  I just wish was applied more widely, as it could help so many companies even outside of the IT world.

I wish you luck and hope when you do try this it works as well as I've seen it.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Jilas671