monkey see, monkey do serves as a personal blog and creative outlet for
work work work
&i’ve been working at a small startup for the last sixteen months, and we’re within a few weeks of releasing our first product. but we’re not really done. much of the polish in my interface designs we didn’t have time to complete, there are still major features going in which won’t see much testing, and i’m killing myself at the moment to find and fix bugs in the web site.;br />
don’t get me wrong, it’s a good product and it does work well. it’s just not going to live up to my personal standards and that’s incredibly frustrating. especially the interface designs i spent so much time on. they’ll potentially improve the next release for january, but my initial pride and enthusiasm in the first release will be a mix of embarrassment (as people find the half-finished interfaces hard to use) and exhaustion.
on the plus side of all this, i remind myself, i picked up skills during this time which i hadn’t planned on but i’m really, really jazzed about. i’ve planned to take off and travel if the company failed. probably spend time volunteering and working on personal projects too. but now that things are going well i’m tempted to stay longer - fixing the damn interface issues which i couldn’t resolve for this release - and maybe learn a few more skills. the joys of a startup: you can (and are forced to) pick up many different hats to wear.
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10. October 2003 at 1:11 pm :
don’t be too hard on yourself about the interfaces… ideally, we’d all like every project to be perfect at launch. luckily, adjustments are easily made on the web, so there’s always the possibility of making improvements down the road.
i know how you feel, though - i had grandiose plans for my current project, and found it disappointing that i wouldn’t be able to revamp things in the manner i envisioned (and am still embarassed to tell people i have anything to do with the site). i’ve adjusted my attitude, though, and now i celebrate every baby step, as its one pixel closer to where i want things to be, and without a question, an overall improvement (no matter how small).
10. October 2003 at 6:27 pm :
Congrats on your upcoming big release! I know how frustrating it can be when you feel your work doesn’t meet your own creative potential. Unfortunately, in any client service field, we have to compromise on everything. As long as you did your best within the limitations you couldn’t control, you have nothing to hang your head about. Just don’t make it the first thing in your portfolio.
Hopefully, your company will hit the Fortune 500 after the release, but if not and your travels bring you to the East Coast, look me up! I’ll take you to the Shambhala Center and we can get some chai tea…