Thoughts on Development

“The main task of a developer is solving problems.”

This is a sentence I often hear in my conversations lately. I’ve talked to product owners, managers, and experienced fellow developers, and they all agree. And especially when we talk about SaaS, this couldn’t be more true.

The world changes faster than before. New technologies are created and affect daily tasks, from simple street stores to big companies with complex business models. From games to software, digital products are now so complex that dealing with issues and bugs is inevitable, and this has changed how companies deal with such products. The transition from paid products to annual subscriptions was a major change, and the last big change we’re experiencing is the advent of Artificial Intelligence.

Given the speed of our era, feedback is instantaneous, and as developers, we must be ready to answer any issues and unexpected situations we may find to retain customer trust.

In 2023, great companies like X (former Twitter), CrowdStrike, and Microsoft (Teams) faced issues that affected many users. Some great WordPress companies and plugins have also faced similar challenges, and by reading about them, we can learn a lot.

These are some topics I consider relevant. Please feel free to share your thoughts and mention other topics. I’d love to learn from specific cases 🙂

Communication with customers

Considering notice of bugs and negative feedback can come from several sources, having a direct channel with your customers is vital, as it allows you to notice what’s going wrong quickly and prevent such issues from spreading.

From my experience, any product support team is essential in preventing churn and providing feedback to the dev team and customers. That’s why, in the WordPress environment, we often hear expressions like Trusted Advisors, Happiness Engineers, or Wizards. Customers are supposed to trust us to provide the best solutions according to their needs and to feel happy with our products, and they expect us to make their problems disappear quickly.

If you are a freelancer and have no support team, you must perform as a support professional and gather all the details to solve your issue asap.

Proactive bug fixes and improvements

At the first sign that something odd is happening, the dev team must proactively investigate and fix any issues. This is clear: when something big happens, quick action must be taken! But minor issues also happen daily, and that’s why solving problems is a much-appreciated skill.

One interesting stat I saw while preparing this article is the number of open issues in WooCommerce’s Github: 3.2k!!! And Elementor has 3.5k open issues!

From enhancements to feature requests and bugs, a developer can easily spend most of the time not developing but solving problems. This is the real world.

I invite you, fellow developers reading this article, to share any numbers you consider relevant.

Interstellar factor: time might run at different speeds

When customers face bugs, especially those that affect their income, every second counts. Quickly addressing any issues is a must, and not giving the required attention to this may result in losses and brand damage. One minute for a customer may feel like an eternity.

To avoid further issues and earn some time to fix things, it’s important to have some rollback options, as they help minimize disruption. Versioning and an organized Github repository are essential.

Sharing quick fixes or patches and sending the file directly to the customer is a way to demonstrate respect and appreciation and show them errors might happen, but you are with them.

AI Tools

AI Tools like Copilot and Chat GPT are a must nowadays, as they speed up processes, work as a pair programmer, exponentially increase your productivity, and allow us to focus on concepts and other intellectual tasks rather than repetitive ones. 

AI Tools are also a great source of knowledge. While coding, I rely on them to clarify concepts that aren’t clear. I barely do Google Searches nowadays, and it makes me curious to know about the audience on tutorial websites and how such tools impact them. Do you have any interesting articles of information to share?

Suggested Reading

For those who haven’t had the opportunity yet, I recommend reading The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. It talks about the ‘Customer Development’ process, and it shares valuable information about the importance of customer feedback on any business and product. This is one of those books that open our minds and that employers and employees can benefit from.

Conclusion

It’s interesting to see how things have changed since the AI tools rose, how digital products have evolved in the last decade, and how professionals in different areas need to adapt to deliver better products and create sustainable businesses.

Being aware of this reality only confirms I’m on the right track: focusing on having solid foundations in the languages I work with and understanding that people are the ultimate goal are the way to building a solid career and leaving my mark.

This article intends to share information and learn from each other. Please share your thoughts if you wish; I’d love to hear from you.

Cheers from Rio,
Eduardo Capella.