Re: [xsl] OT: Advice on Oxygen XML Editor

["M. David Peterson" <m.david@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey All :)

On Fri, 07 Jul 2006 09:32:32 -0600, Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  
wrote:

> The oXygen development team is also very responsive to user feedback and  
> loves to include features requested by us, their users, often in the  
> very next release.

Both Wendell and myself have some experience with this [1,2 and 6] and  
while some, including myself [3], "might" ;) view me as a fanatic of  
sorts, I definitely have some strong feelings [4,5,6] on the matter of  
Oxygen/George and syncRO soft in general. But taking a step back from  
Oxygen, and focusing on what makes a great development tool great in the  
first place, I think there are some good things can be proselytized to the  
dev tool companies in general as to how to build both a great tool, and  
more importantly in regards to your ability to thrive as a company, a  
great community of loyal customers/supporters/evangelists.

The best way to develop a long term relationship with your customers is  
not by coming up with the most amazing and innovative features (although  
this obviously doesn't hurt, if in fact they are both amazing and  
innovative in the opinions of others besides yourself), and instead by  
working with your customers, communicating with them, involving them in  
the process of the feature development if possible, and more generally  
speaking, developing a relationship in which your customers feel like they  
both can and (if appropriate) are a part of the process of developing,  
testing/debugging, coming up with new products ideas, more development,  
more testing/debugging, etc...

So bringing this back to XSLT from a more general and proper standpoint,  
there is a message in all of this to the XSLT development tool  
manufacturers in general, and that is this...

Get your customers involved in the process and develop a community of  
supporters and product evangelists in the process.  Sometimes its not the  
innovative features (although in the case of George/<oXygen/> XML/syncRO  
soft this is certainly *not* an issue) that will win you customers, and  
instead the simple act of listening to and involving these same folks in  
the overall product development process.

While I wish each and every one of you luck if you are desirous to win  
over the affection of myself or any one else who is an Oxygen activist, I  
certainly wouldn't want to come across in a way that would suggest that I  
don't think you should even try...  I most certainly do, and would hope  
that each of the XSLT development tool companies that read this who don't  
already involve your customers in the development process will do just  
that.

While you may or may not win one of us Oxygen activists over to your side  
of dev tool picket line, thanks to Mulberry Tech, XSL-List, and the loyal  
and affectionate XSLT activists that are a direct result of the folks both  
behind as well as on this list, a new XSLT developer is born every fifteen  
minutes [7].

One of those developers could be your next XSLT dev tool activist.

Go get em' tiger... ROAR! :D

Peace :)

[1] http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2005/01/new_oxygen_beta.html
[2] http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2005/01/oxygen_51_now_a.html
[3] http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2006/01/i_knew_i_was_fo.html
[4] http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2006/01/have_you_hugged_1.html
[5] http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2006/01/xsl_ann_oxygen.html
[6] http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2005/05/guess_what_geor.html
[7] Which, to be truthful, is really more of a blind guess/complete and  
total lie/fabrication than and actual calculation based on real world . :D

--
/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354