Our approach to software development
March 15, 2016
It starts with listening to our users.
At Time59 we believe that our users know best. When they suggest a new feature, we listen carefully. Not all feature requests are immediately added to the program. A lot depends on the size and scope of the project and the number of existing Time59 users who will use it.
When the decision is made to add a new feature, our job is to translate the user's request into working software. As a programmer this takes technical skill but also a measure of humility and empathy. A programmer may consider their latest creation a brilliant manifestation of the art and science of software... but at the end of the day it's the user's opinion that counts.
Time59's simplicity is what initially attracts new users. Since we've been building software for a long time, we know how to incrementally improve a software product without introducing complexity and bloat.
When we add a new feature to Time59 a lot of time is spent thinking about the best way to do it. Two main considerations are:
1) The feature itself, when implemented, must be easy to use and robust.
2) The new feature cannot make any existing functionality more difficult to use.
To sum it up, our goal is to provide our users with software they can rely on, software that makes their practices (and lives) just a little bit easier to manage. If we don't listen carefully, then there's no way we can achieve that goal. The software business, as we see it, is a people business.