In a recent Blog Post, Matt Lombard wrote about his gotcha question he asked of Paul Chastell who is the Director of Software Development.  Matt got Paul to admit that Solidworks doesn't have a position in the company with the title of "Devil's Advocate".  After my visit last month to Solidworks, I can confirm that is true.  In fact when I was given the list of people I could schedule to meet with, no where on the list was the "Director of Devils Advocacy".  Wouldn't that be a cool business card to have though? 

First, a bit of a disclaimer.  My trip to Solidworks last month was completely self funded, and it was part of my scheduled vacation from work.  My original intent was to go to Boston for a few days, catch a Red Sox game, and then maybe spend one day at the Solidworks headquarters.  I wanted to basically go get a tour of the facility, say hi to some people I have met, and maybe grab a beer or two with some of them.  As the planning for the trip began, I was asked if I would like to come a week earlier, and speak at their company meeting.  Finding that to be a unique opportunity, I agreed to do it.  Still when it was all said and done, I was still there on my own dime, and on vacation.  All I pretty much walked away with was a nice Solidworks backpack that had some pretty cool Solidworks branded merchandise in it, and quite a few free drinks that some nice TTM's were so kind to buy for me!  So my trip there was not a press junket, or a ploy by Solidworks to get favorable attention from me.

That being said, I can also confirm that I never ran into one person who had the responsibility of playing devil's advocate for the Solidworks software, I ran into lot's of them.  You see when I showed up on the first day, I really didn't have any pre scheduled meetings with anyone set up.  I wanted to meet with Patrick Cook who is the internal contact for the blogging software we use, and the guys from the Beta team.  When I arrived, it was a different story.  Word was out that I was gonna be there for a couple of days, and all of a sudden, lots of people wanted to meet with me.  Most of them were product development people that wanted to get my feedback on how I use Solidworks in my day to day work.  One of the people I sat down with was Sal Lama who is a Senior Product Specialist.  he wanted me to play around with Solidworks 2009, and tell him what I thought.  So I took over his computer, and started to test out some of the new functionality of 2009.  What I had to do was figure out for myself how the new stuff worked.  What Sal wanted to see was how intuitive the software was.  Was I going to be able on my own to figure out how stuff works, and if not, what could be done to make it more simple?  When we were done a few hours later, he had a couple of pages of really good notes.  So while I don't work for Solidworks, for those few hours, I was a 'devils advocate' for Solidworks.

So not everyone has the opportunity to Visit Solidworks and be able to grab the attention of people like Sal or the head of R&D like I was.  That still doesn't mean that the every day user can't have an impact.  I know of at least five ways you can have an impact on how the software is developed:

1.  Participate in the Beta program

2.  Participate in the EV program

3.  Request a customer visit from Solidworks

4.  Submit your ideas for the enhancement survey at Solidworks World

5.  Participate in the online Solidworks Forums

One of the unique ideas behind Solidworks is that the software is mainly customer driven.  I personally am glad that Solidworks chooses to not just put out a final product based on their design, and then forces their users to deal with it for a year.  They will admit, and we have all seen where initial releases have issues, but they do everything in their power to fix it.  Some have suggested that they release one final version with all the bugs fixed, but how can that  be achieved if its not tested in the field?  How do you gain the foresight to make sure that nearly 7 million lines of code will work 100% of the time for nearly 600,000 users?  You have to get the feedback necessary to keep things moving along.  I like the fact that when I sat down with Sal, that my opinion meant enough to possibly drive changes in their software, and that opportunity is available to you.

Now let me finish with what are a couple of complaints of mine in regards to this whole situation.  First off, while Matt Lombard should be taken seriously, and listened too, he is not the poor lost soul searching for answers in this world.  As I have noted in previous blog posts, he has the attention and ears of lots of executives at Solidworks.  I was told while at Solidworks, that while his approach is a bit rough sometimes, people listen to what he says, and they take most of what he says seriously.  I didn't run into one person that didn't know who he was.

As far as Solidworks goes, I will say that too many of the people in Concord stay inside the walls in Concord for too long.  There should be a push to get the R&D and Product Definition people out on the road visiting customers more.  How about a page on the Solidworks site where customers can request a customer visit directly?  The exercise that Sal and I did is all thats necessary for them to gain even more insight into what the community is looking for.  I can see the desire in the people at Solidworks to get feedback, the opportunity is out there waiting for you.       

Comments

[Marijn]

tip 6: Post at blogs that developers read!

Give me mouse gestures!!!
I use them in Blender and if you get use to them there so handy you wouldn't want to work without them.
Even Gmail has mouse gestures and it is only a mail client.

[Matt Lombard]

Mike,
I don't think I tricked Paul into saying anything, I just think he sees the devils advocate thing as a non-issue, and I don't.

It's kind of appalling that you spent your vacation and airfare dollars going to SW Corp to talk about me. Plenty of better topics like how to improve beta, how to make all those customer visits which you suggest, and so on. Or you might just have let SW pay for the trip and go for Alpha testing.

The city of Boston is a great place to visit. I was last there a couple years ago and had a great 2 weeks poking around town. It really is my favorite city. China Town, Symphony stop on the green line, Filenes, the huge record store in what used to be called the "combat zone", the Christian Science Center, the Science Museum, MIT, Harvard, BU, all those college coeds...

Anyway, yes, I also agree with your list of things to do to improve the software.