The first software company I worked for (approx 15 employees) had a system where the devs each spent one day every two weeks on the support desk (we also had a

The first software company I worked for (approx 15 employees) had a system where the devs each spent one day every two weeks on the support desk (we also had a full time support person). We probably scored 1/12 on the Joel test[1], but we definitely knew our customers pain points - the insight I gained from the delta between my understanding of a product and a customer's understanding of the same product has been invaluable. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html