3 ms·

I've only done very brief advising to groups in big companies, a long time ago. I've never worked in one. I can't imagine the horror. But it doesn't really mat

• edw519 17y ago
  "I can't imagine the horror." lol Try to look at it from another perspective. Getting lots of quality work done quickly? Yes, horror. But there are lots of things you encounter in these large organizations you simply don't see elsewhere. In terms of requirements, logistical issues, volumes, people, politics, etc. Once you push the envelope of your personal experience by dealing with these things, you become much better at everything, including lots of stuff you do for small companies. Think of it as practicing basketball with a smaller hoop. I have always oscillated between large and small companies, trying to assimilate the best of both. The battle scars from the horror will probably come in handy later.
• rgrieselhuber 17y ago
  The reason I ask is not because I disagree with your demands for higher quality. What I think you're missing is just how difficult it is to organize that many people and interests. If you want your suggestions to be taken seriously, you need to provide them in a way that addresses those problems instead of simply demanding better results.* * I'm assuming you were writing primarily as a design critic, not as a frustrated consumer -- although I understand that the latter motivated the former.
  • sofal 17y ago
    I disagree with your demands for higher quality. Why? Because it's too hard? Does the difficulty of organizing that many people and interests cancel out the need for a better user experience? Is the market going to forgive AA because it knows that it's just really hard to get things done at AA?
    • joshwa 17y ago
      Nope, the market is going to forgive AA because it didn't spend money on a new site and passed that $2.50 in savings per ticket on to the customer, which puts them $2.50 cheaper than the other guys, which nets them far more incremental sales than a better site would (at least so the theory goes).
    • dandelany 17y ago
      Re-read that: "The reason I ask is not because I disagree with your demands for higher quality." (emphasis mine)
      • sofal 17y ago
        Woops.
  • raganwald 17y ago
    What I think you're missing is just how difficult it is to organize that many people and interests. With respect for your suggestion and with passion for my opinion, it isn't Dustin's job to organize that many people and interests, it's management's job. If they run a company that functions like warring city-states, there's little anybody else can do. If they have united all the teams to work together on a single goal, that's a different story.
    • rgrieselhuber 17y ago
      I don't disagree with that either, but this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Perhaps it is impossible to change the structure of these organizations, but I think there is going to be fundamental disconnect between designers and the organizations they serve until one group at least learns to speak the other's language and address the problems they face. At the very minimum, it sounds like there is an opportunity to weed out inefficiency (somehow) and find newer, better ways to organize people and their interests.