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I saw that on someone’s T-shirt recently, and it really struck a chord with me.
This is one of those easily-overlooked truths. Sounds reasonable to everyone, but judging by actions, it isn’t taken to heart often enough.
Why do you think that is?
I have a theory: numbers are easy, people are hard.
It’s enticingly simple to measure availability, and have a clear, objective, solid figure.
If the numbers aren’t to your liking, the path to improving them is also nice and clear: throw some tech at them until they behave.
It may surprise you to learn that users, by contrast, tend not to appreciate tech being thrown at them.
Happiness is also one of these slippery things that are difficult to measure, and the steps to improving it may be be confusing, contradictory, and hard to pin down.
So I understand the appeal of attacking nines, not worrying about users.
But if you want to create a product worth creating, one that improves the lives of your users in small or big ways, you have no chance but to face your users, find out what they need and how to give it to them.
But there’s more truth behind this: because the saying can be generalised: metrics don’t matter if people aren’t happy. Are your colleagues happy? Do they feel valued, safe, able to create their best work.
Unless your developers are happy, throwing money at tools won’t get you very far. This is the secret behind not just great products, but also great DevOps teams who create them: you need to start with humans, technology may follow later.