Extended Business Trip

Finally home after nearly a month in Australia rolling out a new "game-changing" product to some beta customers. Being away from home and family for that long was really tough, but it was a great learning experience and I was able to meet and work with a number of excellent people. Getting in front of customers is something we all should try to do more of. I'm considered a SME (subject matter expert) for a lot of areas in my department primarily because of time served on projects with the company, but I have never been a day-to-day consumer of the applications I develop and it had been almost 2 years since I had direct interaction with our target users. Granted my job doesn't require frequent contact with customers - we have product owners who are responsible for that and these product owners serve as our customers we are trying to satisfy – but there is just no substitute for being thrown in front of actual users who depend on the application (especially if they are commissioned-based!) to bust a few of your assumption bubbles.

Australia wasn't too bad either – we averaged 12-hour work days but I had my weekends free, so I was able to experience a lot over my 3 weekends there. I didn't get to do as much diving / snorkeling as I had hoped – it was winter and the water was a tad frigid. And for anyone interested - LAX is still my least favorite domestic airport...can't even think of a close second.