Developing Good Operations Tools

Developing Good Operations Tools“If you build it, they will come.”

James Turnbull@kartar

@kartar 2015 1

Who• VP of Engineering at Kickstarter

• Advisor at Docker

• Open source chap

• Funny accent

@kartar 2015 2

The Art of Monitoringwww.artofmonitoring.com

@kartar 2015 3

Who are you folks?

@kartar 2015 4

What's this NOT about?

@kartar 2015 5

What's this all about?

@kartar 2015 6

So why did Docker get the hype?• Docker solved real problems (relatively) elegantly.

• Docker wasn't (primarily) built for its developers.

• Adoption trumped features.

@kartar 2015 7

Everyone's a hater...

@kartar 2015 8

Empathy

@kartar 2015 9

Ask your customers what hurts

@kartar 2015 10

It's a product, Jim, but not as we know it

@kartar 2015 11

Good product I• Requirements.

• Capabilities.

• Limitations.

@kartar 2015 12

Good product II• Design.

• Positioning.

• UX/UI.

• Visual character.

@kartar 2015 13

Write up a product specification

@kartar 2015 14

Research works

@kartar 2015 15

Try everything yourself

@kartar 2015 16

Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups

@kartar 2015 17

Build small and iterate

@kartar 2015 18

Everything and not the kitchen sink

@kartar 2015 19

Usability matters• Docs, docs, docs...

• API exposition.

• SDK, integration.

@kartar 2015 20

Marketing matters• A good looking site.

• Real life examples.

• Video tutorials.

@kartar 2015 21

Lifecycle• Care about feedback.

• Care about maintenance.

• Invest in customer services.

@kartar 2015 22

You are not the customer

@kartar 2015 23

Questions?@kartar

http://www.artofmonitoring.com

@kartar 2015 24