Introducing The Cylinder Way
We published a document outlining how we work with our clients, what that looks like in more detail, and most importantly, why we do any of this in the first place. We call it The Cylinder Way and we’d like to know what you think of it.
We shared this document a few months ago and have revised it many times since (we even used SemVer to version the progress). Many thanks are due to all of the wonderful people who provided feedback on drafts.
Like all projects including software, it’s unfinished and we expect it to continuously evolve as we put more work into the world, gain experience, develop knowledge, and get more feedback. We welcome your thoughts on it.
Why Write Something Like This?
A few reasons:
- We believe there is a better way to design and build software to help businesses grow and work more efficiently. When talking with prospective partners and customers about our philosophy, we find ourselves saying the same things over and over — explaining who we are and how we might work together. This is tedious and not a great use of time. Hypothesis: if we send a document describing what we do, how we do it, and why before an early discussion, we can make better use of everyone’s time by having shorter, more focused conversations.
- It helps clarify our own thinking. With each project, we learn more about what works well and what does not when building software to solve business problems. Hypothesis: if we write down what we have learned in one place, we won’t have to relearn the same lessons over and over.
- We want to share what we have learned with other organizations like ours. We have succeeded as a business only through cooperating with other consultants, both freelancers and firms. We trade leads, help each other staff projects, and learn how to do a better job from one another. Hypothesis: sharing our best practices can help some of our colleagues and in turn, encourage them to share tips with us.
What Do You Do Again?
We build internal startups for companies of all sizes using Human-Centered Design and continuous iteration to experiment, test, learn, and grow. Those startups help grow new business lines and make existing systems more efficient. It’s actually a lot of fun to do and always feels great to help our clients.
Please check out the document and let us know what feedback you have (email us here or tweet here).
