Song Of The Day: Calling All Angels - Artist: Train
I found the launch of Google Website Optimizer rather interesting. Why? Well, it reminded me of Mike Conners’, former President of AOL Technologies years back, and his adage for one: If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. Being a long-time IBMer I think Mr. Conners learned a lot about measuring and managing.
Also, I think, Google’s launch adds merit to my own efforts of measuring, and gaining visibility into performance (i.e., not just speed), with tools like dent.
Customers, developers or consumers, desire better technologies and products to achieve their goals.
The challenge is that performance enhancements, and associated tools, may be an after-thought in product development cycles. In computer science one is typically directed to make it work and then to focus on optimization later. I guess there are multiple reasons for this tendency: time constraints, resource constraints, pragmatism (i.e., at least get it working), but the result can be poor product visibility and a lack of manageability overall. There are numerous examples of the repercussions from a lack of proper forethought: Pointcast and its push performance, Microsoft and its security performance, monetization of ads, etc?
Balance is necessary. Moreover, the whole discussion reminds me of a quote from Michael B. Johnson of Pixar: “Good tools obviate bad process.”
To strike a proper balance optimization initiatives should be interwoven throughout the fabric of a development cycle and not entirely pushed until the end IMHO. This can obviate opaqueness and poor processes.
We’ll have to watch how the Website Optimizer evolves, but I bet that if the customers gain visibility and manageability into their ads and sites, both the customer and business will benefit.