"It’s a bit ironic considering that yesterday Marcus took to Twitter to say his credit card was hacked. So clearly not all hacking is acceptable in Marcus’ book — only hacking that supports the company’s business objectives." sigh .
Agreed. Someone needs to create a PSA about the term "Hacking" in the 21st century.
PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
61–69 of 69 posts
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#62This is really one of those things that look, in principal, to be a simple fix. "Why are our employees not eating our own dog food". The part he's missing is the question, "Why aren't our employees so passionate about our product that they use it constantly in an effort to make it better?". He's missing a deeper morale issue, and compounding it with his attitude.
PayPal's mobile payment strategy is incredibly important to PayPal's future. Here's the quote specific to the "use our own app": "It’s been brought to my attention that when testing paying with mobile at Cafe 17 last week, some of you refused to install the PayPal app. . . everyone at PayPal should use our products. . . That’s the only way we can make them better, and better." He's asking employees to use the new app…
It’s been brought to my attention that when testing paying with mobile at Cafe 17 last week, some of you refused to install the PayPal app
If that's not an unmissable sign that you're doing something wrong, I don't know what is.
I don't understand how the response of any rational manager to that news could be anything but "Why, and how do we fix it?".
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you are missing the point of the "eat your own dog food" mantra that originated from Joel Spolsky. No one wants to literally eat dog food as we all imagine it would taste terrible. The same holds true for your product. That product you have been working on for your company, whoever it may be, is total, utter, garbage, and if you have to eat it everyday you will realize it tastes terrible. The more you use the…
It didn't originate with Joel Spolsky. "Eating your own dogfood" was already a meme at Microsoft when Spolsky arrived there (1991), and that's where he probably picked it up from. Wikipedia attributes it to Paul Maritz: "In 1988, Microsoft manager Paul Maritz sent Brian Valentine, test manager for Microsoft LAN Manager, an email titled 'Eating our own Dogfood', challenging him to increase internal usage of the compan…
Point still stands, but thanks for the "Well Actually".
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, let's flip this around and think like customers. We go out to choose a vendor for some important service. Vendors A and B have roughly equal parity on features and services, but vendor A's employees eat their own dogfood and vendor B's don't. Now in one sense, who cares? Eating your own dogfood is a means to an end, not the end itself, so it's like finding out that McDonalds employees don't eat McDonalds foo…
Yes, employees that use their own product generally a great and encouraging sign. But what if you find out that the employees at company A use their own product only because the CEO ordered them to do it or get fired, and they actually hate the product themselves too? No longer quite so encouraging. They are mistaking the indicator for the thing indicated. Dogfooding is an indicator of quality and commitment when it…
They are mistaking the indicator for the thing indicated.
This is one of the most important (and neglected) insights in business. People often optimize for the indicator at the expense of the thing it is supposed to indicate.
Example: One metric is of customer dissatisfaction is unsubscribes. If you make your unsubscribe process difficult, unsubscribes go down. In reality, dissatisfaction might be climbing through the roof, and a difficult unsubscribe process may actually make it worse, not better.
That being said, there is a difference between: "If you don't care, go work somewhere else so that the only employees left here are the ones that care," and, "Do it even if you don't care or else I'll fire you."
The former might be about getting rid of unmotivated dead wood. Some people are good no matter what, leave them alone. Some are terrible for your company no matter what, fire them or entice them to quit. The remainder are the ones to manage.
But then again... You don't want to fire or push out the people who might be able to tell you that the dogs hate the dogfood because it tastes like shit. Which was the punchline of the joke that the entire "eat your own dog food" expression is based on.
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, employees that use their own product generally a great and encouraging sign. But what if you find out that the employees at company A use their own product only because the CEO ordered them to do it or get fired, and they actually hate the product themselves too? No longer quite so encouraging. They are mistaking the indicator for the thing indicated. Dogfooding is an indicator of quality and commitment when it…
I think you are missing the point of the "eat your own dog food" mantra that originated from Joel Spolsky. No one wants to literally eat dog food as we all imagine it would taste terrible. The same holds true for your product. That product you have been working on for your company, whoever it may be, is total, utter, garbage, and if you have to eat it everyday you will realize it tastes terrible. The more you use the…
I suspect all those employees at paypal who aren't using the paypal mobile app already know their product sucks and/or is useless, they don't need to be educated to know that.
I suspect it's the CEO who doesn't actually realize it, but maybe he does.
Still, I suppose the theory could be that if they are forced to use the shitty product, then they will be more motivated to fix it, that they currently lack motivation to fix it because they are not using it.
I doubt it will work that way, but it's a theory.
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps just like they're not really a "bank", they could try to argue they're not really an "employer", and are really "paying" their workers, so they're not subject to normal behaviors.
Sure, they can claim that all they want. A judge would look at it for about 5 seconds and say "You're an employer." and that would be that.
I don’t feel the parent ever intended his observation to be a sincere suggestion ...
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, they can claim that all they want. A judge would look at it for about 5 seconds and say "You're an employer." and that would be that.
I don’t feel the parent ever intended his observation to be a sincere suggestion ...
Now you're on the trolley!
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#68The title of the article seems like linkbait. What Marcus said was: "In closing, if you are one of the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can’t remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go find something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere." Pretty similar message, but the title makes him sound like an asshole when the actual text seems more reasonable. If you're not will…
If you're not willing to use the products you make, then how can you expect anyone else to use them. That's a short-sighted argument. Should a car manufacturer not employ someone who could do a useful job for them, just because that person lives in a big city and uses public transport to get to work? Should medical treatments be created only by people suffering the ailment that they treat? Sometimes solving someone e…
"Should a car manufacturer not employ someone who could do a useful job for them, just because that person lives in a big city and uses public transport to get to work?"
Should they not? No. Did/do they? Probably. Most people working at Ford own and drive cars, and they're almost all Fords. My understanding is that this has relaxed a bit over the years, but... working at GM and not driving a GM car was considered a mortal sin years ago.
Source: someone who grew up in metro Detroit.
Re: PayPal chief reams employees: Use our app or quit
#69"It’s a bit ironic considering that yesterday Marcus took to Twitter to say his credit card was hacked. So clearly not all hacking is acceptable in Marcus’ book — only hacking that supports the company’s business objectives." sigh .
I got the feeling that it was mostly PR to point out that his card was hacked. He was quoted as saying that had he used Paypal to pay instead of his physical card (which had extra security chip in it) he would have been secure.