At a wedding party in Germany, it’s usual to spend the time between dances watching or doing sketches. These performances all relate to aspects of the bridal couple’s lives and involve costumes, singing, parodies, and inevitably lead to laughter among the guests.

The idea for Bettina and Stephan’s wedding’s show came up easily, since Stephan is a forest official: wood had to be involved. The German expression “Nägel mit Köpfe machen” which means “to fish or cut bait”, to decide something and just do it without fiddling – and literally “to make nails with heads”) seemed very appropriate for choosing the person you want to share your whole life with.

So we decided to organize a duel: the couple would have to hammer nails into a trunk. The one who would need the lesser amout of trials until the nail would be fully into the log would win. Afterwards, the guests would be allowed to follow their example and compete against each other throughout the afternoon, aside the main stage.

First we needed a trunk that was big enough to stand on its own, and high enough to allow adults to hammer on it without bending down. It should still be light enough to be hauled up into a vehicle, and later somehow transported into a hall. We found one quickly at a neighbor’s (hey, we live in the country!), sawed the best part and took it home.

The log showed natural and man-made scars, patterns and holes. Seeing them, I decided to make the most out of this setting. Decorating the trunk would make it more interesting during the hammering pauses.

I wanted to carve symbols of love and brand their outlines to provide an effect of perspective. It was also important to leave the trunk in its natural state; it should stand for forests and their wild beauty. Etching went well, but finding a source of fire was more of a problem: I was working outdoors and a light wind would blow off every candle’s flame. Finally, I was given a soldering iron, which did the job, even though the pencil could have been smaller.

After a few hours of work, I could count the following elements

• an owl (test design), standing for wisdom and long-lasting love
• two places with small hearts
• one bigger heart-shaped part with entangled rings, symbolizing marriage

I enjoyed the process a lot and I definitely have to buy the right tools to make more

During my career I’ve been working as an employee, going to work every day, and also as a free-lancer, working from home. It’s time to share a few insights on the topic.

1. Give it a try
First of all, you’ll never know if working from home could be an option for you if you don’t try it out. Talk to your boss. What about beginning with one day per week during a “test month”?

2. Prepare the space
Depending on the nature of your work, you’ll like to set up a defined space, and consider the following.

• Dedicated place with appropriate infrastructure (this is probably not your bathroom)
• Noise management: Do you like it silent? Avoid the street side of the appartment.
• Organisation of supplies: Have you got all the materials you need at hand?

3. Eliminate diversions
Find out what’s happening at your house when you’re not there. Is the phone constantly ringing? Could you spend the whole day reordering a messy household? Are your cat’s friends visiting around the clock?
You’ll have to find solutions to prevent the distractions from invading your work day. Some may be easy to get rid of (like muting the phone), some may require you to elaborate more (like convincing the cat to poker only on weekends).

4. Stay focused
Once you’ve taken care of the surroundings, you’ll be confronted with your worst enemy: yourself.
Your own pet peeves can get in the way, from procrastination to hyper-activity. This is the rule: Your private mails may have to wait in your inbox until the end of your work day, and you won’t be able to repair the television until Saturday.

5. Follow work habits
The difference between “work” and “work from home” should basically remain the location. If you usually begin your work day with reading (work) eMails at your workplace, then simply do the same at home. Keep your work habits if they’re empowering you; drop them if they’re not.

6. Structure your work/time
Plan ahead, organize your schedule, manage your tasks. Nothing new. At home, it’s more likely that nobody will remind you to get specific things done; make sure you’ll still do them.

7. Keep track
Know what you’ve achieved at the end of the work-at-home day. A short list of completed tasks and topics worked on should be a good investment. You can use this information to verify how you’re doing and compare it to your feelings if unsure, and to show your boss how much more efficient you are.

8. Don’t think about it too much
Don’t obsess over the topic. Theoretically, you won’t experience anything else than you always do on a normal work day. Only the weighting differs.

9. Don’t give up
Working from home may not turn out the way you expected at first. Persevere! Practice and generation of habits will help you consolidating the building.

10. Be productive
Keep the productivity techniques you’re already using when at your company; they probably fit also at home, since you’re doing the same work.
Important: Working from home should have more advantages than going to work elsewhere. Thus it’s supposed to enable you to be more efficient. (Otherwise you may be better off at your workplace.)

Suggestions?

• Would you like to work from home?
• Are you already? Have you got tips to share?

This is the second part of a serie dedicated to one of my biggest career moves. I started at my current company as a web developer and, after a few years, I was given the opportunity to become a UX designer. I’ll turn the spotlight on some major differences I noticed during the progress of my mutation.

I recently had a meeting with our Testing department, and the thought came up again: within a company producing software, User Experience and Testing persons are both strongly dedicated to a product’s quality. Of course, developers are, in the best case, too. Still, as my friend Liz, our former UX analyst, often reminded me when I was a web developer:

You are not the user!

Fighting my brothers

Representing the user within a company means getting into lots of work-related battles.
My first ones were against fellow developers. My programming colleagues weren’t “us” anymore, facing challenges together under the banner of the code. It was “the users and me” against “them”.

In my developer role, I had to evaluate the feasibility and the cost-time factor of features; my response to the “strange requests and utopian feature designs” of our UX person was often “No”. Depending on the technology, I was able to provide one or more alternatives that would also work.
As a UX designer, I was suddenly in the position to ask my former crew for these strange features. That’s when I faced the infinite – and worth being admired – willpower of developers (resembling that usually attributed to dwarves in fantasy stories). That’s when I had to make use of my own programmer strength against them. Not yet painful, but highly interesting: I was confronted with replicas of myself, knowing maybe more than I should about the technical background (“Did you create a class for that? You did, right?”).

Knowing that friction breeds greatness, I carried on with convincing and winning my developer colleagues for my new cause, the user’s experience. It surely was a positive aspect that we’ve all been working closely together for years.

Fighting authority

When I dealt with our principal stakeholders (mostly from Management) as the user’s advocate, I had to

• admit that I was being even more a pain,
• cope with the fact that I probably always would, in this position.

I had to accept it as an important part of my job.

I told my bosses “I have to disagree once again” and “I don’t think we should do it like that” many times.
Was I going too far? Should I just have shut up instead?

Time gave me the answer: Hell, no!

Pointing out at dust piles under the carpet is the first part of what I’m paid for.

The second part is to elaborate the best way to clean them.
I learned that the messenger delivering bad news wasn’t likely to be shot at if she stuck to reality and objectivity.

The path

While continuing being a pain, I pushed my coworkers into thinking harder, developing great ideas to overcome the issues I revealed on their way. I see myself as a sort of trainer, helping people generate great usable software and shaping our path to success.

What about you?

• Do you believe you are a pain in your job? Why?
• How do you manage to keep a healthy balance between being a pain and still go on well with your colleagues?