Since 1983, I’ve been doing product testing. It’s not the only thing I do, but over the years it’s filled about a third of my working hours.
It’s a strange kind of thing to do for a living—looking at products, trying to use them, put them into production on a real network, try and guess how someone who actually wants to buy them might use them.
Testing products is so easy to do wrong, and it’s hard to do right. Combine in the pressure of hitting a deadline, making it all work on budget, and fitting the results into a tiny number of words… and it’s a wonder that we get anything at all that’s useful to anyone.
But people eat this stuff up. I guess whether they know or not, they realize that doing what we do as product testers would be tough work. So back to the lab I go, trying to put it all into perspective, trying to generate something useful.
It’s hard work, and it doesn’t pay near what it costs, but it’s important. Of course, the junk out there will all eventually disappear on its own, but I’ve discovered that the good guys have to be called to account as well. Not just on bugs and security problems (there’s a bunch of people who love to deal with *that* little nightmare), but also on product design.
Along the way I’ve made some awful enemies. Tell someone that their baby is ugly, and they can’t ever forgive you. Especially if you say it in public. And, I’ve made some great friends (even people who had ugly babies). A good engineer or designer or manager thrives on feedback, and can build better products because of it.