Over the past several days, I've been going in to further detail about the 10 lessons in customer-centric development I covered at WordCamp Phoenix:

  1. Know your customer's story
  2. Who is your customer's customer?
  3. "User" is a four-letter word
  4. Nothing you do is "easy"
  5. They hired you as an expert
  6. Dates and timelines matter; not hours
  7. The 90/10 rule will apply at the most inopportune moment
  8. The unexpected can and will delay your launch
  9. On-stage versus Off-stage
  10. Whatever your role, you are responsible for customer satisfaction

Since WordCamp Phoenix was so awesome, though, I decided to crank this list all the way up to 11:

No list is exhaustive

I deliver the list of lessons above out of my own experience.  This list isn't actually everything I'd want to tell you on customer-centric development or business, but is an unordered list of 10 things I feel are not talked about enough in our industry.

That said, you're welcome to disagree with any point I've made as, really, this list might not even apply to you or your business at all.  It does, however, present good food for thought and great discussion points for us to identify the commonalities and differences between our businesses and experience.

I always encourage people to be wary of anyone claiming to be an "expert" or offering some sort of comprehensive "everything you need to know about X" list.  Such lists are misleading and do more disservice to the industry than benefit.

Remember, this list of "10 lessons" are really "10 talking points" and are meant to be a starting point for thinking about a client-focused business.  What lessons would you add?  Which ones would you take off the list?  Which ones would you change?