NOTE: this is light-hearted
comedy with a tinge of truth and possibility.
It’s not meant to be insulting to PTC or any of its affiliates. But it’s Friday after all and I like to amuse
myself with these thoughts.
I
think I may have found a compelling business case for putting in a logout
button into the Windchill interface.
But
first a little background information. As you may recall a few months ago,
we had a discussion topic regarding the lack of delete capability for Products
and Libraries in Windchill. This means you can accidentally create a
Product that you didn't mean to create.
(SIDE NOTE: I tried to
find an example of this actually occurring and then I read in the news that a
major aircraft manufacturer in Europe is coming out with an invisible jet.....which,
when I first heard about it, sounded an awful lot like an engineer at this
aircraft company accidentally created an extra "product" in
Windchill.
I pictured this entire
event unfolding in Dilbert-esque fashion…..since the engineer couldn’t delete
the product from Windchill, he tried to make this new "product"
"invisible" to all the users. The
engineer discussed the idea with his manager who misinterpreted what the
engineer meant by “making the product invisible.” The manager thought the engineer meant that
he wanted to create an “invisible” plane since planes are their “product.”
The engineer went along with the manager's misinterpretation because it's
easier to create an invisible plane than to remove the product from
Windchill.....but this lat part is just a theory I have.)
At any rate, a point
came up in that “delete” discussion topic we had….the point was that PTC needs
a good business case to put new functionality into the product. I can't
blame them for that. It makes good business sense.
As a lot of you are
aware, there is no logout button in the Windchill browser.
(SIDE NOTE: as a show of
unity and partnership between PTC and PTCUser, I recommend that PTCUser follow
suit and remove the logout button from the PTCUser portal. I personally find it a little offensive that
the user community portal has functionality that Windchill does not. Not only that, but this advanced logout
button is blatantly displayed in the upper right corner of the portal…where it
is most likely to be seen and used by all….they’re not even trying to hide it.)
Slightly off topic here
but I’ll bring it back to my point a little further down.
PTC is way ahead of the
game in terms of psychological programming.
Did you notice the psychology programmed into Windchill? It’s all about drawing you into the product
farther and farther. Here are a few
examples.
Psychology Level 1 – First,
you can create products and libraries.
But you can’t undo them and you can’t delete them. You have to keep moving forward. There’s no way back. Only forward.
Psychology Level 2 – Now,
it’s the end of the day and you finally reach a good stopping point. Where do you logout? Ah….there is no logout button. They don’t ever want you to leave their world!
Psychology Level 3 – I
found that not only is there no “logout” button, but exiting the browser
doesn’t log you out. Here’s how I know
this: A few days ago, I was coming to
the end of the business day. I exited
the browser, shut down the machine, and went home. That night I was sitting peacefully in a
quiet room in my house. I was staring out into space, deep in thought. My wife came in and saw me sitting there
obviously struggling with something on my mind and wanting to put my mind at
ease she asked…”what are you thinking about?” I slowly turned my head toward her, looked her
right in the eye, and growled through gritted teeth one word….”Windchill.” I was still mentally logged into the system!! I challenge you to name another company or
product that has that kind of psychological grasp on its users. It was after 9PM and I was still thinking
about it trying to get work done in my mind.
That’s some good psychological programming right there.
Psychology Level 4 – I
came up with this logout button solution while traveling on the road. I was in a hotel and couldn’t sleep. It was about 2:30AM. I was trying to figure out the business case
I would need to present to PTC in order to get a logout button added to the
product. So, essentially, I was trying
to find ways to help PTC sell their products so that I could get the
functionality I wanted. It’s one thing
to be thinking about work when you’re at home.
It’s a completely different thing to be thinking about ways to help sell
a product that your company doesn’t even own!!
This realization hit me like a pile of bricks….this is pure genius on
PTC’s part!
Anyway, here’s what I
came up with to justify to PTC to add the logout button to Windchill:
·
The logout button can be
a HUGE sales tool. My bank’s website has
a logout button. When I logout, they
redirect me to another page that has all sorts of products and specials that they
want to sell me. Why not do the same
thing with Windchill? Redirect us to a
PTC site that shows new products and capabilities. This seems simple enough. They do it with the Pro/E browser when you
start Pro/E.
·
Buttons and links can be
context sensitive. This means that PTC
should be able to determine whether I’m logged in as a user that has the role
of Design Engineer or the role of Engineering Manager. The advantage here is that they can redirect
us to sites that match our profiles. For
example, if an Engineering Manager logs out of Windchill, he/she should be redirected
to a site that uses small words and has lots of pretty pictures and charts (no
offense Eng. Managers). Where as if the
Design Engineer logs out, he/she should be redirected to a site that shows
really cool slick ways to get more done faster by using a new capability (thus
allowing them to work 10 hours a day instead of 15).
·
Since buttons/links in
web pages can be context sensitive and redirect to “live” web sites, PTC could
be updating/changing content on these redirected pages all the time….literally
communicating new and exciting information directly to the customers every day!
PTC, if you’re reading
this, send this to your VP of Marketing and VP of Sales….ask them this question:
“If you had the ability
to put whatever product information you wanted….literally right in front of your
customers’ faces…..would that be a good thing?”
Mike -
