The City of Raleigh launched a new website portal for its water and sewage department this week. They sent out an email blast informing customers that we had to log into the portal to setup a new account. On the first day, I logged in to do this. Or, more accurately, I tried to do this.
It didn’t work. There was some issue that caused the system to error out. After several attempts, I decided to wait a few days and then try again. I figured either the site was overloaded with users trying to setup new accounts or there was a bug in the system. Either way, there was nothing I could do about it. If it was a resource overload, I could try again on the weekend. If it was a bug, the city would hear about it and work on a fix.
It was no big deal. I only log in occasionally to check my usage and bill.
I happened to see a post on the Raleigh subreddit later that night from someone who had similar issues. A series of responses confirmed that a bunch of us had the same problem. Many of the responders criticized the city for a poor rollout, buggy interface, problems with the site and filing complaints.
I have low expectations for new product launches, system rollouts, store/restaurant openings, first weeks on the job, disaster responses, new highways and most other first day situations.
Chances are there will be some kinks that have to get ironed out. Some of these kinks happen because there’s no way to test actual load on the system, user errors, surge volumes and how customers will stress the system initially. Others are completely unknown and unforeseeable but will be “beta tested” by early users.
When I was in high school, I had a close friend who refused to go to the new waterside park the week it opened. He said, “I won’t go there for a few weeks. Just like I won’t ride a new roller coaster for the first two weeks. Those early riders are the crash test dummies. They’ll be the ones who get launched off the waterslide into the parking lot because they overshot a curve or get whiplash because the roller coaster speed wasn’t properly adjusted yet.“
That made total sense to me. We went to the waterslide park two months later in August and had a blast.
But I never forgot his wise words. I pick my beta tester opportunities very intentionally and only when their is little downside risk.
Just as importantly, I cut people some slack.
- The city of Raleigh portal developers did the best they could, I imagine.
- The hurricane cleanup crews, power companies and emergency management personnel did too after my neighborhood was hit by Hurricane Michael and Hurricane Irma.
- That last job I started tried to make my orientation and first week pleasant, productive and efficient.
Most people are not trying to make things difficult for themselves, their employers or their customers.
Some even make mistakes. Just like you and I do.