Torley talks Consultant and Useability - what I believe.

Go read Torley's article here.... I'll wait.

OK. So, much of what Torley is talking about is very good, and if you read the comments you can see that people have chimed in talking about money and standards. I thought I'd point out a couple of things so that you know how I do business concerning this:

Much of what I do is project management and consulting in Second Life. Yes I sell prefabs, but honestly I love realizing the idea of other people. I script, I build, I help people find the resources that make their dreams come true. I also take the time to establish relationships and 'hire' designers and scripters to make all this work for my clients. My designs are reworked until they work well for the intended client, or the client's customers. 

That's the essence of usability to me.

Now, having said that - standards become a thorny issue when dealing with art, which much of design in Second Life can be classified under. One client may want something that I disagree with. (As the Endless Nights people about our discussions around this.) My job as a professional person is to state why, offer options, and then do what the client wants after discussing pros and cons. That is what Project Manager's call, "pleasing the primary stakeholder". This is what your job is, not building, not scripting... pleasing your client and giving them the information to make an informed decision. Then being gracious and professional if they ask for something you can't or won't do. There are lines of course, I won't make or script sim nukes to take an extreme example, but if you run into this problem you aren't doing enough pre-sale exploration of what someone needs to know that you are going to have this problem.

Speaking of that, my job begins way before anyone hands me any money. On most sim builds I spend a good number of hours talking about concept, art, and 'similar but not quite' examples before I ever see a dime. My usual method of working includes doing a small scale mock up of what I am thinking they want so they can see it, a gentle guiding of the often chaotic creative process, and an estimate of time and cost before anyone ever signs a contract or hands me money. This is stuff I enjoy doing, and hopefully I eventually get paid for it, but it is something I do as part of my job before I get paid. It's making sure you understand the proposal before you dive in. This is seriously lacking in Second Life, too many people who say they do any kind of work, don't investigate, they take the money and run, then provide shoddy product. Another way to increase your professionalism in Second Life, is to communicate and be on time! This is a 'game' to too many people who also try and be 'workers'. I understand that this is a game for many, but if I hire you to do something do it by the time you say you will, or tell me ahead of time, way ahead of time, that you won't make it and why. Usually it's not a problem, but it will increase your percieved professionalism a ton, as so many flake off in Second Life.

Now Money. This is the other thing that holds many people back inside the virtual world. For pennies people can hire dancers, hostesses, escorts... you name it. However... if you want custom work by someone who knows what they are doing and is going to make sure you are happy for something that you are either going to make money with or enjoy for a long period you should expect to pay for it. Now then, having said that. The way I usually work is to try and make win/win situations. I usually 'pay' my designers by doing some kind of split of sales with them, while absorbing the costs myself. They end up winning when their designs sell, I get a better product line and situation, have friends I trust and can work with, and create resources we can all use for the big job. However, too many times I get people asking me for money just because I happen to 'own' a sim or run a business. I'll be perfectly honest. I don't make anything doing this.... yet. I hope to some day, I take care of my workers, but business owners and most good consultants in this world, as in any. Have EXPENSES. Not understanding that about the people you're working with is a good way to make them ignore your project and dreams.


This turned into a bit of a rant, I didn't mean it to, I hope this comes off as friendly advice, some learning opportunities to the people starting out, a glimpse into my attitude of collaboration and service and maybe even some food for thought. If you have a project you want me to look at for any reason, I script, do graphic design, sim building, creative thought process guidance.... *keeps talking as the tape runs out*