Friday, May 15, 2009

I'm glad they didn't do this with "Welcome Back Kotter" - mapping Star Trek characters to corporate roles

I have a co-worker who despises all things Star Trek and Star Wars. I think I'll send this article to him.

[E]veryone can equate Spock with the typical developer: quite logical without emotion, using facts and reason to draw conclusions. Spock is willing to spend hours on a problem despite pressure to make a quick decision. As we saw in Star Trek IV (the one with the whales), Bones implored Spock to make a guess. Spock: “Guessing is not in my nature.” Yet in many cases, a development “guess” is adequate to make decisions.

Unfortunately, sales people are often like Captain Kirk: action without thought, asking for the impossible and frequently violating the prime directive. Meanwhile, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is like many marketing people: emotion without logic, frequently complaining about what they aren’t: “Damn it, Jim. I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.” Thankfully, we have Scotty as a stand-in for our product managers. Scotty initially tells Kirk that whatever he wants is impossible and fifteen minutes later, says, “Okay, you’ve got warp drive.”

Where is the president in all of this? Back at Starfleet, without a clue of what is really happening in the field.


The proposed solution? Become more like "The Next Generation." More here.
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