Tuesday, November 12, 2024

I’ve been thinking about the fact that Mondays seem harder than they used to.  If you think so too, you’re not crazy; many Mondays are in fact harder to navigate than they used to be.  Because odds are an automatic update was applied over the weekend to at least one app that is critical to your job or personal life.  You’re rarely certain of which critical app it will be and waiting to discover the changes as you go through the day, can feel like a game of Monday Roulette.

For years I traveled for work on a majority of Mondays.  Now, I despise traveling on a Monday – because odds are my airline’s app was updated the weekend before, and something I need on the go is either hidden, moved, or removed.  The airport is a frustrating venue in which to hunt and peck around an app that you knew how to drive like a whiz the day before. I tend to only realize I don’t have what I need at entirely inopportune times, like when trying to board the flight.  Or when needing to find gate information for a second flight during a quick layover.  Usually, these omissions or bugs are updated again overnight Monday night, but a Tuesday fix doesn’t help a Monday traveler.

My iPhone has roughly two zillion apps on it and I have it set to automatically apply updates, else I’d go mad.  It used to be feasible to read the release notes when my number of apps was a more manageable one zillion.  But I had to let that update review go, mostly, because there are only 24 hours in any given day.  The iOS operating system updates still contain decent release notes describing new features and functions, and I do read them.  Sometimes I even understand what they’re telling me.

At work, the updates can really bog down operations on a Monday morning too.  Microsoft Windows is fairly generous in letting users select when to take an update.  They also do a decent job of offering toggle switches to allow a user who has taken an update but doesn’t yet have time to immediately train on the new features and functions, to revert to the prior features for a short period of time.  Those all help minimize disruption.

For our Keys to Real Estate podcast, we use a recording platform that is terrific.  We love it and think it’s a great product.  And yet, we try to avoid scheduling a guest recording on a Monday because … you guessed it.  We are never sure which feature we depend on has gone missing over the weekend, or was moved out of sight, or has changed the way it operates.  When hosting a guest is not the time to try to sort out how to make the experience smooth.

When you have a full book of closings scheduled for the day is not the time, either.

If you’re currently on a hosted solution, notice of your title production system updates are likely shared with you in advance.  You’re informed by your hosting provider when they will apply the updates and will usually send a preview of key changes in functionality and user experience.  Most providers do this to help minimize disruption.

However, if your production system (or CRM, search software, accounting software, or other mission critical software) is web-based, you might be in for some involuntary games of Monday Roulette.  So, plan accordingly.

Some providers will offer real time tutorials of updated sections inside the software itself.  Others might send a set of release notes prior to their pushing out the update, to help you anticipate (and test) impacted areas before the start of your business day Monday.  Still others might offer the toggle switch selection for a short-term reversion back to the prior version.  Still others might do a soft roll out of updates to a sub-set of customers before pushing the update out to an entire user community.

There is no silver bullet for these types of disruptions.  Software code is written by humans (for now) and therefore mistakes are inevitable.  But you do need to know which method(s) your providers use and what sort of update schedule you can expect.  It’s one thing you can do to increase your odds of not losing your bets while stuck playing Monday Roulette.

Until Next Time,

Mary Schuster
Chief Knowledge Officer
October Research, LLC