Interview with Jim Wilkinson

Jim Wilkinson, Wilkie to many, is a guy you will recognize right away as being genuine, honest, extremely bright, and very thorough. He has held various positions at SolidWorks, but I remember him first as the head of Tech Support when I started working for resellers in 1997. His background in TS should tell you that he really knows the product, and he really does. He is a true expert about SolidWorks in a different way from the way that end users can be experts in the software. Jim knows all the tiny nuances about how different parts of the interface works.

Jim is now the “Director of User Experience”, which encompasses the interface, or “usability” issues as well as Help and other documentation.

I decided I wanted to interview Jim mainly because of the rather public flap over the 2008 interface, and Jim’s direct participation in the SolidWorks forums. Jim openly admits that the interface was released incomplete.

There is a bit of background noise in the recording, and it is about 20 minutes long, but well worth it. Jim gives you a good look into how the decisions are made. Some of my questions that Jim answers are:

“How do you decide between new features and fixing bugs?”

“What forces exist to drive new functionality other than customers?”

“When you create new features, how to you weigh the importance of beginning users against experienced users?”

The interview is shown in three parts, about 20 minutes total.