ChristineK
I appreciate your strength and openness here, and I relate to your challenge as someone who is both a musician and has been Quickbasing for almost ten years now.
First of all, I think it is fair to expect that losses or challenges in one area of life affect our inspiration or motiviation in others. We have to find grace not only for ourselves but also for others. Be patient with yourself.
Also, the space in which we Quickbase is muddy. We wear lots of hats and have to develop many different competencies. I like to use analogies to sell the point. We can use a a building as an example.
The architect who draws the structure, the contractor who coordinates everything, the buyers who source materials, the specialists involved in all of the work from securing the first prerequisite permits to the final touches on the roof all have different backgrounds, strengths, and interests.
However when we go from the brick and mortar to the virtual or digital, we sometimes lose sight of the reality that a single Quickbaser is performing tasks similar to all of these different disciplines.
To use cars as an example, I can say: "I like designing, assembling, and test-driving cars; I do not enjoy maintenance and repairs." Very different mindsets even if there is some overlap in knowledge, skills, and abilities. This is obvious to most people.
To use a final musical analogy, this may look more like the work of taking someone's piano arrangement and figuring out how to make it work for your vocal or instrumental ensemble. I do not know about you, but I do not enjoy rearrangement; I just do it because it is necessary to achieve performance goals (the fun part). I cheat with any tools I can to just get the job done. The passion that I have felt when creating original compositions is entirely different, and the same goes for creating new Quickbase solutions.
Regardless, we have to face others' expectations and get a job done. The challenge is that there are no shortcuts. Seeing the forest for the trees takes time and effort. You have to spend time in the forest, which can be unpleasant depending on the conditions.
A possible approach is to use an AI tool or agent to help document the solution. QuickAppSnap is one option. The outputs should be descriptive of the current solution. Be prepared to study.
I also like to go upstream to the business from which a solution's business (not functional) requirements originated. Understand their system-agnostic business requirements. If they do not have documentation, then now may be the time to create it. If they cannot commit to collaboration, then they may not be ready. That is not your fault. With requirements, you can understand the intent and consider gap analysis between that and the status quo. Hopefully your management understands this.
You also need user inputs, and I think live interviews can help shed light on pain points that can be amalgamated, distilled, and qualified into prescriptive actions. AI tools can help here.
In the end, mental and emotional space as well as workplace culture are critical when faced with the challenges of legacy solutions. Let me know if you ever want to chat about Quickbase or music.
Hello @ChristineK, Kelly Hall here, Chief Customer Officer at Quickbase. First and foremost, I am deeply sorry for your loss. All of us here at Quickbase are keeping you in our thoughts. Second, I LOVE that you see The Qrew as your community, not just for Quickbase, but for you. The Qrew is such a special place because of the Qrew Members. (Not going to lie, when I need a pick-me-up, I just drop in to read how people are helping people!)
To follow your lead and be vulnerable, my own mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness in the last few weeks. I am very fortunate that my mother is still with me but nothing has resonated with me more right now than "my brain is just off". Please know that in no way do I want to make this about me, but merely to say: I understand completely, I see you and you are not alone. Grief is a complicated process so please be patient with yourself and give yourself some grace,
You wanna know something super cool and just how supported you are?! I was going to offer some professional services hours at no cost to help you get going on your project but before I even got there, I found out some of our Quickbase employees saw your post and already had a plan in place to offer you some assistance. So if you haven't heard from anyone yet, hang tight, you will shortly. Not because the CCO asked them too but because our employees truly care about our customers-as humans.
I will continue to keep you in my thoughts. We're here, please don't hesitate to let us know how we can help. Sending hugs.
