We are currently at the stage of the RavenDB release cycle where most of what we do is friction removal. Analyzing what is going on and removing friction along the way. This isn’t about performance, we are pretty much done with this for this release cycle.

Removing friction is figuring out all the myriad of ways in which users are going to use RavenDB and run into small annoyances. Things that work exactly as they should, but it can often add a tiny bump in the road toward success. In other words, not only do I want you to drop you into the pit of success, I want to make sure that you’ll get a cushioned landing.

I take pride in my work, and I think that the sand & polish stage, removing splinters and ensuring true frictionless experience is one of the most important stages in creating awesome products. It is also quite arduous one and it has very little visible impact on the product itself. If you are successful, no one will ever even know that you had done any work at all.

I was explaining this to my wife the other day and I think that I came up with a good metaphor to explain it. Think about wearing a pair of comfortable shoes. If they are truly comfortable you’ll not notice them. In fact, them being comfortable will not be anything to remark upon, it is just there. Now, turn it around and imagine a pair of shoes that are not uncomfortable.

You do notice them, and it can be quite painful. But what would you do if you are used to all shoes being painful. Take high heels as a good example. It is standard practice, I understand, to just assume that they will be painful. So if a shoe looks great but it painful to wear, many would wear it, accepting that it is painful. It is only when you wear comfortable shoes after wearing an uncomfortable ones that you can really notice.

You feel the lack of pain, where there used to be one.

Coming back to software from high fashion, these kind of features are hard and they are often unnoticed, but they jell together to create an awesome experience and a smooth, professional feeling for the product. Even if you need to look at what is going on the other side of the fence to realize how much is being done for you.