Yesterday I had one of those moments that every developer dreads.
A client using ManageMemberships said a customer couldn’t sign up through the form. I checked the logs—nothing weird. I signed up myself on my phone using a real card—worked perfectly.
The client followed up, saying it still wasn’t working. The member got an error message that said “contact info updated.” That exact phrase didn’t exist in my codebase. I even grepped the whole thing.
Out of curiosity (and desperation), I asked my 60-year-old mom to try the process with no instructions. She registered and paid without issue.
That evening, I was at the gym with the client and the member. Turns out the guy wasn’t entering his ZIP code in the credit card form. The field turned red, and the form refused to submit, but he didn’t think it was required.
I wanted to roll my eyes. I wanted to say, “It’s right there. The box is red. Just fill it in.” But that’s not helpful.
Instead, I remembered something a speaker once said in a training session early in my career:
“World-class service means you're ensuring customer success.”
If someone couldn’t complete the form, it wasn’t their fault. It was mine. Because if there’s even a chance for confusion, it means I didn’t make things clear enough.
So I updated the UI. Clearer errors. Bigger prompts. Icons. Scroll into view. Everything short of yelling “HEY, YOU MISSED A FIELD.”
Because “working” isn’t the bar.
Making it unmissable is.