Katherine RussellOwnerRussellware, Inc.

This week's interview is with Katherine Russell, the owner of Orlando-based FileMaker consulting firm Russellware, Inc. Katherine is a FileMaker 8 certified developer, and has just finished work on a two volume training CD set on the new features of FileMaker Pro 8 and FileMaker Pro 8 Advanced. Read on to learn about Katherine, her experience, and her great advice for FileMaker newcomers.

How did you get started in IT?
In the mid-1980s, when computers were really coming in to offices, I had dropped out of film school and was working as a temp. I was usually the only one who wasn't afraid of computers. I much preferred working on computers to typing and filing and being at the bottom of the totem pole.

I wasn't afraid of computers because I had been playing with them since 1977, when my grandfather got one of the first Apple computers. I was 13 and I was a big Star Trek fan. I seem to remember that the computer had a DOS interface, two cassette drives, and a Star Trek game. I was flummoxed by the DOS menu trees. My grandfather and my mother had to explain them to me 14 times before I got it. But the reward was my own interaction with the Star Trek universe. Even if the game had no GUI, it had photon torpedoes and Romulans. That small connection made the struggle worthwhile.

Then in my senior year of high school, I took a Basic programming class. We had to mark cards to write programs, and then run the stack through the computer. I wrote a program for the game Pigs, where you roll two little pigs and get points (or lose them) depending on the positions of the pigs. That's just a random number generator, which was pretty boring. So I filled out cards to print ASCII graphics of the pig positions. That BROKE the computer (actually filled up the RAM), which was a universe-changer for me. I realized that I could push the computer beyond its capacity, that I was smarter than the computer. After that, I was willing to try anything.

In college I took a FORTRAN class, but dropped it pretty quickly. The professor had a heavy accent and no sympathy for people who knew they could overwhelm a computer but who couldn't follow him.


How long have you been using FileMaker, and how did you get started with it?
By 1993, I had worked my way from Hartford, Connecticut to Orlando, Florida. I got a job at Disney on a start-up project called the Disney Institute. My department was putting together the programs for guests, classes on things like Disney animation, photography, cooking, sports, and films. My boss handed me a box of FileMaker and said, "Make me a filing system." Goody! A computer-based project.

Pretty soon, I had a need for a subsummary part, but it made no sense to me. I called the Disney help desk, and got a promise that they would figure it out and get back to me in about two weeks. Two weeks! I buckled down and figured it out myself in about an hour. That was another universe-shifter, like breaking the computer in high school. If I could figure out something that foreign, I could probably figure out anything. Plus, I could use my Basic programming skills in scripts. I was hooked on FileMaker.


In what ways are you using FileMaker today?
Wow, all over the place. I program for my clients every chance I get, of course. When I program, it feels like I'm playing the piano. It's a rhythmic, peaceful, creative experience.

Up to this point, most of my client projects have been FileMaker only, with some CDML web programming. I am finally starting to use PHP to integrate Web pages with FileMaker, which every one of my clients wants. Andy Gaunt, the founder of FMPug, has been a great help with that.

For my business, I use FileMaker to manage my clients and billing. I whip up databases for friends and family. I'm working on a stock analysis program, based on a Windows-only system, for my investment club. I can't stand things that are not cross-platform.

I also just finished recording a two volume training CD set on the new features of FileMaker Pro 8 and FileMaker Pro 8 Advanced. I wrote the scripts with Jerry Robin of FMPtraining. It has been an incredible learning experience. I have touched every new feature of FileMaker Pro 8 and Advanced, as well as few existing features I wasn't expert with before this project. In March, I'm going to be an assistant teacher at FMPtraining's Gateway to Eight class and then be a co-teacher for the FileMaker Pro 8 New Features class. That will be in Santa Clara at the FileMaker office -- I couldn't pass that up.

The CD project, combined with encouragement at a women's breakfast at last year's DevCon (2005), gave me the courage to apply to speak at DevCon 2006. I have wanted to be good enough to present since my first DevCon in 2000. The application process was another huge learning experience, so even though my proposals were not accepted, I'm really happy with the experience. With every experience, my knowledge grows, and that leads to more confidence, more success with my clients, and more opportunity to be helpful.


Tell us about your company, Russellware. How and why did you start the company?
After a few years with Disney, I had a series of jobs that included FileMaker. A printing company asked me to update a system they already had, and paid me while I learned more about FileMaker from the manual. I built a project management system for a construction company, because as a full-time secretary (again--ack) I was horrified that they were still typing envelopes over and over again. That company generously allowed me to take the program and make it my first product when I went out on my own.

I also worked for a FileMaker consulting company for a year. I learned a lot about working with clients, estimating, contracts, and general FileMaker. I also started learning web interface, which fell into the category of "huh?". That made it my next target to conquer.

The best thing I learned at the consulting company was a rule to ask for help if I am stuck on a problem for more than 5 minutes. It was hard to do at first, because I wanted to be good enough already, and I was embarrassed not to know some basic things. But you are a lot more successful if you just get to the solution. Get there however you can. Clients don't care how hard you work to figure something out on your own. They just want it done, on time, under budget.

I finally became an independent consultant in 2000. Luckily, I was ignorant of all the potential problems, angst, fear, conflict, and disappointment awaiting me. Otherwise, I might not have done it. Also luckily, people hired me, month after month. I couldn't believe that I got to use FileMaker to solve people's problems. I was living and breathing it, and I still am. At that time, I had contracts with Disney, other construction companies, a film company, a minority business development organization, and an election manager from Connecticut. Some of these companies are still my clients.

I struggled with a name for my company, and simply used my own last name. A year after that, I read that it's really egotistical and immature to use your own name, especially if you want to sell the company eventually. Oops.

My company really took shape in the aftermath of 9/11. My election manager client hired me to create a system to manage ballots and voter eligibility for an International Teamsters election, which included importing member lists from many different data formats, building a multi-user system with incredibly tight modification tracking, and managing the computers (23 first generation iBooks with OS X).

My client also hired this jack-of-all-trades from Orlando, Rich Willis, to manage the network. We figured out OS X and networking in Orlando over the summer. The election was scheduled to start September 20, 2001 in Washington, D.C. When September 11 happened, we were extremely nervous about going to Washington, but we felt strongly that we should not be intimidated, and we went ahead with the project.

Our building was next to the Pentagon and across from Reagan National Airport. During the seven weeks in D.C., we saw the city and the country become itself again, watching the first flight depart from Reagan National, the President's helicopter come and go, and the Marine marathon pour through Pentagon City. As terrified as we were of anthrax, which killed two postal workers while we received 500,000 pieces of mail, there was no stopping us. Rich was invaluable, committed to solving problems in a difficult situation. Because of his endurance and never-ending cheerfulness, I knew I wanted him on my team back in Florida. When we got back to Orlando, Rich joined my one-person operation, and suddenly I had a real company.

We worked very hard on our mission and company systems. My personal mission is to create peace in the world. In our company, that translates to "creating peace in the world, one office at a time." If we can help people reduce their stress and fear in their own businesses, we can help propagate kindness, understanding, integrity, strength, and encouragement everywhere. What's better than creating world peace?


I had a chance to check out Rich's "Liquid PC Project" as well as his "I Won't Switch" video. Can you tell us a little more about how you and Rich work together.
Rich is a creative genius, as you can see from his projects. His mission is to be helpful, and he inspires me to be patient, non-judgmental, and as smart as I can be. Rich is interested in FileMaker, but it's not his cup of tea. His job in our company is to be himself (he's a lucky guy) -- he is awesome with customers, graphics, photography, video editing, hardware maintenance, new gadget detection, and joie de vivre. I have a lot to do managing the legal and financial aspects of our company, along with programming. Rich picks up the tasks I can't quite get to, always with huge creative energy. Rich is an ACN and will take the networking certification test at the end of February. He is also deep into Steven Blackwell's book on FileMaker security, which is a big help to our customers.


You've worked on several projects that involved elections. What's it like to work on that type of project?
I love working elections. I don't like conflict, and I was constantly amazed at how civilized opponents are during the actual vote count. I worked on three union elections in New York City, as well as the big International Teamsters election in Washington. For the New York jobs, I flew up to New Haven and met my client. Together we lugged cartons of iMacs, printers, office supplies, and a huge old envelope cutter on the train to New York and through the subways of Manhattan. The vote counts always seemed to take place in low-ceilinged, cold union halls, built in the 1960s. We created an 8 hour carnival of computers, cords, printers, rattling envelope cutters, and mountains of envelopes and ballots. Add to that the serious election workers, the beefy candidates and their supporters, and the stereotypical coffee cups, donut boxes, and sandwich wrappers. It was fantastic.

The database requirements were really fun. I developed a barcode system with the printing company--they would print the member's ID as a barcode on the return envelopes, which held the secret ballots returned by voters. I worked with an election attorney to develop the eligibility calculations, which were very complex, involving when dues were last paid, work status, and "alive" status (dead people were ineligible--laugh, but I had my integrity). The updated member rosters were usually not available until the day of the election, so there was always a heart-stopping few minutes hoping that the import would go as practiced.

My database was used first to log each envelope using a barcode scanner and sorting them into "eligible" or "ineligible." My job turned into supervising the five or six workers, helping them when they got stuck in a layout ("How did THAT happen?" I would exclaim) or when a script was interrupted (I'd have to say, "Who designed this, anyway?"). At the request of the client, I used Homer Simpson's "Doh!" instead of a beep when an envelope was ineligible or was scanned more than once.

Next, the envelopes were opened and recorded by three people at the same time. This was a deadly quiet period. As soon as the results were in and I had swapped data between FileMaker and Excel many times, my job was done. My client would pack everything up and disappear down a subway stairway. I got to spend another day in New York, and then just go home.

I turned that system into a marketable solution for large mail-based projects, like class-action lawsuits. The American Arbitration Association has a reference to it on their site. I think we hit the nail on the head with this program. I would love to use it on more projects.


What's the most interesting and/or challenging project that you've been involved in?
I am fascinated with each of my clients and their businesses, so it is hard to choose. A few years ago, I made a client management database for a customer with users at their home office as well as spread across the country. The scripts to synch those users were really challenging. It took me more than a year to get it all straight. I came up with a FileMaker system to parse all the scripts into steps and track how each script related to others, then I printed it all out and tacked each script to the wall. I even made a movie about it called "Synching" and posted it on my .Mac site (http://homepage.mac.com/russellware/iMovieTheater4.html).

Currently, I'm finishing a project for a company with 17 locations across the country. They are using the same FileMaker Server in Orlando, which makes it convenient for me (note to self--never agree to another project that requires synching). We started before FileMaker 8 was released, so part of the fun has been using the new features to make the system even better.

I am constantly trying to modularize my development, using tables to manage scripts, value lists, tasks, and things like Tooltips and custom menu configurations. I love the process of coming to understand the elements in my own mind, then mapping them on a big piece of paper using colored markers, then using the relationship graph to make the structure real.


You are a member of FileMaker's Solutions Alliance program. Do you find your membership to be helpful with regards to your business?
Yes, the FSA is definitely helpful. I am ashamed to admit that I am too busy to read the Tech Talk list very often. I would be a much better programmer and member of the community if I did. But there are other benefits--I get calls from people who have found my information through the FileMaker website. FileMaker's FSA presentations are incredibly useful. Being connected to other serious FileMaker developers is huge--it helps me enforce the 5 minute rule, although I am happy to report that those calls are fewer these days.

I also passed the FileMaker 7 Certification exam in 2005, and I'm scheduled to take the 8 exam at the end of February. That has made an even bigger difference. Before I took the 7 exam, I stuck to the idea that I was a perfectly fine developer, even without the certificate. I still believe that, but now I understand the difference it makes to clients and other developers. I encourage everyone to take the course or get the materials and take the exam. The increase in skills is worth the time and money.

(Editor's Note: Katherine passed the FileMaker 8 Certification exam a few days after our interview. Congratulations, Katherine!)


What do you like best about your job?
I love being myself, as opposed to working in a corporation for its goals instead of mine. I get to actively pursue my mission of creating peace. I get to learn about science and technology. I have ever-strengthening relationships with my clients and colleagues. Even if I don't get it right all the time, and it's stressful to manage cash flow and client expectations, and I work twice as much as I did before, I feel incredibly lucky.


What do you like least about it?
I am a perfectionist, which is not a good thing. It means being overly critical of myself when I make a mistake, as well as overly optimistic about the amount of time I have to get it all done. I hate that feeling that I am constantly pushing uphill, no matter how much I get done.


What are your favorite new features of FileMaker 8?
GetNthRecord. I love that name. It's so... human. I love using GetNthRecord in a custom function to get related values. For some reason, many of my clients want to see a string of comma-separated related values, rather than being satisfied with a portal or other list. Now I can give them a string without using a script to gather the related records, and I can use that custom function all over the solution. That's cool.


You've been developing with FileMaker for more several years, and like many of us who've been using it for awhile, you've seen the major changes that the product has gone through. What do you think the most significant changes have been?
Definitely the shift to the relationship graph in FileMaker 7. That could be because it took me a while to understand it. The first chink of light came when I won a copy of FileMaker Developer 7 at an FSA event in Orlando. I didn't understand the relationship graph, but at least I could explore the differences between 6 and 7. The breakthrough came when Andy LeCates from FileMaker came to an FMPug meeting and answered my stupid questions. Once I got that you can have an unlimited number of table occurrences representing tables, and that relationships are reflexive only among related table occurrences, I was on fire. I use the "squid" or "anchor-buoy" method, after one horrible "spaghetti" episode.


What would you like to see in the next version of FileMaker?
Copy and paste of elements in the relationship graph. Rich is always bugging me for a back button, which I resist mightily with good interface design. I'm not a visionary with FileMaker, though. I tend to love what I get. FileMaker 8 solved a lot of problems I didn't realize I had. I am starting to think a little more critically, because of doing the research to write and record the training CDs, but I'm pretty happy just to be in the game.


What direction would you like to see FileMaker take the product in the future?
I'd like to see more integration with other programs. I like that good plug-ins have been incorporated into new versions of FileMaker. I'd like to see more of those, especially those having to do with communicating outside of FileMaker. For instance, sending information to fax software like we do now with email clients would be great. Although I'd like to see faxes go away. Who needs 'em, with PDFs and email?


What's your favorite tool, plugin, or technique for developing FileMaker databases?
I like my big roll of paper and colored markers. Once I have a thorough interview with the client, I write a mission statement. Then I get down on the floor and draw a process flow and an entity relationship diagram. I have a hard time refraining from programming before I should, which leads to some redevelopment along the way. I use Software4Humans' EventScript plug-in a lot, as well as the Troi File Plug-In. I don't have a problem with plug-ins, but sometimes I feel like an idiot when I struggle to integrate them.


What advice do you have for someone that is just getting started with FileMaker?
Jump in and explore templates and other people's solutions, and don't be afraid to get training. Go to a class, or join a users group, or buy some CDs. The more you know, the more fun it will be. At my first DevCon, I went to intermediate and advanced sessions, thinking I knew a lot. But like many independent developers, I was woefully uneducated. So at my second DevCon, I went to foundation sessions. The difference in my learning curve was huge, and it set the stage for more intermediate and advanced lessons immediately.


What technology has most changed your life?
My Jabra Bluetooth headset. It freed me to drive safely, work on the computer, and do the dishes while talking to my customers. Now talking on the phone is not a one-handed waste of physical time. It meets my needs as a multi-tasker.


Thanks Katherine!
Thanks for the opportunity to remember, vent, and think ahead, Tim!


For more information about Katherine and her company, Russellware, visit www.russellware.com. For a rather unique glimpse into the inner workings of Russelware, click here. And finally, be sure to check out the "I Won't Switch" video by Rich Willis, which is available at here.