I have done quite a bit of technical support in my life. My first job in tech was doing tech support for BCTel Sympatico back when Windows 98 was released and a 56K modem was considered fast. The best startup job I ever had had a huge customer support component and we treated customer support as simultaneously part of development, quality assurance and marketing.
So I have a really good sense of how developers and users approach bugs differently. For a user, the error itself is the issue. For developers, they're usually more curious about how the error happened. A lot of trouble reproducing bugs came because the space between those two points was massive.
Structured logging
The web was my first true love and that's how I got into structured logging. It makes so much sense, especially in a microservice environment, to make sure that every service collects logs in one strict format.
Desktop is a different environment so tracing isn't as difficult, but since Siteimp allows replayability, there is another bonus to implementing logging in this way. My customers will have the option to upload the logs with any information they fill in (including all of it) redacted. If my customers send me their logs, I can actually see what happened.
That lets me start planning a fix. Every technical support request is my fault, so they are either an area where my logic is poor, my interface is hard to understand or my support materials are lacking. Being able to replay something the way users experienced it gives me the chance to make the right fix at the right time.
Totally optional
Bugs are inevitable, sending logs is optional and totally user driven in the moment. There's no constant telemetry even remotely possible in the application. But providing amazing support is mandatory.
Customers don't have to send in their logs and I can fix things the old fashioned way. When they do, I'll delete them as soon as I have fixed the problem, though some totally anonymized versions may stick around as pre release tests.
While the logs are optional, service isn't. I may not have the biggest company, but I will provide amazing technical support. This is one of many ways. Stay tuned to learn more.