Debugging without a developer

This week's "big win" is from a list reader and sometime coaching client who solved a frustrating problem so her organization could finally implement their automated text-messaging system.

She had already jumped through all the hoops to get Twilio set up and working, and her testing had proved it.

But on the live site, any SMS-related action -- even editing the config -- led to mysterious errors.

In technical jargon, this is what we call "a major WTF."
It works over here.
But it doesn't work over there.

Her solution?

On a hunch that some other extension was interfering, she selectively disabled and re-enabled one extension at a time.

Sure enough, one particular extension was somehow causing this strange behavior.

Even better: it wasn't even an extension that she needed.

Here's the thing:

Complex systems can act mysteriously.

Without deep technical knowledge, solutions feel elusive.

But persistence, careful thinking, and a systematic approach are usually enough, eventually.

Congrats to this critical thinker for sticking it out.

She now gets the benefit of a complex and robust system that really does what her organization needs.

All the best,
A.