"Don't #@!% the customer" and "Play, as a team" are two Atlassian values that resonate with Support Teams. Support teams' goal is always to help the customer - but sometimes being passionate is not good enough. They need a superhero's toolbox to get the job done! In this session, Paweł Mazur, Product Manager at Spartez, and Maria Heij, Test & Support Manager at Refined, will show how you and your team can build an efficient and rewarding support experience for you and your customers. We'll cover both the technical tools (like scripting, Docker, browser dev tools, and more!) as well as the team processes which you can use to turn your support team into a team of superheroes.

1. Not All Heroes Wear Capes
Skills and Tools Helpful in Becoming a Support Superhero
MARIA HEIJ | SUPPORT & TEST MANAGER | REFINED | @MARIAHEIJ
PAWEŁ MAZUR | JUNIOR PRODUCT MANAGER | SPARTEZ | @PTCMAZUR

3. Tutorial of the presented
tools
Recruitment processes
How to set up a Support
Team structure
An overview of useful tools
for support work
Good skills to have as a SE
Working with Support in
teams
Tips & Tricks
WHAT THIS TALK
IS ABOUT
THIS TALK IS NOT
ABOUT

4. Balance
Who is your primary focus?

5. Customer
Primary focus is on customer

6. Troubleshooting
& bug reporting
A Support Engineer’s Role
Product guidanceCustomer advocates

7. Tools for a Support Engineer
https://unsplash.com/photos/NL_DF0Klepc

8. Captain’s log,
star date 1091.33
What’s in the server log?

9. The zip

10. When?

13. Terminal tools
Mouse is overrated

14. Debugging
When?
Troubleshooting on
site
Log analysis

15. Who needs a
mouse?
Log analysis
Debugging
Troubleshooting
on site
Expanding the
toolbox
Learn grep/egrep
When Ctrl+f/Cmd+f might need some context
Regular Expressions
Powerful but demanding
Try Vim
At least learn how to quit it! -> :q!

16. Who needs a
mouse?
Log analysis
Debugging
Troubleshooting
on site
Expanding the
toolbox
cURL and Wget
quickly reproduce and test plugin endpoints
Try out some Java Version Manager
jenv or … manual switching
tail -f
Click and observe

17. Who needs a
mouse?
Log analysis
Debugging
Troubleshooting
on site
Expanding the
toolbox
SSH
Understand core principles of SSH and SCP
Netstat, ps aux, top, nmap
Diagnose and check condition of a ”patient”
Understand jira conf files
Its just XML not Klingon

18. Who needs a
mouse?
Log analysis
Debugging
Troubleshooting
on site
Expanding the
toolbox
Take advantage of piping - |
Get a result | filter it further | do something more
There are extensions out there to help you
Zsh, iTerm2 …
Loops, aliases, xargs…

19. Browser Developer Tools
Not only for the devs

20. Elements

21. When?

24. Network tab

25. When?

30. Console

31. When?

34. Environment specific tools
Cloud, server, data center - same same but different

35. Server
Multiple versions, both
platform and plugin
What makes them distinct?
Data Center
Performance focused,
complex setups
Cloud
There is only one version,
hard to set up locally

36. Different env,
different tool
Cloud
Server
Data Center
ngrok
You are reachable from outside
Have dev instance of Jira
Use relevant test data and different user setups
Postman
Dissect REST APIs (bypassing the UI)

37. Different env,
different tool
Cloud
Server
Data Center
Ask for support package
Configurations, logs, database, and more
atlassian sdk
atlas-run-standalone --product jira --version 7.12.1
Docker!
Accessing all versions with a few taps on a keyboard

38. Different env,
different tool
Cloud
Server
Data Center
AWS - Azure - Google Cloud dep
Create templates ready to be spun up
Understand log analysis tools
Performance is VERY important with DC
Did I mention Docker?
If previously it was nice to have, here it’s a must

39. Docker
Reproduce client environments and do it fast

40. Every environment ready in an instant

41. Catch’em all
Manage multiple versions at
once
Why it’s good
Demo
Prepare happy path always,
ready to be shown from start
Local
No need to use AWS/Azure/
GC

42. Containers vs. Virtualisation

43. It’s not me, it’s you!
Third-party conflicts: Safe mode, no app running, default behaviour

44. Safe mode

45. When?

47. Online meeting
Sometimes sending messages is not enough

48. TOOLS EMPOWER A
SUPPORT TEAM TO SOLVE
ISSUES EFFICIENTLY

49. Skills & Team
https://unsplash.com/photos/SYTO3xs06fU

50. A Support Engineer is a Comb

51. Logical
Figuring out a ticket
ObservingTechnical

52. Multithreaded
For the daily work
PatienceCommunication

53. Wanting to help Customer focus Imagination Solution driven
For getting results

54. Decisiveness Resilience
For sticking it out ’till the end

55. What is hard in support?
Too many things at once Feeling left alone
Same question over and over Unresolvable tickets

56. How to address
Too many things at once
Divide and conquer. Ask for help.
Respect SE focus.
Feeling left alone
Invite yourself: meetings, standups
and planning.
Same question over and over
Automation, canned responses, KB
articles…and patience
Unresolvable tickets
Be clear as to why. Be resilient.

57. Exporting conf file
To understand clients setups
Making it Easy for Support
”Disturb Me” hours
To get help from developers
and other departments
Add logging
When stack traces are not
enough

58. Summary
https://unsplash.com/photos/zEawlLdVloo

59. Define support
your mission
SPOILER: the customer is most important

60. Learn the tools and
use them right
https://www.pexels.com/photo/grey-metal-hammer-34520/

61. Use your skills,
work as a team
https://unsplash.com/photos/atSaEOeE8Nk

62. Before you go
Tips from battlefield

63. Remember
Respect your own time, and your customer’s
Build informal relationship
Be proud and humble
Treat everyone equally
Admit you don’t have all the answers

64. Respect your own time, and your customer’s
Build informal relationship
Be proud and humble
Treat everyone equally
Admit you don’t have all the answers
Remember

65. Respect your own time, and your customer’s
Build informal relationship
Be proud and humble
Treat everyone equally
Admit you don’t have all the answers
Remember

66. Respect your own time, and your customer’s
Build informal relationship
Be proud and humble
Treat everyone equally
Admit you don’t have all the answers
Remember

67. Remember
Build informal relationship
Be proud and humble
Treat everyone equally
Admit you don’t have all the answers
Respect your own time, and your customer’s

68. Remember
Admit you don’t have all the answers
Respect your own time, and your customer’s
Build informal relationship
Be proud and humble
Treat everyone equally

69. Thank you!
PAWEŁ MAZUR | PRODUCT MANAGER | SPARTEZ | @SOCIALMEDIAHANDLE
MARIA HEIJ | SUPPORT & TEST MANAGER | REFINED | @MARIAHEIJ

70. Questions?