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Can we please stop giving out this bullshit piece of advice? People expect polished applications that are better than what they already have. If you're not pro

Can we please stop giving out this bullshit piece of advice? People expect polished applications that are better than what they already have. If you're not proud of your product wait until you are to release it. Believe me, it will make standing in front of a room full of investors or potential users a much more pleasant experience and you'll be able to sleep at night.

ryanwaggoner 17y ago
Completely disagree. The biggest risks for almost any piece of software done as an entrepreneurial project: 1) The developer never ships it 2) When they finally do, no one cares Shipping early even with flaws and bugs solves #1, and if #2 is a problem, you find out a lot faster and can move on to the next thing. The truth is that early adopters expect bugs and flaws, which is why they're early adopters. Most people are surprisingly forgiving of new software [1], provided the developer engages and regularly addresses their concerns with bug fixes, new features, etc. 1. Obviously, this depends on what market you're in. Developers of avionics, for example, probably shouldn't follow this advice.
- eru 17y ago
  Yes. And you can just call it version 0.1 instead of 1.0, if you are cautious.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
profquail 17y ago
Polished != Has-every-feature-you'll-ever-want You can come up with a small, polished product with a few well-designed features to start off with (v1.0), which will impress the investors and early users. That'll get your cashflow going, and you can add more features along the way.
- cantastoria 17y ago
  I think people's tolerance of bugs and missing feature's has dropped to an all time low. It's not 1997 anymore. This "ship early, ship often" tactic may have worked at one point but expectations have changed. Especially if you are selling into an established market (which most of us are...) Also building software for your early adopters is usually a bad move. Typically this gets you a product full of corner case features that these users weren't getting in existing products. Unless it's a huge market you're probably painting yourself into a corner.
kristiandupont 17y ago
People expect polished applications that are better than what they already have Maybe they expect that, but what they want is to solve a problem.

ryanwaggoner 17y ago

Completely disagree. The biggest risks for almost any piece of software done as an entrepreneurial project: 1) The developer never ships it 2) When they finally do, no one cares Shipping early even with flaws and bugs solves #1, and if #2 is a problem, you find out a lot faster and can move on to the next thing. The truth is that early adopters expect bugs and flaws, which is why they're early adopters. Most people are surprisingly forgiving of new software [1], provided the developer engages and regularly addresses their concerns with bug fixes, new features, etc. 1. Obviously, this depends on what market you're in. Developers of avionics, for example, probably shouldn't follow this advice.

eru 17y ago
Yes. And you can just call it version 0.1 instead of 1.0, if you are cautious.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

profquail 17y ago

Polished != Has-every-feature-you'll-ever-want You can come up with a small, polished product with a few well-designed features to start off with (v1.0), which will impress the investors and early users. That'll get your cashflow going, and you can add more features along the way.

cantastoria 17y ago
I think people's tolerance of bugs and missing feature's has dropped to an all time low. It's not 1997 anymore. This "ship early, ship often" tactic may have worked at one point but expectations have changed. Especially if you are selling into an established market (which most of us are...) Also building software for your early adopters is usually a bad move. Typically this gets you a product full of corner case features that these users weren't getting in existing products. Unless it's a huge market you're probably painting yourself into a corner.

kristiandupont 17y ago

People expect polished applications that are better than what they already have Maybe they expect that, but what they want is to solve a problem.