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@trevyn Co-founder here. You’re right: this post is a narrative about product development, and a strong correlation we found between two variables across 20 Mi

by thebent 10y ago

@trevyn Co-founder here. You’re right: this post is a narrative about product development, and a strong correlation we found between two variables across 20 Million+ commits that we thought was fascinating and supports general 'kitchen logic' around best practices. The axes are not labeled, but if you like we can set you up with a demo account and walk through your data with you. One other note: the typical common use case for the product has been stakeholder management; something we have doubled down on in product development. Any specific critique about how we can improve most welcome!

benwr 10y ago
Specific critiques about how you can improve your blog post: 1. Data is always necessary to back up claims like these. Almost _any_ kind of quantitative data will do - just a simple average! just give me something I can replicate on other data sets. Similarly, just saying "we made up these variables as a combination of these other variables and called them Flavorfulness and Musicality, look how nicely our circles line up!" is not useful to anyone - a formula or methodology would be. 2. As a software engineer, I came to this post expecting to find a way to improve myself. I invested time in reading it because I expected a payoff in the form of, for example, a metric I could apply to my own work. I suspect that the author of this post intentionally gave the impression that the post contained tools like this. I didn't find anything remotely like that. 3. More generally, this post does not show signs of being written with the reader in mind. You have not given me any new information that I can apply; instead you have given me a marketing pitch (we did this data analysis, we promise! Don't you want us to work with you?) dressed up like information.
trevyn 10y ago
Sure, specific critique: It appears that you are making fancy metrics that are more complex but fundamentally no better than a LOC metric. Is there a way that you could create metrics reflecting actual monetary business value created?
- thebent 10y ago
  @trevyn We've got some things in that vein that are working in the app today — and are working toward even more. If you’d like, we could hop on a call and give you a tour of the app and show you where we’re headed? Seems like you've given this some thought on how this should be done right; would love to include them in our product development discussions.
DenisM 10y ago
> The axes are not labeled, but if you like we can set you up with a demo account and walk through your data with you. Really? Rather than going back and labeling you axes you are converting this into a sales call???
- thebent 10y ago
  My actual suggestion was to hop on with the product team/co-founder. This article is a narrative about something we found pretty interesting during product development. Similarly, the offer here is to take a deeper look at what we're building and a (quite genuine) offer to incorporate any suggestions you might have into our roadmap.
  - bojo 10y ago
    Congratulations, you have completely missed the point.
tedmiston 10y ago
This post and the follow up comment "talk to sales" costs your company a lot of credibility. Your post gives prescriptive conclusions not supported by the data presented. Of the data that you did analyze, we're given so few numbers actually published that everyone is forced to question the fundamental methodology, even that is not clearly stated. The specific critique is to make well-founded claims.

by thebent 10y ago

benwr 10y ago

Specific critiques about how you can improve your blog post: 1. Data is always necessary to back up claims like these. Almost _any_ kind of quantitative data will do - just a simple average! just give me something I can replicate on other data sets. Similarly, just saying "we made up these variables as a combination of these other variables and called them Flavorfulness and Musicality, look how nicely our circles line up!" is not useful to anyone - a formula or methodology would be. 2. As a software engineer, I came to this post expecting to find a way to improve myself. I invested time in reading it because I expected a payoff in the form of, for example, a metric I could apply to my own work. I suspect that the author of this post intentionally gave the impression that the post contained tools like this. I didn't find anything remotely like that. 3. More generally, this post does not show signs of being written with the reader in mind. You have not given me any new information that I can apply; instead you have given me a marketing pitch (we did this data analysis, we promise! Don't you want us to work with you?) dressed up like information.

trevyn 10y ago

Sure, specific critique: It appears that you are making fancy metrics that are more complex but fundamentally no better than a LOC metric. Is there a way that you could create metrics reflecting actual monetary business value created?

thebent 10y ago
@trevyn We've got some things in that vein that are working in the app today — and are working toward even more. If you’d like, we could hop on a call and give you a tour of the app and show you where we’re headed? Seems like you've given this some thought on how this should be done right; would love to include them in our product development discussions.

DenisM 10y ago

> The axes are not labeled, but if you like we can set you up with a demo account and walk through your data with you. Really? Rather than going back and labeling you axes you are converting this into a sales call???

thebent 10y ago
My actual suggestion was to hop on with the product team/co-founder. This article is a narrative about something we found pretty interesting during product development. Similarly, the offer here is to take a deeper look at what we're building and a (quite genuine) offer to incorporate any suggestions you might have into our roadmap.
- bojo 10y ago
  Congratulations, you have completely missed the point.

tedmiston 10y ago

This post and the follow up comment "talk to sales" costs your company a lot of credibility. Your post gives prescriptive conclusions not supported by the data presented. Of the data that you did analyze, we're given so few numbers actually published that everyone is forced to question the fundamental methodology, even that is not clearly stated. The specific critique is to make well-founded claims.