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This is what Joel Spolsky was worried about a while back. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/does-slow-growth-equal-slow-death.html http://www.inc.com/magazi

This is what Joel Spolsky was worried about a while back. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/does-slow-growth-equal-slow-death.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/does-slow-growth-equal-...

niels 16y ago
Good catch.
wolfhumble 16y ago
In the comment section to the inc article I found this blog post which I thought was interesting: http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/2009/11/joel-spolskys-focus-is-not-on-the-customer/ http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/2009/11/joel-spolskys-... Some points I reflect on after reading both articles are: - Should the real needs of my customers be met, or the needs I think they have? That is, where is my focus: On the customer or on the product? (ref. blog post) - Can I allow myself to think that my competitor is selling junk, as mentioned in: "So that's the development team's mission for 2010: to eliminate any possible reason that customers might buy our competitors' junk, . . . ." (ref. inc post) - Should I build the perfect product and use a salesforce to push it on customers that does not happen to know that we have the best product (ref. inc article), OR should I make sure that we all the time make sure that we build what the customer needs and wants (ref. blog post)? PS: I know nothing or very little about the products mentioned in these posts, some my reflection was more based on the chosen strategies rather then the given people, companies and products mentioned.
bl4k 16y ago
I had to wonder. We do have a large competitor in our market that appears to be growing a lot faster than we are. The company is closing big deals with big, enterprise customers. And the wheels are falling off the donkey cart over there as the company stretches to fulfill its obligations. Meanwhile, our product is miles better, and we're a well-run company, but it doesn't seem to matter. Why? For those of you who might have missed the reference, Spolsky is referring to Atlassian here, even though he doesn't mention them directly by name (not sure why he didn't - perhaps he was still in the denial phase)

This is what Joel Spolsky was worried about a while back. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/does-slow-growth-equal-slow-death.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/does-slow-growth-equal-...

niels 16y ago

Good catch.

wolfhumble 16y ago

In the comment section to the inc article I found this blog post which I thought was interesting: http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/2009/11/joel-spolskys-focus-is-not-on-the-customer/ http://blog.global-roam.com/index.php/2009/11/joel-spolskys-... Some points I reflect on after reading both articles are: - Should the real needs of my customers be met, or the needs I think they have? That is, where is my focus: On the customer or on the product? (ref. blog post) - Can I allow myself to think that my competitor is selling junk, as mentioned in: "So that's the development team's mission for 2010: to eliminate any possible reason that customers might buy our competitors' junk, . . . ." (ref. inc post) - Should I build the perfect product and use a salesforce to push it on customers that does not happen to know that we have the best product (ref. inc article), OR should I make sure that we all the time make sure that we build what the customer needs and wants (ref. blog post)? PS: I know nothing or very little about the products mentioned in these posts, some my reflection was more based on the chosen strategies rather then the given people, companies and products mentioned.

bl4k 16y ago

I had to wonder. We do have a large competitor in our market that appears to be growing a lot faster than we are. The company is closing big deals with big, enterprise customers. And the wheels are falling off the donkey cart over there as the company stretches to fulfill its obligations. Meanwhile, our product is miles better, and we're a well-run company, but it doesn't seem to matter. Why? For those of you who might have missed the reference, Spolsky is referring to Atlassian here, even though he doesn't mention them directly by name (not sure why he didn't - perhaps he was still in the denial phase)