4 ms·

Product Misjudgment

39 points by popcorn49 9y ago

spandrew 9y ago
I have not found this to be true in my own professional life. While we do not want to diminish the contributions of the individual coders, designers, marketers, etc. in the process of bringing a product to life. It's VERY hard, with all of those human opinions and ideas in the mix, to focus on a product vision and see it come to life. Someone won't like the design, someone will see the code complexity and use that as a litmus test that things are horribly awry and resourcing needs to be rethought, etc. The "visionaries" are celebrated precisely because they faced down the machine, and helped pull it to the destination they wanted it to go in... and their idea works. They were right... and succeeded on a rare level of effectiveness. People are still generally very happy with their iPhones a decade later. It's mind boggling to me... is THIS design actually that timeless? Wow. I wouldn't have bet on that. Them being right isn't a common thing, either. For every Steve Jobs there are a million talented people who managed to focus the process and their idea just wasn't that hot.
boffinism 9y ago
> Firms rarely fail for a lack of effort, but rather an inability to adequately consider the complex dependencies of all the things happening around them. This is why I don't work very hard. Not entirely kidding. What'll make or break the company isn't me grinding away churning out incremental features and fixing tiny bugs. What'll make the difference is whether someone spots the game-changing opportunity, whether it's a product innovation, a business model or a particular partnership. To spot that kind of thing you have to give yourself some space and not have your head down all the time.
- OmarIsmail91 9y ago
  Couldn't agree more. The challenge then becomes how do you build a prepared mind to be able to observe and think about the world in such a manner. My usual answer here is just to read widely, do deep dives into periods of history where these kinds of changes happen, and maintain a pulse on what changes
  - rocky1138 9y ago
    Outgoing: a huge advertising campaign helps. Incoming: talk to a LOT of people. There needs to be people at companies who do nothing but just listen to what people outside of the company's bubble are saying.

39 points by popcorn49 9y ago

I have not found this to be true in my own professional life. While we do not want to diminish the contributions of the individual coders, designers, marketers, etc. in the process of bringing a product to life. It's VERY hard, with all of those human opinions and ideas in the mix, to focus on a product vision and see it come to life. Someone won't like the design, someone will see the code complexity and use that as a litmus test that things are horribly awry and resourcing needs to be rethought, etc. The "visionaries" are celebrated precisely because they faced down the machine, and helped pull it to the destination they wanted it to go in... and their idea works. They were right... and succeeded on a rare level of effectiveness. People are still generally very happy with their iPhones a decade later. It's mind boggling to me... is THIS design actually that timeless? Wow. I wouldn't have bet on that. Them being right isn't a common thing, either. For every Steve Jobs there are a million talented people who managed to focus the process and their idea just wasn't that hot.

boffinism 9y ago

> Firms rarely fail for a lack of effort, but rather an inability to adequately consider the complex dependencies of all the things happening around them. This is why I don't work very hard. Not entirely kidding. What'll make or break the company isn't me grinding away churning out incremental features and fixing tiny bugs. What'll make the difference is whether someone spots the game-changing opportunity, whether it's a product innovation, a business model or a particular partnership. To spot that kind of thing you have to give yourself some space and not have your head down all the time.

OmarIsmail91 9y ago
Couldn't agree more. The challenge then becomes how do you build a prepared mind to be able to observe and think about the world in such a manner. My usual answer here is just to read widely, do deep dives into periods of history where these kinds of changes happen, and maintain a pulse on what changes
- rocky1138 9y ago
  Outgoing: a huge advertising campaign helps. Incoming: talk to a LOT of people. There needs to be people at companies who do nothing but just listen to what people outside of the company's bubble are saying.