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Early Warning is owned by a consortium of major banks. Supposedly during development of the apps, if any one bank wanted a feature the team basically had to imp

Early Warning is owned by a consortium of major banks. Supposedly during development of the apps, if any one bank wanted a feature the team basically had to implement it. Allegedly the team wasn’t allowed to push out the ship date or refuse new features, their only lever was adding more resource. Any wonder why it shipped months late and with the most horrific reviews I’ve ever seen for a mobile app? My guess is fixing problems going forward won’t be an easier.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
Fixing problems might not be easy, but as you mention, Early Warning is owned by a consortium of large US banks. Compared to PayPal, Stripe, and other non bank chartered institutions, their resources are effectively unlimited. Those problems are going to get fixed eventually. Wells Fargo was fined a billion dollars [1] and will continue to operate as an ongoing business. This is a road bump. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/20/604279604/wells-fargo-hit-with-1-billion-in-fines-over-consumer-abuses https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/20/604279604...
- RSZC 9y ago
  Throwing infinite money and developers at something does not make a good product. Source: I work for a SaaS aimed primarily at large banks, most of which attempted to build our product themselves before giving up and signing with us.
  - metei 9y ago
    Just curious, what does your SaaS do? Additionally, I've come to believe that even the most forward thinking banks and credit unions don't understand tech one bit, based on how poorly written most of their software is.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    > Throwing infinite money and developers at something does not make a good product. Of course not. But it gives them more time to try and more attempts, where your runway is limited. You would eventually run out of funds if you don't find product market fit. They will not run out of funds, ever.
    - valuearb 9y ago
      And likely they will be unable to build a good product, ever. You can't have decision making dissonance at the most senior levels of your organization and make good products. Resources alone solve no product problems, leadership is far more important. I know of a $10B company whose most important feature (by far) of it's consumer facing app fails well over half the time customers tried to use it. This problem has been known for nearly a year and at no point has the team been allowed to make fixing it a priority.
      - toomuchtodo 9y ago
        Your product doesn't need to be good if you control the market for it. You’re going to go start a bank you say? See BankSimple and Standard Treasury (and their abysmal exits to real banks, BBVA and Silicon Valley Bank, respectively) to see what that path looks like. Having a great product alone is not good enough.
- valuearb 9y ago
  They have lots of, but not infinite resources. Their structure and leadership Dooms any attempt to make a good product. They can’t even agree on reasonable fraud prevention rules criss banks.
- nerfhammer 9y ago
  why couldn't they throw down the cash to buy out an existing product that doesn't suck?

toomuchtodo 9y ago

Fixing problems might not be easy, but as you mention, Early Warning is owned by a consortium of large US banks. Compared to PayPal, Stripe, and other non bank chartered institutions, their resources are effectively unlimited. Those problems are going to get fixed eventually. Wells Fargo was fined a billion dollars [1] and will continue to operate as an ongoing business. This is a road bump. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/20/604279604/wells-fargo-hit-with-1-billion-in-fines-over-consumer-abuses https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/20/604279604...

RSZC 9y ago
Throwing infinite money and developers at something does not make a good product. Source: I work for a SaaS aimed primarily at large banks, most of which attempted to build our product themselves before giving up and signing with us.
- metei 9y ago
  Just curious, what does your SaaS do? Additionally, I've come to believe that even the most forward thinking banks and credit unions don't understand tech one bit, based on how poorly written most of their software is.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  > Throwing infinite money and developers at something does not make a good product. Of course not. But it gives them more time to try and more attempts, where your runway is limited. You would eventually run out of funds if you don't find product market fit. They will not run out of funds, ever.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    And likely they will be unable to build a good product, ever. You can't have decision making dissonance at the most senior levels of your organization and make good products. Resources alone solve no product problems, leadership is far more important. I know of a $10B company whose most important feature (by far) of it's consumer facing app fails well over half the time customers tried to use it. This problem has been known for nearly a year and at no point has the team been allowed to make fixing it a priority.
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      Your product doesn't need to be good if you control the market for it. You’re going to go start a bank you say? See BankSimple and Standard Treasury (and their abysmal exits to real banks, BBVA and Silicon Valley Bank, respectively) to see what that path looks like. Having a great product alone is not good enough.
valuearb 9y ago
They have lots of, but not infinite resources. Their structure and leadership Dooms any attempt to make a good product. They can’t even agree on reasonable fraud prevention rules criss banks.
nerfhammer 9y ago
why couldn't they throw down the cash to buy out an existing product that doesn't suck?