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> Why would anyone build features without any thoughts about their benefit? > In practice you never know how a feature is going to work out Those two sentence
by s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
> Why would anyone build features without any thoughts about their benefit?
> In practice you never know how a feature is going to work out
Those two sentences are somewhat contradictory. If you think through the features you should know exactly how they further your initial goal. When you add things based on what some people might like, that's when you are guessing and you can't know.
This all boils down to having or not having a vision.
Some leaders have a vision and you can see the long-term goals, others (like Google) throw things at the wall to see what sticks then shuts them down. If you're not a monopoly, that strategy will not work.
- lazyjones 7y agoGoogle certainly had visions for all their products. They just didn't work out, for reasons that became apparent much later (although some people will always claim they "knew" beforehand).
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y agoThose visions are not long term goals. They are spin-offs that have nothing to do with anything. That's how you end up with: https://gcemetery.co/ https://gcemetery.co/
- loopz 7y agoThat's the whole point of agility: Release working software often. Make new business decisions based on customer feedback. Remember Google Beta? Not saying it doesn't offload responsibility and potential damage to end users..
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y agoNo that's not the point. The point of agile development is not to get stuck in the water with long releases and no feedback cycle. It doesn't mean you blindly follow customer feedback and guesses until something works. It means you incrementally release your vision. tldr: agile tells you how to release, not what to release
- loopz 7y agoAgile Manifesto and IT industry is based on customer vision only. If you are startup CEO, you are customer of the programmers, ie. the one who pays the bills!
- sfink 7y agoVision is good, but any product decision is still a guess about what will further your goals. Guesses can be right or wrong -- or if they are never wrong, then you're not doing anything that every other competitor in that space won't already be doing too. (And in that case, why have product management at all? Fire them and hire more engineers so you can follow the taillights faster.)
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y agoThere's a difference from a blind guess and an educated guess. And honestly yes, you shouldn't have product management. Projects should be coordinated by product leads and their engineers. The only people that can plan a vision for software are the people who make it. You're paying these engineers for their knowledge, use it in all capacities.