8 ms·

Lessons from GitHub's First Year

223 points by mojombo 16y ago

hanifvirani 16y ago
This is one of the best startup articles I have read in a while. Some real gems in there. The metaphor by Martin Fowler that the article mentions is particularly noteworthy. Imagine you’re tasked with building a computer controlled gun that can accurately hit a target about 50 meters distant. That is the only requirement. One way to do this is to build a complex machine that measures every possible variable (wind, elevation, temperature, etc.) before the shot and then takes aim and shoots. Another approach is to build a simple machine that fires rapidly and can detect where each shot hits. It then uses this information to adjust the aim of the next shot, quickly homing in on the target a little at a time. The difference between these two approaches is to realize that bullets are cheap. By the time the former group has perfected their wind detection instrument, you’ll have finished your simple weapon and already hit the target.
- funksta 16y ago
  Sounds very similar to the section of The Pragmatic Programmer on "Tracer Bullets". There's an interview with the authors that has more discussion here -> http://www.artima.com/intv/tracer.html http://www.artima.com/intv/tracer.html
DavidChouinard 16y ago
This is a great article. I especially like this: Here’s a seemingly paradoxical piece of advice for you: Listen to your customers, but don’t let them tell you what to do. Let me explain. Consider a feature request such as “GitHub should let me FTP up a documentation site for my project.” What this customer is really trying to say is “I want a simple way to publish content related to my project,” but they’re used to what’s already out there, and so they pose the request in terms that are familiar to them. We could have implemented some horrible FTP based solution as requested, but we looked deeper into the underlying question and now we allow you to publish content by simply pushing a Git repository to your account. This meets requirements of both functionality and elegance.
- 6ren 16y ago
  "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Steve Jobs http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/03/70512 http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/0...
- jacques_chester 16y ago
  Customers want a solution to their problem. To save time they will formulate what they think is a solution and give it to you, in the hope that it will speed up proceedings. Think like a doctor. When the patient turns up, he or she may have a diagnosis in mind. But it is up to you to study the symptoms and deduce the condition independently of what the patient thinks. Remember: a potted request from a client is a symptom of some deeper problem they wish to solve.
mryall 16y ago
Wow, that's a great article. Perhaps even more interesting because of Github's growth in the three years since it was written. I wonder if he didn't publish it because he started with the idea of publishing ten lessons. Might have been better to assign the number after the article was written.
d0m 16y ago
"Pay attention to Twitter". I was wondering if a service is doing exactly that? Watching twitter, "understanding" the post, and giving you a real-time update of your service/product? If not, that might be useful!
- random42 16y ago
  A lot. I work for one which has a similar product. Though we are much more than just twitter, a bit less real-time, more in-depth analysis though.
- brown9-2 16y ago
  Check out http://www.radian6.com/ http://www.radian6.com/ (just acquired by salesforce.com)
kragen 16y ago
How have the things in the article changed since then? Does GitHub still have no office and four employees?
- nagnatron 16y ago
  They have an office and 26 employees.
- regomodo 16y ago
  From the 1st paragraph (it might be an updated section) "In the time since I wrote this we’ve grown from four people to twenty-six, settled into an office, installed a kegerator, and still never taken outside funding"
jrockway 16y ago
Very interesting to hear that a bunch of git early adopters "couldn't have done it" without Campfire. I would have pegged them in the IRC demographic.
- imajes 16y ago
  IRC, by its nature, is very distracting. (why bother be on a network if you're not in multiple channels?) OT: I think convore will go the same way, unless the crew can seriously address the SvN problem.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    Web-based chat, by its nature, is also very distracting. One click and you are reading HN instead of your internal chat room :) Anyway, when I worked at an all-remote company, we just ran our own IRC server. Then all the channels were work-related. Of course, it was pretty easy to also join other networks, which we did (but would do anyway).
  - durin42 16y ago
    Oy, I dunno. I actually use an IRC gateway for XMPP group chats because irssi does so well for the medium. My team at work uses an IRC channel for adhoc group conversations, and that's the only IRC channel most of us are in. I also have a separate irssi open to freenode, but that's unusual for my team, and the freenode irssi is tucked in a corner where I see it only during interrupts anyway.
- pjhyett 16y ago
  Tom was very much an IRC guy. He begrudgingly moved to Campfire after Chris and I told him for months it was a better solution.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    Why is Campfire a better solution? irssi is much more scriptable/customizable than a third-party web service.
KedarMhaswade 16y ago
No, 9 1/2. That 1/2 a thing is killing. Great article! When DVCS's would be compared, GitHub would be a great plus in Git's favor.
deckardt 16y ago
he brings up about givign people what they want and not what you ask for. that is so hard to do. how many times have you built what you envisioned and then went, "This is what i asked for, but it doesn't feel right." The key is conversation, the more back and forth you have with customers, the more you will get a feel for what they really want.

223 points by mojombo 16y ago

This is one of the best startup articles I have read in a while. Some real gems in there. The metaphor by Martin Fowler that the article mentions is particularly noteworthy. Imagine you’re tasked with building a computer controlled gun that can accurately hit a target about 50 meters distant. That is the only requirement. One way to do this is to build a complex machine that measures every possible variable (wind, elevation, temperature, etc.) before the shot and then takes aim and shoots. Another approach is to build a simple machine that fires rapidly and can detect where each shot hits. It then uses this information to adjust the aim of the next shot, quickly homing in on the target a little at a time. The difference between these two approaches is to realize that bullets are cheap. By the time the former group has perfected their wind detection instrument, you’ll have finished your simple weapon and already hit the target.

funksta 16y ago
Sounds very similar to the section of The Pragmatic Programmer on "Tracer Bullets". There's an interview with the authors that has more discussion here -> http://www.artima.com/intv/tracer.html http://www.artima.com/intv/tracer.html

DavidChouinard 16y ago

This is a great article. I especially like this: Here’s a seemingly paradoxical piece of advice for you: Listen to your customers, but don’t let them tell you what to do. Let me explain. Consider a feature request such as “GitHub should let me FTP up a documentation site for my project.” What this customer is really trying to say is “I want a simple way to publish content related to my project,” but they’re used to what’s already out there, and so they pose the request in terms that are familiar to them. We could have implemented some horrible FTP based solution as requested, but we looked deeper into the underlying question and now we allow you to publish content by simply pushing a Git repository to your account. This meets requirements of both functionality and elegance.

6ren 16y ago
"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Steve Jobs http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/03/70512 http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/0...
jacques_chester 16y ago
Customers want a solution to their problem. To save time they will formulate what they think is a solution and give it to you, in the hope that it will speed up proceedings. Think like a doctor. When the patient turns up, he or she may have a diagnosis in mind. But it is up to you to study the symptoms and deduce the condition independently of what the patient thinks. Remember: a potted request from a client is a symptom of some deeper problem they wish to solve.

mryall 16y ago

Wow, that's a great article. Perhaps even more interesting because of Github's growth in the three years since it was written. I wonder if he didn't publish it because he started with the idea of publishing ten lessons. Might have been better to assign the number after the article was written.

d0m 16y ago

"Pay attention to Twitter". I was wondering if a service is doing exactly that? Watching twitter, "understanding" the post, and giving you a real-time update of your service/product? If not, that might be useful!

random42 16y ago
A lot. I work for one which has a similar product. Though we are much more than just twitter, a bit less real-time, more in-depth analysis though.
brown9-2 16y ago
Check out http://www.radian6.com/ http://www.radian6.com/ (just acquired by salesforce.com)

kragen 16y ago

How have the things in the article changed since then? Does GitHub still have no office and four employees?

nagnatron 16y ago
They have an office and 26 employees.
regomodo 16y ago
From the 1st paragraph (it might be an updated section) "In the time since I wrote this we’ve grown from four people to twenty-six, settled into an office, installed a kegerator, and still never taken outside funding"

jrockway 16y ago

Very interesting to hear that a bunch of git early adopters "couldn't have done it" without Campfire. I would have pegged them in the IRC demographic.

imajes 16y ago
IRC, by its nature, is very distracting. (why bother be on a network if you're not in multiple channels?) OT: I think convore will go the same way, unless the crew can seriously address the SvN problem.
- jrockway 16y ago
  Web-based chat, by its nature, is also very distracting. One click and you are reading HN instead of your internal chat room :) Anyway, when I worked at an all-remote company, we just ran our own IRC server. Then all the channels were work-related. Of course, it was pretty easy to also join other networks, which we did (but would do anyway).
- durin42 16y ago
  Oy, I dunno. I actually use an IRC gateway for XMPP group chats because irssi does so well for the medium. My team at work uses an IRC channel for adhoc group conversations, and that's the only IRC channel most of us are in. I also have a separate irssi open to freenode, but that's unusual for my team, and the freenode irssi is tucked in a corner where I see it only during interrupts anyway.
pjhyett 16y ago
Tom was very much an IRC guy. He begrudgingly moved to Campfire after Chris and I told him for months it was a better solution.
- jrockway 16y ago
  Why is Campfire a better solution? irssi is much more scriptable/customizable than a third-party web service.

KedarMhaswade 16y ago

No, 9 1/2. That 1/2 a thing is killing. Great article! When DVCS's would be compared, GitHub would be a great plus in Git's favor.

deckardt 16y ago

he brings up about givign people what they want and not what you ask for. that is so hard to do. how many times have you built what you envisioned and then went, "This is what i asked for, but it doesn't feel right." The key is conversation, the more back and forth you have with customers, the more you will get a feel for what they really want.