3 ms·
The maintenance of several products in different lifecycle phases is a huge issue for us. Different failure modes, different protocols for providing feedback, a
by icambron 5y ago
The maintenance of several products in different lifecycle phases is a huge issue for us. Different failure modes, different protocols for providing feedback, and different basic maintenance needs. For example, v1 requires the users to manage reading homework, the v2 requires bedtime stories, v3 requires diaper changes and milk, all simultaneously. This adds a lot of operational complexity for our already overwhelmed team, since they have to triage several different issue streams and context switch between them.
- samwillis 5y agoWe were concerned about trying to manage more than two of these products at once and so, as the Assistant to the VP of Reproduction, have made certain permanent operational changes to the equipment to ensure no further acquisitions are possible.
- icambron 5y agoMy cofounder and I were doing a recent retrospective on our most recent acquisition, and while we're very proud of the product, we considered that your approach may have been more sound.
- samwillis 5y agoWell, if anyone is considering making similar changes to the equipment, in our experience it was very quick to implement with no side effects after about two days.
- gumby 5y agoI literally do refer to that (male model) as the “hardware upgrade”
- kimburgess 5y agoAt least you’re working with versioned releases. I’ve recently acquired a new model and it’s definitely still in beta. There’s no documentation, conflicting user training and undefined behaviours everywhere. As soon as you discover workflows that meet your needs there appears to be a background update that while introducing new features, completely changes the behaviour of previous ones. Oh and don’t get me started on the sleep mode, it’s more unreliable that a Linux laptop and plays this horrible wake sound with no clear way to disable it. From what I’ve read on support forums this is happening to other users too.
- icambron 5y agoThey're really different product lines because each one is a complete rewrite; each has its own patch stream, which, like yours, change wildly without warning, as if the developers are just trying random stuff out. And nothing is ever backported between the products. While our different products have wildly different operational characteristics (and even move into different lifecycle phases at different times), the good news is that our team has gotten better at managing the constant flow of UX inconsistencies and changes. For example, my advice on sleep mode failures is to use the Erlang method: let it crash. We don't even look at the monitoring dashboards for our newest product anymore.
- gumby 5y agoThe problem is just when you get good at managing these things you realize production has stopped and you can’t put the skills to use any more.