5 ms·

Where I come from, engineers are there to build things that make the product better.

BeFlatXIII 5y ago
Technology is not the bottleneck at Netflix. The places where the product needs to improve are largely outside of the domain of engineering.
jitix 5y ago
I think Netflix's product is not software but content. I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment. If I were Netflix I'd probably divest the technology side of the business (which is arguably the best in the market) and sell that "software product" as a white label streaming platform to the myriad of media houses across the world trying to get into streaming.
- Jcowell 5y ago
  Prime video seemed like the worst example. How many people but people video separate as opposed to just having it’s because it’s included in Amazon Prime?
- asimpletune 5y ago
  I wonder if the money they'd earn would be worth the cost of helping their competitors?
- Semaphor 5y ago
  > I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment. Netflix consistently made their UX worse, they started far beyond Prime Video, nowadays, it’s a tossup. I canceled Netflix for that reason alone.
  - noahtallen 5y ago
    That’s pretty surprising to me. Prime’s video playback UX is very bad on Roku TV, iOS, and the web. Netflix isn’t just faster to use, it also looks better, doesn't have shockingly pixelated elements on 4k displays, and is easier to control.
    - Semaphor 5y ago
      Netflix keeps randomizing things: Thumbnails, order of categories, order of shows within. In addition, they keep stuff I don’t want to watch in "keep watching" forever, and keep asking me to rewatch shows I already watched. They are probably still a bit better than prime (showing shows both in keep watching and other categories, but in the other categories it’s specific seasons ignoring your last watched status; sometimes shuffling subtitle state or language for fun), but all those issues were not a thing a few years ago.
  - rkk3 5y ago
    Really? Amazon Prime had(has?) one of the worst UX issues I've ever seen... with Auto Starting episodes from a shows page (if you had partially viewed) and if you x out of the episode auto starting again - with no way to navigate to other episodes of the show. Like being stuck in an MC Escher painting.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
croon 5y ago
Netflix as a service is better than every other service out there (IMO), but that doesn't matter if they don't have anything I want to watch.
t_h_r_o_w_away 5y ago

Technology is not the bottleneck at Netflix. The places where the product needs to improve are largely outside of the domain of engineering.

jitix 5y ago

I think Netflix's product is not software but content. I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment. If I were Netflix I'd probably divest the technology side of the business (which is arguably the best in the market) and sell that "software product" as a white label streaming platform to the myriad of media houses across the world trying to get into streaming.

Jcowell 5y ago
Prime video seemed like the worst example. How many people but people video separate as opposed to just having it’s because it’s included in Amazon Prime?
asimpletune 5y ago
I wonder if the money they'd earn would be worth the cost of helping their competitors?
Semaphor 5y ago
> I understand what you're referring to but if Prime Video's UX is any indication, content trumps software product quality in this market segment. Netflix consistently made their UX worse, they started far beyond Prime Video, nowadays, it’s a tossup. I canceled Netflix for that reason alone.
- noahtallen 5y ago
  That’s pretty surprising to me. Prime’s video playback UX is very bad on Roku TV, iOS, and the web. Netflix isn’t just faster to use, it also looks better, doesn't have shockingly pixelated elements on 4k displays, and is easier to control.
  - Semaphor 5y ago
    Netflix keeps randomizing things: Thumbnails, order of categories, order of shows within. In addition, they keep stuff I don’t want to watch in "keep watching" forever, and keep asking me to rewatch shows I already watched. They are probably still a bit better than prime (showing shows both in keep watching and other categories, but in the other categories it’s specific seasons ignoring your last watched status; sometimes shuffling subtitle state or language for fun), but all those issues were not a thing a few years ago.
- rkk3 5y ago
  Really? Amazon Prime had(has?) one of the worst UX issues I've ever seen... with Auto Starting episodes from a shows page (if you had partially viewed) and if you x out of the episode auto starting again - with no way to navigate to other episodes of the show. Like being stuck in an MC Escher painting.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

croon 5y ago

Netflix as a service is better than every other service out there (IMO), but that doesn't matter if they don't have anything I want to watch.

t_h_r_o_w_away 5y ago