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Why Vendor Software Has Holes
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago> This is why a lot of tools vendors try to push on customers feel weird - the vendor wants to make money, but they don’t know what to build. In many cases, they may even look down on the customer, like they are needing what the company produces. They attempt to sell but not learn. Because not enough of the company is built around customer experience, the tools suffer as everyone keeps their head down and builds what they are asked to build. A very nice articulation of the arrogance of some ISVs. Worth pointing out that in some cases, the vendor has structured things internally so that they're guaranteed to ignore the customer's interests; all it takes is management setting slightly bad incentives and you get whole teams optimizing for stuff the user actively doesn't want (I'm looking at you, Microsoft).
- johngalt 5y agoSoftware vendors have two modes. 1. A partnership/consultancy where they sell a platform that is customized for a small number of large clients. 2. Solving one area well, then trying to cram as many customers through the fixed solution as possible. The author is more critical of the second type, but both are completely rational approaches. Obviously anyone can listen to customer feedback, but the economics of software strongly favor a volume approach rather than treating every customer as a development partner.