7 ms·

“I've worked on a number of high-profile failures”

70 points by haasted 4y ago

ActorNightly 4y ago
Google glass wasn't/isn't a failure as a whole. It very much exists today, as an enterprise product for niche use cases. As a personal wearable, the energy density of the battery and/or compute power is not there.
manv1 4y ago
TL;DR: if this guy is on your team, you're hosed. At a place I worked a Colonel came in to give a pep talk about the IED work we were doing. He was talking about his time in Iraq/Afghanistan: he was in a jeep and his driver was killed by an IED. A few years later his jeep was again blown up by an IED, and his driver was killed. My takeaway was: don't drive with this guy. There was an article a few years ago about people that buy products that fail. They bought an IBM PC Jr, a Coleco Adam, the Zune, etc. They are like toxic customers...not that they're bad customers, just they choose products that die in the market. They're basically negative influencers. I never thought there'd be employees like that, but I'm wrong.
- junga 4y ago
  > There was an article a few years ago about people that buy products that fail. It was on HN too four months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31820168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31820168
- vba616 4y ago
  > They're basically negative influencers. Anyone who tries new things (more than the average consumer) will find products that don't have traction yet, which in turn will be disproportionately likely to be discontinued. This logic doesn't depend on their taste being better, worse, or different than other peoples'.
- pedalpete 4y ago
  But is it true that the people who bought the products that fail only bought products that failed? Aren't they just early adopters? You win some, you lose some? I bought a ZuneHD (I still think it was better than the iPod at the time), but I was also an early adopter of the 2nd gen iPod (wasn't a mac user, so couldn't get 1st gen). I was running in minimalist footwear prior to FiveFingers. Early on the bandwagon of Bitcoin, Arduino, and many other things. I've got a Microsoft Band, and had (and miss) my Windows Phone. I'm trying to think of all the failed vs successful products I've had, but I've definitely had both. I don't really believe there are people who buy failed products, there are early adopters, who will generally have many products that fail.
  - vba616 4y ago
    >there are early adopters, who will generally have many products that fail. The better people get at using data to optimize selling products, the more rewarding it is financially to tweak something established compared to investing in establishing something new. So I'm morally certain that new products are getting a shorter leash than ever.
    - pedalpete 4y ago
      Though that may be true, I also think as it gets less expensive to develop products, we'll see more people try more things. Lets also not forget that all the things I mentioned were successful enough that nobody had to ask what it was. Think of all the products that never even made it to that level. I never owned a Kin! So maybe I have some taste.
layer8 4y ago
https://nitter.net/warren_craddock/status/1579532951624175616 https://nitter.net/warren_craddock/status/157953295162417561...
oliwary 4y ago
> The theme here is that the cultures that arise around products, methods, and inventions often grow to exclude discussion of their fatal flaws, and instead find elaborate ways to paper over them -- to find more and more clever ways to pretend they don't exist. While it may seem that way in hindsight, I am not sure this is a valid way of finding good projects. I am sure that the designers of the iPhone were nervous people would not accept a phone without a physical keyboard, but they found a way to make it useful and preferable, and today no phones have physical keyboards. In my opinion, "papering" over issues is often how we build new exciting things. All technologies have shortcomings, but finding ways to integrate those shortcomings with human behavior or even making them strengths can lead to really interesting products. Sometimes it fails, and that is okay. I'd still rather have people trying though!
- mountainriver 4y ago
  Agree, in fact I think too much focus on not papering things can stifle innovation

70 points by haasted 4y ago

Google glass wasn't/isn't a failure as a whole. It very much exists today, as an enterprise product for niche use cases. As a personal wearable, the energy density of the battery and/or compute power is not there.

manv1 4y ago

TL;DR: if this guy is on your team, you're hosed. At a place I worked a Colonel came in to give a pep talk about the IED work we were doing. He was talking about his time in Iraq/Afghanistan: he was in a jeep and his driver was killed by an IED. A few years later his jeep was again blown up by an IED, and his driver was killed. My takeaway was: don't drive with this guy. There was an article a few years ago about people that buy products that fail. They bought an IBM PC Jr, a Coleco Adam, the Zune, etc. They are like toxic customers...not that they're bad customers, just they choose products that die in the market. They're basically negative influencers. I never thought there'd be employees like that, but I'm wrong.

junga 4y ago
> There was an article a few years ago about people that buy products that fail. It was on HN too four months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31820168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31820168
vba616 4y ago
> They're basically negative influencers. Anyone who tries new things (more than the average consumer) will find products that don't have traction yet, which in turn will be disproportionately likely to be discontinued. This logic doesn't depend on their taste being better, worse, or different than other peoples'.
pedalpete 4y ago
But is it true that the people who bought the products that fail only bought products that failed? Aren't they just early adopters? You win some, you lose some? I bought a ZuneHD (I still think it was better than the iPod at the time), but I was also an early adopter of the 2nd gen iPod (wasn't a mac user, so couldn't get 1st gen). I was running in minimalist footwear prior to FiveFingers. Early on the bandwagon of Bitcoin, Arduino, and many other things. I've got a Microsoft Band, and had (and miss) my Windows Phone. I'm trying to think of all the failed vs successful products I've had, but I've definitely had both. I don't really believe there are people who buy failed products, there are early adopters, who will generally have many products that fail.
- vba616 4y ago
  >there are early adopters, who will generally have many products that fail. The better people get at using data to optimize selling products, the more rewarding it is financially to tweak something established compared to investing in establishing something new. So I'm morally certain that new products are getting a shorter leash than ever.
  - pedalpete 4y ago
    Though that may be true, I also think as it gets less expensive to develop products, we'll see more people try more things. Lets also not forget that all the things I mentioned were successful enough that nobody had to ask what it was. Think of all the products that never even made it to that level. I never owned a Kin! So maybe I have some taste.

layer8 4y ago

https://nitter.net/warren_craddock/status/1579532951624175616 https://nitter.net/warren_craddock/status/157953295162417561...

oliwary 4y ago

> The theme here is that the cultures that arise around products, methods, and inventions often grow to exclude discussion of their fatal flaws, and instead find elaborate ways to paper over them -- to find more and more clever ways to pretend they don't exist. While it may seem that way in hindsight, I am not sure this is a valid way of finding good projects. I am sure that the designers of the iPhone were nervous people would not accept a phone without a physical keyboard, but they found a way to make it useful and preferable, and today no phones have physical keyboards. In my opinion, "papering" over issues is often how we build new exciting things. All technologies have shortcomings, but finding ways to integrate those shortcomings with human behavior or even making them strengths can lead to really interesting products. Sometimes it fails, and that is okay. I'd still rather have people trying though!

mountainriver 4y ago
Agree, in fact I think too much focus on not papering things can stifle innovation