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> 1. Software does not make money. Not ever. Sales makes money. Software only costs money. When your developer peers get confused, distracted, or lost on this m
by preommr 3y ago
> 1. Software does not make money. Not ever. Sales makes money. Software only costs money. When your developer peers get confused, distracted, or lost on this matter you better hope your employer is either too big, too stupid, or too wealthy to care.
I feel like people exagerrate this idea to prove a point that, ultimately, sales is the gateway to money. Which is fair and important to keep in mind. But, worded like this, it goes too far. Sales and marketing do cost money. They can cost a lot of money, and it's not always as tangible as real product features. Non-marketing people tend to handwave away how hard it can be.
And the product is important. It's much easier to sell a product if it has the features a client is looking for. To do otherwise is a whole different game that will also cost a lot of money but is feasible given certain conditions. For example, building a really strong brand where trustworthiness is more important than price/quality.
- dudul 3y agoSales is the gateway to money. Parent never said it wasn't important to build a great product, they said that even if you have the most amazing product if it doesn't sell there is no money coming in. To your point, the goal of "trustworthiness" is to translate into more future sales.
- austin-cheney 3y agoYes, product quality is important for two reasons: 1. A high quality product reduces the effort on the sales people. It’s nice when a product sales itself on quality alone and it’s also nice when sales can just bank on word of mouth marketing. 2. High quality products cost more to build but less to maintain, scale, extend. That results in predictability that is otherwise absent and expensive.
- altdataseller 3y agoI think this brings up another good point: code is NOT the whole product, but part of the product. Whether it solves an user pain point, and how easily it can be used (UX) is just as important. If you’re just coding without understanding how it fits in, you’re just a coder, not a software engineer
- mycall 3y ago> Software only costs money. I assume this ignores hobbyist coders.
- avgcorrection 3y agoWhat’s the point of even replying to comments like grandparent. Those points are phrased as person-specific dogmas, not advice.
- austin-cheney 3y agoWhat's the point of replying to any comments? Sometimes people claim to want advice and then cry and whine if its not reaffirming what they already believe. Sometimes people just want to feel smart more than be smart. There was an actual Standard study on this and the difference in output was striking.
- avgcorrection 3y ago> Sometimes people just want to feel smart more than be smart. Yeah.