5 ms·

Forget feature requests (2005)

6 points by prakash 18y ago

jwr 18y ago
Incidentally, when my company was looking for a project management & issue tracking solution, we looked very closely at Basecamp. Then we noticed that their approach to life is "we know best what's good for you", which wasn't true in our case. And then we started paying Fog Creek for FogBugz. 37signals' attitude was a factor in our decision -- so I'd advise people to take their ramblings with a grain of salt.
- antidaily 18y ago
  A function of their success is not caring about potential customers like you. Sorry, but it is.
  - axod 18y ago
    You can't please everyone all the time, and trying to implement every feature isn't always feasible. But I think you should at least try hard to solve peoples desires - explain why the feature would be a bad idea, or suggest a better alternative, or offer a custom solution which might cost them more money etc etc
  - gscott 18y ago
    They have been adding a lot of features and other modifications lately.
  - jwr 18y ago
    I don't buy it. And just what exactly is their "success"? Apart from being a very outspoken group of a dozen people, I don't see that stellar success where their business strategy supposedly takes them. When we were trying to buy their software, our company had 45 employees. It's something we built from the ground up. But we didn't go around shouting so much. I'm just saying that you should take the 37signals hype with a grain of salt. There is a lot of air and very little substance.
chops 18y ago
Despite this post being 3-4 years old, this remains good advice. You can't please everyone, and you can't implement every feature that every user thinks they'd want for their one specific situation. Instead you take all those requests and let them sit in the subconscious. As the article said, the ones people REALLY need will bubble to the surface again and again. It's also commonly said that the customer doesn't REALLY know what they want or need. It's up to you to take their requirements and apply your expertise to the situation giving them the solution they need, rather than the solution they may be asking for.
- ibsulon 18y ago
  That presumes you know more about the domain than the customer. Frankly, I find this an arrogant position for many places.

6 points by prakash 18y ago

jwr 18y ago

Incidentally, when my company was looking for a project management & issue tracking solution, we looked very closely at Basecamp. Then we noticed that their approach to life is "we know best what's good for you", which wasn't true in our case. And then we started paying Fog Creek for FogBugz. 37signals' attitude was a factor in our decision -- so I'd advise people to take their ramblings with a grain of salt.

antidaily 18y ago
A function of their success is not caring about potential customers like you. Sorry, but it is.
- axod 18y ago
  You can't please everyone all the time, and trying to implement every feature isn't always feasible. But I think you should at least try hard to solve peoples desires - explain why the feature would be a bad idea, or suggest a better alternative, or offer a custom solution which might cost them more money etc etc
- gscott 18y ago
  They have been adding a lot of features and other modifications lately.
- jwr 18y ago
  I don't buy it. And just what exactly is their "success"? Apart from being a very outspoken group of a dozen people, I don't see that stellar success where their business strategy supposedly takes them. When we were trying to buy their software, our company had 45 employees. It's something we built from the ground up. But we didn't go around shouting so much. I'm just saying that you should take the 37signals hype with a grain of salt. There is a lot of air and very little substance.

chops 18y ago

Despite this post being 3-4 years old, this remains good advice. You can't please everyone, and you can't implement every feature that every user thinks they'd want for their one specific situation. Instead you take all those requests and let them sit in the subconscious. As the article said, the ones people REALLY need will bubble to the surface again and again. It's also commonly said that the customer doesn't REALLY know what they want or need. It's up to you to take their requirements and apply your expertise to the situation giving them the solution they need, rather than the solution they may be asking for.

ibsulon 18y ago
That presumes you know more about the domain than the customer. Frankly, I find this an arrogant position for many places.