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This is excellent for the high level view of things, to plan a successful product for a market. Keep in mind that a successful product for a market does not ne

This is excellent for the high level view of things, to plan a successful product for a market. Keep in mind that a successful product for a market does not necessarily equate to a high quality product. Internal product design should be user-centered and cohesive with itself, not just within the market. Thus I only further advise you to hire a UI/UX person to ensure this disjoint product planning approach has some coherence in the bigger picture. The overall picture here is excellent, especially the last bit. It reminds me of this quote that I've always thought was one of the best pieces of business wisdom ever conceived: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint Exupéry

coffeemug 13y ago
Keep in mind that a successful product for a market does not necessarily equate to a high quality product. I know what you mean, but I'm pretty convinced that it's not fruitful to make this distinction when building products. To quote George Orwell's response to Tolstoy's critique of Shakespeare "Ultimately there is no test of literary merit except survival, which is itself an index to majority opinion." http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/english/e_ltf http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/english/e_ltf
- calinet6 13y ago
  I think you have a point, but the greater point is that both are false proxies. Survival is a proxy to majority opinion, which itself is another proxy to quality. Quality itself is not equal to survival. Survival does not determine quality, nor does public opinion, each having far more variables and influences than just pure product quality. However, quality can of course influence public opinion, and public opinion can greatly influence survival. I think it is important to make this distinction—perhaps not to work by it at all times, but you must realize that you're not working only by requirements and measurements and proxies, but also by some intrinsic essence that your product has, some idea that it stands as a cohesive tool, not just a set of parts. Furthermore, sometimes people don't know what they want until they see it, and use it, and realize its potential; and you'd never get there by simply following a market. This is where the game-changing product creators of this century have surprised the world with a vision. I'm not saying the OP didn't realize this, just that I think it's more important than many product teams realize to create more than just a set of features that meet a market in the middle. Quality is a thing in itself.

coffeemug 13y ago

Keep in mind that a successful product for a market does not necessarily equate to a high quality product. I know what you mean, but I'm pretty convinced that it's not fruitful to make this distinction when building products. To quote George Orwell's response to Tolstoy's critique of Shakespeare "Ultimately there is no test of literary merit except survival, which is itself an index to majority opinion." http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/english/e_ltf http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/english/e_ltf

calinet6 13y ago
I think you have a point, but the greater point is that both are false proxies. Survival is a proxy to majority opinion, which itself is another proxy to quality. Quality itself is not equal to survival. Survival does not determine quality, nor does public opinion, each having far more variables and influences than just pure product quality. However, quality can of course influence public opinion, and public opinion can greatly influence survival. I think it is important to make this distinction—perhaps not to work by it at all times, but you must realize that you're not working only by requirements and measurements and proxies, but also by some intrinsic essence that your product has, some idea that it stands as a cohesive tool, not just a set of parts. Furthermore, sometimes people don't know what they want until they see it, and use it, and realize its potential; and you'd never get there by simply following a market. This is where the game-changing product creators of this century have surprised the world with a vision. I'm not saying the OP didn't realize this, just that I think it's more important than many product teams realize to create more than just a set of features that meet a market in the middle. Quality is a thing in itself.