Geoffrey Moore covers this in Crossing the Chasm [1]. He basically suggests that you have to specialize in an industry vertical to get beyond the early adopter

Geoffrey Moore covers this in Crossing the Chasm [1]. He basically suggests that you have to specialize in an industry vertical to get beyond the early adopters and into the masses. Once you cross enough verticals, then you can come back and be a more general product. I've also heard YAGNI [2] shouted at generalizations. People can spend too much time generalizing problems for broader application that never comes. I don't know the right answer here, as it seems hard to measure how likely it will be that any generalization will be reused later. Perhaps it's ultimately judgment. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0060517123 http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-Disruptive-Ma... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren't_gonna_need_it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren't_gonna_need_it