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The other thing I've found annoying about enterprise is that the best idea doesnt always win- in fact, it regularly loses. You have to deal with users who are t
by latj 13y ago
The other thing I've found annoying about enterprise is that the best idea doesnt always win- in fact, it regularly loses. You have to deal with users who are trained on bad software. You have decision makers who might have gotten their job by bringing in software x, they might have a personal relationship with the guy who sells them software x, they might not want to shake things up too much before aspiring to a new position, etc. In other words: politics.
- auctiontheory 13y agoIn other words: politics. You could call it "politics" or you could call it "people." Ultimately the world (even the technology world) is about people, more than about technology or economics. That truth often seems lost on HN.
- latj 13y agoYes of course- but there is a difference between the "people" in an enterprise vs. world-facing project. In the world-facing project there might be millions of potential decision makers (i.e. customers). You can make the technical decisions you believe make the best product knowing that if you are correct you will gain more new users than you lose of old users. In enterprise, sometimes you have to make whacky irrational choices because there might only be hundreds of potential organizations to sell to and they might have only 1-2 decision maker(s) each. No one wants to lose customers. But at the end of the day if you know feature x is best for your application, you might make it even if it costs you 100 customers. In enterprise its harder to make these choices because its harder / takes longer to recover.
- chc 13y agoPeople exist in every area you could possibly want to go into, but the peculiar hassles of enterprise sales don't. "Politics" seems like a decent label for it to me.