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Also, we sometimes won't ask questions or talk to potential consumers for FEAR that our "great" idea will be negated. The excitement of building something, usi

by dpcan 13y ago

Also, we sometimes won't ask questions or talk to potential consumers for FEAR that our "great" idea will be negated. The excitement of building something, using new technology, solving a problem (whether it exists or not) is exciting. Then you might start seeing dollar signs, or fame, or respect among peers, etc, in your mind. Nobody wants to INVITE someone to shut down those thoughts or feelings.... but we must. I have a few ideas on my list that I think are really good. But I haven't started building them yet because I know I have to talk to a few people in certain industries first to confirm the ideas are good. They just sit there though. For some of these ideas, I'd rather they continue being a pipe dream instead of talking to someone and possibly have them shot down. Or maybe I'm really not normal.

Udo 13y ago
Sometimes, customers don't know what they might need. The danger of talking to potential customers when designing a piece of software lies in the problem that you're going to get a long list of convolute feature requests that, if implemented, doesn't result in anything usable. On top of that, the exemplary barber is unlikely to ever use anything besides paper. We might not be normal people, and normal people are unlikely to give meaningful design input. In my experience it makes sense to talk to them twice, once to determine general needs, and then a second time to actually have them try out the prototype.
- wpietri 13y ago
  Yeah, that is a common mistake. Customers are experts on their problems. We are experts on solutions. Good products are found at the intersection of those two circles. I never believe uncritically what customers say about solutions. And I never believe what developers say about customer problems. Especially when that developer is me.
gizzlon 13y ago
I feel the same way, and I think it's quite normal. It might not be the stated reason for not evaluating an idea, but I think it's often the real reason. I mean, it's seems so obvious, right? Don't spend lots of time building something unless you're pretty sure there's a market. You can't be "pretty sure there's a marked" unless you actually check. Engineers & programmers are often quite analytical people. Still we somehow miss this obvious conclusion. I know it, but it's still hard to do it.
neverminder 13y ago
Well if history taught us anything is that even seemingly craziest ideas can be developed into a big thing. I think it's often down to stubbornness of person (people) behind it.
wolfgke 13y ago
> Also, we sometimes won't ask questions or talk to potential consumers for FEAR that our "great" idea will be negated. I'd rather claim that for me the reason is that talking takes a lot of time for both sides that could more productively used for programming.

by dpcan 13y ago

Udo 13y ago

Sometimes, customers don't know what they might need. The danger of talking to potential customers when designing a piece of software lies in the problem that you're going to get a long list of convolute feature requests that, if implemented, doesn't result in anything usable. On top of that, the exemplary barber is unlikely to ever use anything besides paper. We might not be normal people, and normal people are unlikely to give meaningful design input. In my experience it makes sense to talk to them twice, once to determine general needs, and then a second time to actually have them try out the prototype.

wpietri 13y ago
Yeah, that is a common mistake. Customers are experts on their problems. We are experts on solutions. Good products are found at the intersection of those two circles. I never believe uncritically what customers say about solutions. And I never believe what developers say about customer problems. Especially when that developer is me.

gizzlon 13y ago

I feel the same way, and I think it's quite normal. It might not be the stated reason for not evaluating an idea, but I think it's often the real reason. I mean, it's seems so obvious, right? Don't spend lots of time building something unless you're pretty sure there's a market. You can't be "pretty sure there's a marked" unless you actually check. Engineers & programmers are often quite analytical people. Still we somehow miss this obvious conclusion. I know it, but it's still hard to do it.

neverminder 13y ago

Well if history taught us anything is that even seemingly craziest ideas can be developed into a big thing. I think it's often down to stubbornness of person (people) behind it.

wolfgke 13y ago

> Also, we sometimes won't ask questions or talk to potential consumers for FEAR that our "great" idea will be negated. I'd rather claim that for me the reason is that talking takes a lot of time for both sides that could more productively used for programming.