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My trouble with the enterprise has always been that they tend to lag when it comes to adopting new ways of doing things. As a result, if you listen slavishly to

by api 12y ago

My trouble with the enterprise has always been that they tend to lag when it comes to adopting new ways of doing things. As a result, if you listen slavishly to what enterprise customers tell you to build you'll be building solutions to yesterday's problems or technology for yesterday's ecosystem. I've found more recently that this isn't always true, and it really depends on what sort of enterprise you're dealing with. Bottom line is you can't listen mindlessly to what customers say-- you have to think about the plan/vision and the where the overall market is going.

borski 12y ago
This isn't quite true. Enterprise knows what their problems are, and you should listen to them slavishly. The issue comes in when you listen to them for what solutions to build for their problems. They don't know what the right solution is, but they do know what the right problem is. If they knew what the right solution was, you wouldn't have a (good) business. In finding the solution, you will sometimes address a problem enterprise wasn't even thinking about, but is much larger and solves their initial problem as well. We (https://www.tinfoilsecurity.com https://www.tinfoilsecurity.com) started as a website security scanner - we're now a developer-focused website security scanner that focuses on DevOps integrations and automating the testing process earlier, rather than later. Nobody would have asked us to build that (nobody did), but that is what sets us apart and why we're beating our competitors.
- fsloth 12y ago
  "Enterprise knows what their problems are, and you should listen to them slavishly. The issue comes in when you listen to them for what solutions to build for their problems." So very much true. In the company I work for this principle applies to inhouse development as well. I.e the problems are obvious but the solutions not so much. We are an independent software vendor, but ownership of code is so scattered that essentially a huge portion of development is handled as if it would be done by external service providers - i.e. the driving force in development is business who know exactly what the pain points are but would want only quick hacks. Except, those pain points are so acute that if there are ready solutions available they will authorize purchases of ridiculous amounts of cash to have them solved. I imagine this is the situation in most businesses. Now, out of those problems some are really hard to crack, while others are just an artifact of lack of inhouse knowledge of the particular technical field. Those consultants that manage to offer viable solutions for these well known problem domains probably can earn their bread quite nicely.
Spooky23 12y ago
You're not looking in the right places. If you're looking at something that is a boring part of the business where reliable, predictable outputs are the priority, you'll get nothing. In areas with high impact areas where transformation of the business is a priority, enterprise moves fast and can drive innovation.

by api 12y ago

borski 12y ago

This isn't quite true. Enterprise knows what their problems are, and you should listen to them slavishly. The issue comes in when you listen to them for what solutions to build for their problems. They don't know what the right solution is, but they do know what the right problem is. If they knew what the right solution was, you wouldn't have a (good) business. In finding the solution, you will sometimes address a problem enterprise wasn't even thinking about, but is much larger and solves their initial problem as well. We (https://www.tinfoilsecurity.com https://www.tinfoilsecurity.com) started as a website security scanner - we're now a developer-focused website security scanner that focuses on DevOps integrations and automating the testing process earlier, rather than later. Nobody would have asked us to build that (nobody did), but that is what sets us apart and why we're beating our competitors.

fsloth 12y ago
"Enterprise knows what their problems are, and you should listen to them slavishly. The issue comes in when you listen to them for what solutions to build for their problems." So very much true. In the company I work for this principle applies to inhouse development as well. I.e the problems are obvious but the solutions not so much. We are an independent software vendor, but ownership of code is so scattered that essentially a huge portion of development is handled as if it would be done by external service providers - i.e. the driving force in development is business who know exactly what the pain points are but would want only quick hacks. Except, those pain points are so acute that if there are ready solutions available they will authorize purchases of ridiculous amounts of cash to have them solved. I imagine this is the situation in most businesses. Now, out of those problems some are really hard to crack, while others are just an artifact of lack of inhouse knowledge of the particular technical field. Those consultants that manage to offer viable solutions for these well known problem domains probably can earn their bread quite nicely.

Spooky23 12y ago

You're not looking in the right places. If you're looking at something that is a boring part of the business where reliable, predictable outputs are the priority, you'll get nothing. In areas with high impact areas where transformation of the business is a priority, enterprise moves fast and can drive innovation.