3 ms·

Your problem is not that you were depending too much on customerS. It was that you were depending completely on one customer. I'm going to be very careful to k

by zaidf 17y ago

Your problem is not that you were depending too much on customerS. It was that you were depending completely on one customer. I'm going to be very careful to keep customers at arms length in the early stages That sounds like a very scary strategy to me. How do you plan to know if your product will be of use once built? By all means, don't become a consultant to one customer. But you don't have to become a consultant in order to get valuable feedback from multiple customers that are representative of your larger target market.

mrkurt 17y ago
That sounds like a very scary strategy to me. How do you plan to know if your product will be of use once built? Well, you never really know, do you? In many cases, potential customers don't really know either. I basically know what I want, or think I want, and can build that. The goal is to build it quickly, watch people use it, and then adjust based on that. I knew exactly what my one big customer, my 3 smaller customers, and a few potential customers wanted. I couldn't produce all of that, and erred towards producing what the people who were giving me the most money wanted. The important goal (for me) is to have some buffer time where earning ze monies isn't a life or death problem, thus giving me the ability to insulate myself a bit from people who can give me money (you know, assuming it makes sense). "Arms length" doesn't mean I don't talk to people, and I don't spend time watching how they work. It means we're not financially linked right away.
- rglullis 17y ago
  That's a quote from the days when Joel Spolsky wrote really interesting stuff. Before I tell you how we prioritized our list of features, let me tell you two ways not to do it. Number one. If you ever find yourself implementing a feature simply because it has been promised to one customer, RED DANGER LIGHTS should be going off in your head. If you're doing things for one customer, you've either got a loose cannon sales person, or you're slipping dangerously down the slope towards consultingware. Set Your Priorities - http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.htm...

by zaidf 17y ago

mrkurt 17y ago

That sounds like a very scary strategy to me. How do you plan to know if your product will be of use once built? Well, you never really know, do you? In many cases, potential customers don't really know either. I basically know what I want, or think I want, and can build that. The goal is to build it quickly, watch people use it, and then adjust based on that. I knew exactly what my one big customer, my 3 smaller customers, and a few potential customers wanted. I couldn't produce all of that, and erred towards producing what the people who were giving me the most money wanted. The important goal (for me) is to have some buffer time where earning ze monies isn't a life or death problem, thus giving me the ability to insulate myself a bit from people who can give me money (you know, assuming it makes sense). "Arms length" doesn't mean I don't talk to people, and I don't spend time watching how they work. It means we're not financially linked right away.

rglullis 17y ago
That's a quote from the days when Joel Spolsky wrote really interesting stuff. Before I tell you how we prioritized our list of features, let me tell you two ways not to do it. Number one. If you ever find yourself implementing a feature simply because it has been promised to one customer, RED DANGER LIGHTS should be going off in your head. If you're doing things for one customer, you've either got a loose cannon sales person, or you're slipping dangerously down the slope towards consultingware. Set Your Priorities - http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.htm...