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Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

cutle.fish

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Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#251

Post by cutemonster »

userium wrote: post #129
sidlls wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article isn't disparaging having a process for developing features or for maintaining a pipeline of features. It's disparaging conditions that prioritize the release of features for the sake of releasing features as opposed to for supporting the business' needs (as determined by data--including analysis of the performance of features, market conditions, and other factors). This article describes the last company…

Exactly. Feature factories build features based on random assumptions, and not based on actual data. I just wrote about this yesterday ( https://teamsuccess.io/hdd ). I work as a consultant with lots of Scrum teams, and many devs feel like they're just sitting in the factory, cranking out features. Without knowing whether they're adding real value to the end-user. So what can you do to break free from the feature fac…

I like this idea. Instead of:

"Add keyboard shortcuts",

The Todo item could be:

"Will keyboard shortcuts save time for the end users and result in [positive reviews from power users] that mention the shortcuts?"

Then, one sees that actually implementing the shortcuts is just one step among many.

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#252

Post by snthd »

johnkarahalis wrote: post #8

Feature addiction is real. This post points to perverse economic incentives as being one possible cause, but I have also seen this happen in open-source projects. It's a matter of listening to the wrong people, in my view. User feedback is incredibly valuable, but when user feedback comes in the form of GitHub issues rather than careful testing and conversation, the team will inevitably find themselves building more…

Sounds like the XY problem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#253

Post by Olreich »

joshspankit wrote: post #235
nicksergeant wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're asking a bank to remove visible account balances from a dashboard view?

Aha, I see why there’s been pushback. To be more clear: I only want to see the balances from specific accounts. The two chequing accounts in this case. I don’t want to see the savings account that has a slowly (and automatically) increasing balance because then I subconsciously count that as “too much” and think things like “I could spend a little and it wouldn’t make a big difference”. To be fair, I’m also working h…

Really off-topic here, but for savings accounts that are going to tick up over time and don’t need to be available within 24 hours, you can open a savings account with a different bank that has better savings interest rates and set up an automatic or manual transfer to that savings every month. You can shop around for the best interest rates, but I’ve seen Ally be consistently better than anything I have locally.

The benefit of having it in a separate bank is that it hugely increases friction when you start thinking about spending it, since you have to move it back to your primary first. You can mostly forget about the specific numbers in it as well since it isn’t visible in your primary bank dashboard.

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#254

Post by trickstra »

johnkarahalis wrote: post #8

Feature addiction is real. This post points to perverse economic incentives as being one possible cause, but I have also seen this happen in open-source projects. It's a matter of listening to the wrong people, in my view. User feedback is incredibly valuable, but when user feedback comes in the form of GitHub issues rather than careful testing and conversation, the team will inevitably find themselves building more…

Henry Ford: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." (probably misattributed, but fitting nonetheless)

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#255

Post by _y5hn »

tomaskafka wrote: post #201
_y5hn wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In software/tech world, PM's customer are often internal stakeholders, often not all relevant ones. Very rarely company's customer. PM juggles internal issues like milestones, priority, resources, budgets and even some politics.

Yes. This is a redefinition of a role though, this should be called Project manager.

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/677/project-manager-pm

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#256

Post by Aeolun »

IanCal wrote: post #228
sbr464 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s a valid request. I wish Apple’s iMessage App would allow hiding or moving conversations to folders to remove from sight. I may have an emotional or upsetting text with someone that I don’t necessarily want to see every time I open the app, but also don’t want to delete it. Or may need to use my phone in a presentation etc, and not want to show certain messages.

However adding an option to remove it as adding a feature, not taking one away.

The app was not complete without that feature. In the ideal state of the app, it was not something you could take away.

Or so I can reason around that logic anyhow.

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#257

Post by Aeolun »

caseymarquis wrote: post #239
herval wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone working in my 2nd 1000+ developers “feature factory” company, this article describes exactly how things work here in general - and makes for a pretty disfuncional environment. At least in my experience, I think this article is pretty spot-on. If you see yourself just starting to drive to these sorts of initiatives - eg establishing “weekly cadence syncs” that require “wins”, or “virtual squads” as the main…

What sort of thing does one make with 1000+ developers?

The same thing one makes with 5. Just really inefficiently.

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#258

Post by Aeolun »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #39

I suggest re-reading this article in the negative: Assume that your team implemented every single one of these bullet points perfectly, for every feature in every sprint. Now imagine that each of those bullet points is a recurring meeting invite on your calendar. Now imagine how happy you'd be spending all of that time in meetings or reading process-related e-mails so your company could satisfy the criteria of not be…

I’ve worked in both a company that would score a perfect 12 (5 employees) and one that scores a zero (10000+) employees.

The first definitely knew what things weren’t working, and tried out new things all the time (which also didn’t work).

The second has no clue if new things are working (or at least, nobody bothers to inform me), but they’re quite successful.

It feels a bit unfair.

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#259

Post by Aeolun »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #168
lsalvatore wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultimately it isn't an engineer's place to complain if they're working for a product that needs 100 more features to succeed in a competitive marketplace and win over customers. I had the exact same reaction as you to this article after seeing it again, and wanted to share why I've also changed my mind on this. I was in "a feature factory" for few years and absolutely hated it. After leaving and going to a "not-featu…

> This is why product managers will never be 100% aligned with engineers. Product managers see "is the block there" and engineers see "is the block perfectly set" and "why am I not being appreciated?" and "why do they only care about putting down blocks". I just want the damn PM to be able to tell me where the block should go instead of fucking around with bullshit vague descriptions like "the block should be in a go…

I don’t have anything to add, but I really enjoyed your imagery. It also feels true.

Especially building a block in midair. PM just doesn’t seem to realize the rest of the blocks aren’t there yet.

Re: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

#260

Post by pharke »

picubedplus1 wrote: post #229
hnuser123456 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, GTA V is successful and complex. But Untitled Goose Game didn't do too bad either.

There's upsides and downsides to complex and simple games. Fortnite may be simple in some aspects (basically a war game) but it's more complex than Temple Run. Both cater to different markets but achieve simplicity within their markets well.

I don't think it is useful to think in terms of simplicity vs. complexity. Good design is about knowing what features work well together. Composition, harmony and efficiency are more important than minimalism.
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