681–690 of 789 posts
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Ideally, who should decide what the public face of the company should be if not for marketing?
Founder / CEO. A lot of people will respond "no the founder needs to back off and let the marketing team do its job" but on a decision to allocate 50% of the annual marketing budget, the CEO should be involved.
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> a lot of technical debt ... let's rebuild the whole thing using Rust and Kubernetes and Deno and move the hosting to Azure etc. For me, I'm the dev who says: "This codebase has a lot of technical debt. Let's get rid of all of the containers and VMs and kubernetes and artificial servicification, take it off the cloud, and refactor it into smaller programs which do the work efficiently and which can be built and run…
Oh not only a rewrite, but also a re-architecture. What could go wrong?
You know how, during a big programming project, you have to keep the devs from going "this codebase has a lot of technical debt, let's rebuild the whole thing using Rust and Kubernetes and Deno and move the hosting to Azure and switch databases and use microservices and..."? Designers are exactly the same way. Just as technical fiddling is fun and interesting, making new designs from scratch is just as fun and intere…
I love fixing bugs. Sometimes more than writing new things. Seeing the system health increase as I delete old code, add new tests, and increase performance is very satisfying.
The actual search for the problem, and sometimes even the implementation of the fix, can be really frustrating, but that is a vital part in the absolutely ecstatic feeling I get from having actually Fixed The Thing.
So much time, waisted resources and an agency management from hell.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> a lot of technical debt ... let's rebuild the whole thing using Rust and Kubernetes and Deno and move the hosting to Azure etc. For me, I'm the dev who says: "This codebase has a lot of technical debt. Let's get rid of all of the containers and VMs and kubernetes and artificial servicification, take it off the cloud, and refactor it into smaller programs which do the work efficiently and which can be built and run…
Oh not only a rewrite, but also a re-architecture. What could go wrong?
All the problems Kubernetes and the like solve they’d have to rediscover one by one
As someone who has worked at a content agency for a decade, let me just say: I feel really bad that this happened to you, and that scope creep is real. I almost feel like you needed to ask for three separate things: A brand identity, a marketing strategy refresh, and then (finally) a website redesign. That all three were combined into one process likely caused this problem to drag on. The agency had its problems, but…
Don’t feel bad. The end result was positive. Sales increased enough that the cost will be made up in a few months. Person actually made out well considering the effect of the work.
That said, margins on this kind of hardware product aren't great. The author has shared them before. https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-3/
As someone who has worked at a content agency for a decade, let me just say: I feel really bad that this happened to you, and that scope creep is real. I almost feel like you needed to ask for three separate things: A brand identity, a marketing strategy refresh, and then (finally) a website redesign. That all three were combined into one process likely caused this problem to drag on. The agency had its problems, but…
Don’t feel bad. The end result was positive. Sales increased enough that the cost will be made up in a few months. Person actually made out well considering the effect of the work.
But yeah considering that revenues have only gone up, might as well just call it a cost of doing business. Learn from it and move on. (It sounds like this is exactly what he's doing.)
But it is a very valuable lesson. Unfortunately, you either fuck over in business or get fucked over. I'm sure a lot of individuals make an effort to be sincere, at least most of the time.
They lacked self-confidence, and WebAgency engaged in aggressive commercial techniques. You must be firm if you want equitable treatment, particularly if you are hiring a larger agency to complete the work. Or you may get a gorgeously dressed and well-groomed salesman who will take you out to dinner, treat you to wine and supper, fuck you raw, and not return your call the next morning.
Sign the agreement. But also take notes from this treatment if you wish to succeed financially.
To learn the value of a contract, it cost them $46,000. But it is a very valuable lesson. Unfortunately, you either fuck over in business or get fucked over. I'm sure a lot of individuals make an effort to be sincere, at least most of the time. They lacked self-confidence, and WebAgency engaged in aggressive commercial techniques. You must be firm if you want equitable treatment, particularly if you are hiring a larg…
That's bullshit. You should look for better business partners then.