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The Last 1%

jaredramsey.com

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Re: The Last 1%

#11

Post by zwieback »

bluefishinit wrote: post #7

None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt that should be used very sparingly. Some of them will be more of a distraction than they're worth. Somewhere around 2010 a sort of product development pseudo-science started to take hold of the industry. Telemetry, A/B testing, surveys... oceans began to b…

Just wondering, have you ever worked on something with a longer lifetime than the typical young engineer's job rotation? One thing we run into all the time is awesome quickly iterated things outlasting many people who understand how it was done.

Admittedly there's a big difference between web apps and products that are meant to last or even contain hardware components.

Re: The Last 1%

#15

Post by forrestthewoods »

bluefishinit wrote: post #7

None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt that should be used very sparingly. Some of them will be more of a distraction than they're worth. Somewhere around 2010 a sort of product development pseudo-science started to take hold of the industry. Telemetry, A/B testing, surveys... oceans began to b…

> None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt

You said what I was thinking but couldn’t come up with the words. These aren’t the difference makers.

Every “successful product” is held together with spit, glue, and an ocean of tech debt. There is no utopia.

Re: The Last 1%

#16

Post by bluefishinit »

zwieback wrote: post #11
bluefishinit wrote: post #7

None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt that should be used very sparingly. Some of them will be more of a distraction than they're worth. Somewhere around 2010 a sort of product development pseudo-science started to take hold of the industry. Telemetry, A/B testing, surveys... oceans began to b…

Just wondering, have you ever worked on something with a longer lifetime than the typical young engineer's job rotation? One thing we run into all the time is awesome quickly iterated things outlasting many people who understand how it was done. Admittedly there's a big difference between web apps and products that are meant to last or even contain hardware components.

Yep, I've worked on consumer products with decade plus lifespans. I was lucky enough to have worked in places that valued creativity, so shipping interesting features was always prioritized over direction by committee with data augmentation. I'll say that the end-users really loved that. They for the most part don't want you rearranging their living room (so to speak) they want new home additions.

Re: The Last 1%

#17

Post by _xivi »

azhenley wrote: post #14
_xivi wrote: post #4

Similar take was shared recently, except it put more emphasis on marketing in the last 10%: Stopping at 90% [ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36967594 ]

I can't tell if the author is agreeing with my blog post or mocking it :D https://austinhenley.com/blog/90percent.html

It seems like a different take with similar sentiment: The project isn't over once it's functional.

It's a nice coincidence tho, you and OP should collaborate on a joint research to get the bottom of it.

Re: The Last 1%

#18

Post by dalyons »

bluefishinit wrote: post #7

None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt that should be used very sparingly. Some of them will be more of a distraction than they're worth. Somewhere around 2010 a sort of product development pseudo-science started to take hold of the industry. Telemetry, A/B testing, surveys... oceans began to b…

intuitively i agree with you, i've seen a lot of the pseudo-science.

But curious, can you elaborate on how telemetry driven development leads to organizational turf wars? I think i've seen that too but interested to hear your thoughts.

Re: The Last 1%

#19

Post by bluefishinit »

dalyons wrote: post #18
bluefishinit wrote: post #7

None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt that should be used very sparingly. Some of them will be more of a distraction than they're worth. Somewhere around 2010 a sort of product development pseudo-science started to take hold of the industry. Telemetry, A/B testing, surveys... oceans began to b…

intuitively i agree with you, i've seen a lot of the pseudo-science. But curious, can you elaborate on how telemetry driven development leads to organizational turf wars? I think i've seen that too but interested to hear your thoughts.

Everything from what gets tracked to how the data gets interpreted. It also can put a target on certain growth areas that will attract the more "ambitious" people from the company. All will try to make the case with the telemetry data.

Does more time on a page mean users are more engaged or are they struggling to find out what's going on? Depends on which product manager can make a better case, probably involving even more telemetry which has to get prioritized.

In the creative IC model, the designer and developer work to solve a problem based on their experience building product. Or someone has a kick ass idea one day and just implements it creating a step change in usage. That type of environment requires freedom and trust, it also puts a lot of control in the hands of the ICs which is why it's not popular with product managers, directors, vps...

Re: The Last 1%

#20

Post by freetanga »

zwieback wrote: post #11
bluefishinit wrote: post #7

None of those things are going to make a bad feature successful and not doing these will not make a good feature unsuccessful. They're all a form of technical debt that should be used very sparingly. Some of them will be more of a distraction than they're worth. Somewhere around 2010 a sort of product development pseudo-science started to take hold of the industry. Telemetry, A/B testing, surveys... oceans began to b…

Just wondering, have you ever worked on something with a longer lifetime than the typical young engineer's job rotation? One thing we run into all the time is awesome quickly iterated things outlasting many people who understand how it was done. Admittedly there's a big difference between web apps and products that are meant to last or even contain hardware components.

Agree. Tech is a very broad universe. Is not the same to create a consumer facing platform for a new business than creating a Core System for a Telco, Utility or Bank. In those cases, the 1% (minus documentation) is crucial, as core features are not removed nearly ever.

When you are experimenting with consumers and a feature might end up being a failure, then yes some of those items could be cataloged as tech debt of sorts.

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