We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
blog.scoutapp.com
We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
1–10 of 33 posts
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#2Haha, I'm doing the same thing right now. When one feature costs > 10% of dev time, and you can afford to get rid of it, do it! In my case, I was spending 50%+ of my time for a few weeks on stability issues caused by a feature that <10% of my users need. Bye!
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#3I think the real lesson to learn here is to never assume anything. They assumed performance wouldn't be a problem, so they didn't test for it when prototyping, and they didn't make those tests part of their development cycle.
It's tough, these things, especially if you're talking about a feature you personally appreciate a lot. The article talks about the performance problems leading focus away from actively marketing these solutions, which makes me wonder: if properly marketed, would this have been a killer feature ?
The fact that they decided to get rid of it suggests no. However, are they putting the code in the freezer for a while until they fix these issues and re-release it ? Or is it simply a problem that can only be properly solved by giants like Google ?
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#4Haha, I'm doing the same thing right now. When one feature costs > 10% of dev time, and you can afford to get rid of it, do it! In my case, I was spending 50%+ of my time for a few weeks on stability issues caused by a feature that <10% of my users need. Bye!
On the other hand, punting on any hard problems just makes it that much easier for your competitors.
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#5Haha, I'm doing the same thing right now. When one feature costs > 10% of dev time, and you can afford to get rid of it, do it! In my case, I was spending 50%+ of my time for a few weeks on stability issues caused by a feature that <10% of my users need. Bye!
On the other hand, punting on any hard problems just makes it that much easier for your competitors.
You mean hard problems that matter.
There are a lot of hard problems startups try to solve which no one cares about. That's the trap to avoid.
Fixing something hard does not inherently make your company valuable in the marketplace.
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#6I wish I could send this to my boss. The functionality I'm working on right now was requested by a single client and is really only applicable to their unique billing situation. Why am I spending so much time on something that is going to have so little payoff, and yet which adds so much additional complexity to the system? But I've only been here a month and I don't feel like I can cast a dissenting voice. Maybe I'm just a coward.
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#7Just a meta comment about these lessons learned posts. The motivation behind these is to promote the product in question and one must therefore take them with a grain of salt.
Peer reviewed research is more reliable.
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#8Just a meta comment about these lessons learned posts. The motivation behind these is to promote the product in question and one must therefore take them with a grain of salt. Peer reviewed research is more reliable.
If you want to dismiss a post on that theory, you should remove the links to your products in your profile.
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#9I wish I could send this to my boss. The functionality I'm working on right now was requested by a single client and is really only applicable to their unique billing situation. Why am I spending so much time on something that is going to have so little payoff, and yet which adds so much additional complexity to the system? But I've only been here a month and I don't feel like I can cast a dissenting voice. Maybe I'm…
Being vocal about imperfections in the development cycle and suggesting improvements that matter to the bottom line is not dissent.
It's important to have open communication about this very topic - it improves the pipeline and keeps margins where they need to be. Be confident and prepared with data, and make yourself an asset to your company, not just a keypusher! :)
Re: We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.
#10Just a meta comment about these lessons learned posts. The motivation behind these is to promote the product in question and one must therefore take them with a grain of salt. Peer reviewed research is more reliable.
If you want to dismiss a post on that theory, you should remove the links to your products in your profile.
There is no need to dismiss all such posts. Some may be interesting/educational regardless.
But you do need to keep in mind the primary motivation behind them -- marketing.