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If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

paulbuchheit.blogspot.com

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Re: If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

#111

Post by otterley »

petcat wrote: post #84
nottorp wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black... nail... polish... Solves every LED problem. Xerox, why did you think the power led on your multifunction should light up not only my home office, but the room next to it too?

Black electrical tape is even better. Because then it can be trivially peeled off later instead of requiring polish remover and a brush.

Electrical tape sometimes leaves adhesive behind when you peel it off, so you might not be able to avoid using a chemical during the reversal process.

Re: If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

#112

Post by otterley »

claw-el wrote: post #29
admjs wrote: post #22

The hardest part of product management is saying no to reasonably good ideas. Bad ideas are pretty easy.

People generally classify the opportunity cost as zero, and if you want to say no to the reasonably good ideas, others will put pressure on you to just do it.

Sorry, I don’t follow. The opportunity cost of what is zero?

Re: If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

#114

Post by xg15 »

jonplackett wrote: post #3

Read something similar the other day about the original Walkman. The engineers wanted to add recording function, thinking it would help with sales and to only cost a negligible amount to add. Someone cleverer said no, because if you add that feature now people will be confused what it is for. If they don’t want to record audio, they’ll think the product isn’t for them.

[dead]

Re: If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

#116

Post by V__ »

jonplackett wrote: post #3

Read something similar the other day about the original Walkman. The engineers wanted to add recording function, thinking it would help with sales and to only cost a negligible amount to add. Someone cleverer said no, because if you add that feature now people will be confused what it is for. If they don’t want to record audio, they’ll think the product isn’t for them.

Rory Sutherland used the Walkman story in his book, and some YouTube Shorts.

Re: If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

#117

Post by robocat »

moffkalast wrote: post #90
robocat wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fixed a power wart LED today using black electrical tape, with a needle hole. Ideally instead I need some stick-on semitransparent dark-alpha stickers to reduce brightness. Maybe I should use two polarized stickers, and rotate the second until brightness is perfect. Are there non-linear solutions or HEV-sensitive photochromic solutions - so that LED brightness is low in the dark but bright enough in sunny condition…

I sure wish that were a thing, if you happen to figure that out let me know. So far the only real solution I know of is active throttling with a photoresistor and a mosfet based on ambient light.

Yeah, active electronics seems like the only solution that would vary brightness correctly. But electronics are too impractical for the simple problem of modifying existing LED lights.

Some quick searching didn't find any photochromic films (Visible Light Activated) that were activated by say blue light rather than UV light. Plus it seems the chemicals don't darken as much (cf. familiar UV-sensitive glasses) and they work best with particular wavelengths (so might not work under different sources of lighting).

I will stick with cheap plastic tape/film and pinpoint holes because of advantages (tidy, colour match the device, fitting around, easy to revert).

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