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When users never use the features they asked for

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121–130 of 228 posts

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#121

Microsoft didn't run automatic code analysis tools as part of their code review process until 2017? What on earth was wrong?

> What on earth was wrong?

The automatic code analysis tools. Sure they existed, but they need to fit into a workflow and get approval for use (which takes about ten years in enterprise these days).

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but the question is - what do they NOT have because of this. Sounds like they bumped something more valuable to get this done.

Any how much does it cost to maintain a not-used, complicated feature going forward.

This. Now every new feature in that area of code is more complicated than it could be, for no benefit.

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for updating! I was a little confused since Heroku wasn’t around before the 2005 launch of the Xbox 360, but figured it was shorthand for something else. Given the Xbox One SOC had a lot more security in mind, I could see how Microsoft was more cautious about these things. [1] [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7VwtOrwceo&feature=emb_title

Just a lapse of memory and thanks for the benefit of the doubt. Another commenter mentioned turbolinks and I was like "whoooaaaa yes I used that and this timeline doesn't line up at all." This lead to a long internal discussion about when exactly did I play Bioshock and does that line up with my memories :-) I guess I don't mind talking about it so much-- we made a sub $1 component that could compress certain specifi…

So essentially your are a hardware shop. I wonder how a web service on your side fits on all this..

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for updating! I was a little confused since Heroku wasn’t around before the 2005 launch of the Xbox 360, but figured it was shorthand for something else. Given the Xbox One SOC had a lot more security in mind, I could see how Microsoft was more cautious about these things. [1] [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7VwtOrwceo&feature=emb_title

Just a lapse of memory and thanks for the benefit of the doubt. Another commenter mentioned turbolinks and I was like "whoooaaaa yes I used that and this timeline doesn't line up at all." This lead to a long internal discussion about when exactly did I play Bioshock and does that line up with my memories :-) I guess I don't mind talking about it so much-- we made a sub $1 component that could compress certain specifi…

Waveform generator for haptic feedback?

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#125
I remember a conversation with an inexperienced PM, who was still in the mode "we need to add X because a customer asked for it".

What I've learned - although I've never had a PM role - is not to blindly just give customers what they ask for, but to figure out what they really need. Their feature requests are often a proxy for something else they aren't able to articulate.

Another thing to be careful about is adding that one thing a customer asks for but nobody else does. You end up wasting cycles and bloating the product with these one-off asks. Sometimes you have to stand your ground and say "no", because the ROI just isn't there. Startups in particular are vulnerable to this because they haven't got a large enough customer base and capital yet to comfortably say "no", and end up with features jammed into the codebase that are still there, years later, when the original customer that asked for them are long gone.

There are exceptions of course - perhaps the feature is for some legal requirement e.g. "we need to show this specific set of Terms & Conditions before the user clicks Yes" they must have and can't live without.

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#126
I once had to develop a full application with really hard problem solving in a really complex domain that I had hard time to understand. This was for a big national phone operator.

We delivered it under a lot of pressure from the sales team (I was in a shitty company, with few employees) and the contract was in multiple millions euros. That was literally one of our 2 or 3 customer.

We delivered. One day we eventually get paid (our customer was well known in the industry to pay only when they are forced to - yeah, shitty customer too).

The project is finished, customer is happy with what we demoed and delivered.

Then maybe a year later, we decided to add a feature to this product to be able to sell it to another client. I got pull and build this damn thing. Nothing worked. Like, nothing. The login form was broken.

Then I remember. A full year and not a single support ticket. The company owner « joking » about how our sales team used alcohol, parties and embarrassing photos to make their customer buy our software. The insane amount of pressure we had to deliver this technically hard project.

I left this company the day this popped in my head.

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#127
post #125

I remember a conversation with an inexperienced PM, who was still in the mode "we need to add X because a customer asked for it". What I've learned - although I've never had a PM role - is not to blindly just give customers what they ask for, but to figure out what they really need. Their feature requests are often a proxy for something else they aren't able to articulate. Another thing to be careful about is adding…

If it's in the enterprise sales phase then sales will just say "yes, no problem". Ideally they will talk with engineering, but...

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's brutal. You were right to quit. There's a certain personality type that will never appreciate or reward hard work.

Yeah I was definitely right to quit, my career has been pretty great since then. But I did get a lot out of the few years I worked there, even though a lot of it sucked. It was my first proper job and they’d basically let me work on anything I wanted to, even though I was incredibly green and was just figuring it all out as I went. I definitely fit a lot more experience and learning into those years than you’d reason…

I be also had a job early in my career where I was basically allowed to work on anything that interests me and 20 years later I’m still relying on that experience.

Maybe this is something every junior should do - try a bit of everything and see what you like.

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a lapse of memory and thanks for the benefit of the doubt. Another commenter mentioned turbolinks and I was like "whoooaaaa yes I used that and this timeline doesn't line up at all." This lead to a long internal discussion about when exactly did I play Bioshock and does that line up with my memories :-) I guess I don't mind talking about it so much-- we made a sub $1 component that could compress certain specifi…

So essentially your are a hardware shop. I wonder how a web service on your side fits on all this..

Yea, we were a consumer electronics company that mostly was subcontracted out to make components or complete hardware. I remember working on products for Denon, Crestron, Roku, Samsung, LG, Direct TV, Microsoft, HP, Nintendo, Sony and Audiovox (and their subsidiaries--Monster etc), and in Europe, One For All brand. It was honestly pretty exciting.

Regarding web services, like I said, we had a library of these waveforms and that was our cash cow-- you got the chips for only a few cents over cost. You got the API that operated them for free, but access to out database cost a fair bit.

Re: When users never use the features they asked for

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why changelogs and release notes are not optional or tucked away in a dark corner. And users who request features need to be notified (actively, specifically) that something they requested or a bug they hit was resolved or addressed. I know, that's a lot of work. But what's the point of fixing things if you never tell someone it's fixed.

That's great advice, but it's untrue that nobody reads changelogs. I read them religiously for software I'm passionate about as a user, and when I solo'd a product for a decade I was regularly surprised how familiar some of my customers were with mine (most often when they had dedicated IT resources or were similarly small boutique outfits themselves). I've also managed large, custom enterprise projects where subject…

yeah, it looks like windows is the virus
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