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This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

codinghorror.com

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Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#31

Post by rudiger »

codinghorror wrote: post #29
danielmiller wrote: post #3

Hold on a second, Jeff! > Your software, your product, is nothing more than a collection of tiny details. If you don't obsess over all those details, if you think it's OK to concentrate on the "important" parts and continue to ignore the other umpteen dozen tiny little ways your product annoys the people who use it on a daily basis – you're not creating great software. Someone else is. I think the true moral of his s…

Until they delighted me, by addressing all the niggling details that I didn't like about the old version of the feeder. At which point I voluntarily wrote a blog post that described how wonderful their feeders are, and how thoughtful the revised product was, to over a hundred thousand people. So which kind of product do you want to be?

The imperfect product that ships. Shipping is a feature, too.

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#32

Post by danielmiller »

codinghorror wrote: post #29
danielmiller wrote: post #3

Hold on a second, Jeff! > Your software, your product, is nothing more than a collection of tiny details. If you don't obsess over all those details, if you think it's OK to concentrate on the "important" parts and continue to ignore the other umpteen dozen tiny little ways your product annoys the people who use it on a daily basis – you're not creating great software. Someone else is. I think the true moral of his s…

Until they delighted me, by addressing all the niggling details that I didn't like about the old version of the feeder. At which point I voluntarily wrote a blog post that described how wonderful their feeders are, and how thoughtful the revised product was, to over a hundred thousand people. So which kind of product do you want to be?

I'd love to have a delightful product, and I'd love for it to be given positive press to over a hundred thousand people! But like Android back in 2008, I don't think I'd get there without scrappily alleviating a pain point, getting my foot in proverbial door, and just shipping. Had Google waited and waited, they might be where Microsoft is now with WP7—an awesome product with really nice details that no one uses.

Granted, it's easier to switch cat feeders than phone OSes, but I think the point still stands—if you alleviate a pain point[1], you can tweak your product to make it delightful later.

Thanks for keeping up with your blog, and congrats on your three little humans! Do they make automatic feeders for those yet? Perhaps if you clean out your old cat feeders really well...

[1]: If you enter an existing market with nothing to differentiate your product (including price), then yes—you're probably going to fail.

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#33

Post by codinghorror »

rudiger wrote: post #31
codinghorror wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until they delighted me, by addressing all the niggling details that I didn't like about the old version of the feeder. At which point I voluntarily wrote a blog post that described how wonderful their feeders are, and how thoughtful the revised product was, to over a hundred thousand people. So which kind of product do you want to be?

The imperfect product that ships. Shipping is a feature, too.

Did I say it wasn't? You know what else is a feature? Being awesome!

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#35

Post by jroseattle »

hellerbarde wrote: post #24
jroseattle wrote: post #22

I get where Jeff is going with this post, and I agree and disagree. It may seem like splitting hairs, but I find a big difference between details and decisions. My version: your app is a collection of decisions. The details (and implementation) of an app flow from those decisions. Include or exclude a feature? That's a decision. Buttons on the left/right, top/bottom? Decision. Add a pluggable architecture? Decision.…

That is a very good point, coming from the developer's view. I think that Jeff's point is more valid if you look at it from the customer's view.

A great clarification as well. And a customer certainly is not going to be aware of the decisions made around trade-offs, direction, etc.

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#36

Post by bconway »

Having owned both of those cat feeders, for all the improvements made, the new model has a fatal flaw not readily apparent from the pictures shown: The edges of the hopper are not at a steep enough slope to move all the cat food downward (depending on size/shape, I imagine). This allows significant amounts of food to pile up on the sides and not be funneled into the dispensing mechanism underneath. Worse than just causing the unit to have a much smaller usable volume that expected, it gives the appearance of still being full when, in fact, the cats are starving.

I'm not sure how any of that figures into his analogy, though.

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#37

Post by j_baker »

danielmiller wrote: post #3

Hold on a second, Jeff! > Your software, your product, is nothing more than a collection of tiny details. If you don't obsess over all those details, if you think it's OK to concentrate on the "important" parts and continue to ignore the other umpteen dozen tiny little ways your product annoys the people who use it on a daily basis – you're not creating great software. Someone else is. I think the true moral of his s…

There's a world of difference between "imperfect" and "merely adequate". Not having all the details squared away makes your product imperfect. Not having all the important details squared away makes your product "merely adequate". The key is knowing which details are important and which aren't. Using "We can't be perfect" to dismiss the details is a cop out.

I mean, the company that made these things could have decided that the first version shouldn't include the timer. This is the imperfect first version. Time it yourself, and we'll add a timer to the next version!

After all, that's all you need to feed your cats on a schedule, isn't it? Sure! This product is adequate. Why get distracted with unnecessary timers?

Of course, the product would probably have languished because there are plenty of other bowls you can fill on a schedule. The lesson? Get the right details squared away ahead of time, and get the less important details squared away later.

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#38

Post by bostonvaulter2 »

bconway wrote: post #36

Having owned both of those cat feeders, for all the improvements made, the new model has a fatal flaw not readily apparent from the pictures shown: The edges of the hopper are not at a steep enough slope to move all the cat food downward (depending on size/shape, I imagine). This allows significant amounts of food to pile up on the sides and not be funneled into the dispensing mechanism underneath. Worse than just ca…

With that said do you still prefer the new one to the old one?

Re: This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details

#39

Post by StavrosK »

codinghorror wrote: post #33
rudiger wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The imperfect product that ships. Shipping is a feature, too.

Did I say it wasn't? You know what else is a feature? Being awesome!

I guess it comes down to "would you release an adequate product now and a great one later, or would you skip the adequate one completely?"
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