I honestly think the BB8 toy killed sphero. They mistook a flash of luck and a fad for PMF. It also made them cocky. Next thing I knew they were calling it a “robot” which while possibly technically true it was more of a neat remote control car that cost a fair amount of money. This was at time when you could by cheap rc helicopters that actually flew for $20.
Watching an acquirer ruin your company
61–70 of 347 posts
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#62I honestly think the BB8 toy killed sphero. They mistook a flash of luck and a fad for PMF. It also made them cocky. Next thing I knew they were calling it a “robot” which while possibly technically true it was more of a neat remote control car that cost a fair amount of money. This was at time when you could by cheap rc helicopters that actually flew for $20.
What is PMF mean in this context?
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#63Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is not the agile, but useless sinecure managers trying to rebrand "agile" as something in which projects don't need planning, can be completely chaotic and any requirements can be changed at anytime without affecting the deadline. "Hey we don't really need to make any decision ever or even know what we are doing. That's the great thing about agile!"
> without affecting the deadline This might be a controversial take but if you have an actual deadline -- "product must cross the threshold of not shippable to shippable" as opposed to a cutoff date "product is at all times shippable but we need a date to say we're done refining" then agile is probably not the way to go. I've always structured projects like this as waterfall to your MVP then switch to agile. You have…
Yes that's fine if the company can determine what they want before setting dates, or asking for "estimates" (date commitments). Though the OP was talking about worse case of: date set, product/ux/etc continues (or starts) planning, eating well into deadline.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#65I honestly think the BB8 toy killed sphero. They mistook a flash of luck and a fad for PMF. It also made them cocky. Next thing I knew they were calling it a “robot” which while possibly technically true it was more of a neat remote control car that cost a fair amount of money. This was at time when you could by cheap rc helicopters that actually flew for $20.
What is PMF mean in this context?
product-market fit
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#66The majority of acquisitions and mergers fail. It should come to no surprise for those whose company or employer is acquired that the acquisition will fail as well.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#67I honestly think the BB8 toy killed sphero. They mistook a flash of luck and a fad for PMF. It also made them cocky. Next thing I knew they were calling it a “robot” which while possibly technically true it was more of a neat remote control car that cost a fair amount of money. This was at time when you could by cheap rc helicopters that actually flew for $20.
What is PMF mean in this context?
[deleted]
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being willing to throw away work is the single most effective way I've seen at running an engineering org, both in terms of promoting innovation and in being able to quickly adapt to evolving customer needs as they get revealed. If your morale is harmed by throwing away work, that's something you should work on.
At google it was repeated that Sergey Brin used to say "all work is throwaway work, it's only the time horizon which is in question".
It's kind trite to say “much is explained”, but… that explains so much about google.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#69I honestly think the BB8 toy killed sphero. They mistook a flash of luck and a fad for PMF. It also made them cocky. Next thing I knew they were calling it a “robot” which while possibly technically true it was more of a neat remote control car that cost a fair amount of money. This was at time when you could by cheap rc helicopters that actually flew for $20.
What is PMF mean in this context?
[deleted]
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
The joke at my previous job was "Months of development can save days of planning." The management in the company didn't plan anything and the meandering development process showed it. Please don't underplan. It's awful for morale to throw away work because of bad planning.
Being willing to throw away work is the single most effective way I've seen at running an engineering org, both in terms of promoting innovation and in being able to quickly adapt to evolving customer needs as they get revealed. If your morale is harmed by throwing away work, that's something you should work on.
It depends at which level you're at. If you're working at an infrastructure or firmware level, throwaway work can be expensive and time consuming. Re-architecture can also be time consuming. There are some parts you have to spend design cycles on, especially if you're doing a large project. It's not that you can't pivot, but the pivot takes a lot of time. At the very least have a set of System Features and System Guarantees that you will drive towards.