About Bugs
Tonight I was playing with some YouTube features that I need for a web project. Those features are not very common for the vast majority of the users. I am talking here about playlists and custom players.
If you describe to a technical person those features, or even if you only name them, instantly they’ll understand what are they about and they’ll see great use in them. Unfortunately we, technical people, tend to forget that our frame of mind has nothing to do with the regular user. The regular user that comes in huge numbers and it’s our main revenue source. And by forgetting that, we overdevelop things that we like and by doing that we overdelay the launch of the product or we ignore the common features considering them insignificant.
The YouTube features I mentioned above work like total crap. The playlists never display the correct number of videos and the custom players never display all the videos and more than that, this morning were displaying other people playlists. Who the hell cares beside me and maybe a dozen other people. Youtube works well on what is suppsoed to do. Upload and play videos.
If you are in a control position, try explaining to the top management or your client that the fancy crap he needs are not worth any delay. Time is money and the markets are crowded. Release in small chunks and release often. Keep in mind that your products has a final target in the masses not in the elites. Screw the early adopters. Let them complain. If your unique, fancy (and useless most of the cases) features are so important, the early adopters will wait for them.
4 Responses to “About Bugs”
By Anonymous on Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
But if your early adopters complain, publicly, how will that affect the confidence of the normal users in your product?
By Razvan Antonescu on Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
1. Normal users don’t read blogs of early adopters and you know that. So them complaining has no effect on the product (unless Michael Arrington is trashing your product and you are screwed).
2. Early adopters cannot complain about things that don’t exist. They can make suggestions about features they want. That’s why is important to release a functional product for the masses and delay advance features. Or you can make advance features optional and clear label them as experiments. This way nobody can complain about them not being 100% functional. And if someone complains it will be somehow pointless.
By Anonymous on Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
1. Regardless of normal users reading blogs or not word spreads on the internet, there are also other media than blogs
… and it’s not unusual for other media to take to the blogs for inspiration especially when it comes to IT
2. In the crowded markets the things you do better or the things that no one else has set you apart from the competition - that and hordes of zombie fanboy self proclaimed evanghelists (usually early adopters)
By Janet Butler on Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
I agree 100%. This is the same that I always hear from James Brausch. Don’t wait until a product is perfect before you release it.