Taking a look back

June 14, 2008

Friday the 13th was the end of one journey and, in a week, the beginning of a new one. I wanted to share some thoughts on some insights gained from my time in the scientific software industry all these years. Back in 2003 when I was a naive young product manager, I had little knowledge of software development processes, product lifecycle management, and various other aspects of product marketing. So it was was a learning process, some of it intuitive, other items came my way just by jumping headfirst into the world of product management.

One of the first things I learnt was that you can never satisfy all your customers, much as you might want to. The questions I had to ask myself were simple in hindsight, but you have to learn to ask them. You have finite development resources, and a number of customers want to get their favorite feature implemented. Which one(s) do you listen to? How do you prioritize development resources? What are the consequences of not implementing something?

I wish I had read Getting Real before that time, but in a way, learning on the job has its own charm. What I learnt then, and continue to believe is that while there are always some customers more important than others (those would be the ones you, or the powers that be, have identified as strategic), you have to look at implementation plans in the big picture. There will always be people who will be unhappy that something didn’t get implemented, but you have to go beyond features and think about what you are trying to get your customers to accomplish. Sometimes, you have to say no, or do things a particular way. For what its worth, most of your customers do not have any appreciation of software development, and you have to work with them and sometimes educate them on why certain decisions were made and how they might help them.

The other thing I took to heart was the importance of building relationships. You have to build trust. If your customers trust you, they are more likely to listen to you when you make tough decisions, including ones they might not like. You can’t do that by not delivering. You can’t do that by talking fluff, and you can’t do that by insulting their intelligence. Scientists are an obstinate bunch, perhaps a little too conservative for my liking, but if you respect their opinion, and can depend yours rationally, you’ll be in good shape.

Perhaps the other key take home message was one I have mentioned often here, and owe to Kathy Sierra; “Featuritis”. The figure below should be made into law. Function not features is a good mantra to have, and one I’d recommend.

Picture Credit: Kathy Sierra

So ends some nostalgia as I head into the world I dream about quite a bit these days, one that lives and breathes on the web. Hopefully I will learn as much there as I have over the past few years.

Further reading
What can we learn from 37Signals
Software development is never easy

Looking Back image by WTL photos via a CC-BY-ND license