Jason Fried of 37signals - Keynote - web 2.0 nyc expo live
Sep 17th, 2008 by Immply
The software business is a great business.
– You don’t have to worry about raw materials, physics, cost of change (changing is very simple comparitively in software).
– You can build software anywhere - in your house, office - anywhere.
– But, software does not have the same feedback as other objects have. Software does not have size or maps or physical reality.
– So one of the things you can do as a developer is to think of how it would look like if it was physical. Would it be too big, too small, shiny, sweaty, would it stick ?
– So version 1 would be ok, 2 and 3 would be better and 4 and 5 would be the glory versions when it is at its best. Anything after that would be overkill - too many things packed in the software. So after version 5, you need a curator, a person that says NO - this cannot go into the software. So start thinking of yourself as a curator. Think of features as art and you are incharge in the museum of art. If all the art is in the room, it is a warehouse. Not a museum.
Once your software gets bloated, there is no way to go back. You have to then really start over. So keep an eye out for bloat and prevent it from happening in the first place. Keep it a collection, a museum - don’t make it a warehouse.
– Listen carefully to your customers. But you are not building for an individual. Don’t add everything that everyone wants. Don’t set expectations of yes for your customers else you’ll get caught in it.
– We created a software and 3 months in, we started using it. We found it so crappy that we had to throw it.
– What I want to leave you with is - SAY NO MUCH MORE THAN YOU SAY YES. Make your software a curated collection of a few solid features, not everything it can be.
You are not a software developer, you are a CURATOR.
Question: How do you prevent feature creep in the company?
Answer: Tell the people that ask for the feature to build it (crowd laughs). Ask for the ROI
Question: How would you re-design MS office.
Answer: I think office is good, it is as it is. However, a real office is more about collaboration and MS office is not about that?
Question: Who should be the chief curator in the company?
Answer: Everyone in the company should be. But it should start at the top and be managed from the top.