I love producing software. I always have. From the time I got my first TRS-80 from Radio Shack at 9 years old and starting writing code, ’til now, mid-life crisis only a few years out.
I consider myself especially lucky now-a-days, because not only am I finally at the helm of my own ship, but the product I’m producing is for the very people I’ve been working with my entire career: other software teams.
We’ve all worked together under completely unrealistic timelines, had bosses that think they are product designers but who don’t actually use their own computers to type their own letters (and hadn’t quite figured out e-mail until a couple years ago).
We’ve given up countless evenings and weekends to try to bring horribly managed software projects back from the brink of disaster and out the door on time, all the while making “trade-offs” that we knew deep down just weren’t right for the product but now had to be made just to ship something in a reasonable time frame.
One word that has taken on new meaning during recent experiences is inspire. When you’re tying to create a new product and bring it to market, there are so many steep mountains to climb, each looming right in front of you. And beyond the ones you can already see, you just know there are more in the background not yet discovered. Yes, you’ll have to climb those too.
What I have found in many companies is a trend, that during each product life cycle, fairly serious trade-offs get made along the way so that the product that was once a beautifully elegant design in all of its mock-ups and presentations, turned out to be something that almost did the trick. Almost but not quite. (When I talk of beauty, I’m not just talking physical beauty, but that it actually elegantly solved the problem at hand.) The popular thinking was that, “Well, if we ship it now even though it’s not quite there yet, we’ll at least make a little money, and then we can re-invest it to get the product to where we initially thought it should be. It’s good enough for now.” It’s a common strategy. And it’s the beginning of the end for a product company. (Even though you think you’ll make “some” money now, enough to fund the rest of development, you soon find out that it’s VERY difficult to sell something that “almost” solves the problem.)
The trouble with the “good enough” strategy is that it doesn’t inspire anyone. It doesn’t inspire customers. It doesn’t inspire employees. Or partners. Or investors. Or the public. Or the media. Who can get inspired by a product that is only 80% of what it was supposed to be, but has been discounted by 20% to make up for it? And all of this only so that the product can ship 1 month late instead of 3?
See, product development isn’t a “management by numbers” game. That’s for commodity businesses. Luckily software isn’t yet a commodity business. There’s still enough variability in the kind and quality of products in the various categories that discounting price to make up for lack-lustre design or quality doesn’t quite work. People aren’t yet thinking “features per dollar” the way they do with fast food (“only 20 cents more for double the fries!”). Whenever I see a software company come out with “just another” product like everyone else’s, but they’ve discounted it by 20% so that they’re the cheapest kid on the block, I shudder.
There was a movie (darn I forget the title), where a crazy hitch-hiker was picked up and proceeded to explain his brilliant business idea: 6 minute Abs (a VHS tape). “Think about it…”, he said, “When you’re at the store, and you see ’7 minute Abs’ on the shelf, but right next to it is ’6 minute Abs’, which one are you gonna pick?!”. “But what happens when someone else comes out with ’5 minute Abs?’”, the driver asks. GASP! I think you get the point. If price (or “best value for the money”) ever becomes your only differentiator, then it’s time to come up with a new product.
This is partially why the word inspire has come to mean so much to me lately. I believe it should be the basis for development. Not just product development, but company development, team development and personal development.
Here’s what I mean.
If you’re building software to sell, there are some pretty big hurdles you’re going to have to face:
- You’re going to have to create desire (demand) for your product on an individual level.
- You’re going to have to attract employees (the good ones) to your team.
- You’re going to have to get the buzz machine going if you want word to spread (both the public and the relevant media).
- You may need to attract investors.
- The product is going to have to be something to be proud of if people are going to make personal sacrifices to make it happen – and it always takes more of everything than you think.
- You’re going to want to create some kind of repeat business, not just one-off sales.
None of these things are made any easier by going down the “good enough for now, 20% cheaper” path. No one really cares. But if you always start with inspire as your goal in everything you build, I have seen first hand, many benefits:
- On an individual level, it is far easier to create desire (demand) for your product. This makes selling easier.
- People will actually start to identify with you and come to you, looking to be part of your team. Good people like to work with other good people. This makes recruiting easier.
- At a group level, people will go out of their way to talk about things that inspire them. They’ll tell 2 friends, and they’ll tell 2 friends. This makes marketing easier. It is far easier to make money from something people love than to “popularize” something that they don’t.
- I have become convinced that for all the talk of business plans and financial projections and rates of return, the key to attracting investment is to inspire the investors. In the end, they make the call with their guts (or hearts).
- Having an inspiring product that people can identify with (“I built that!“) means people will go out of their way to put their very best work forward. This makes it easier to accomplish the impossible.
- Inspired customers are loyal customers. When a customer is inspired by a product, they associate the product with the maker. They are always thinking, I wonder what will come next? If you’ve inspired them at least once before, you’ll get more of the benefit of the doubt with a new undertaking.
So what does it mean to build something inspiring? We know it’s not “good enough but 20% cheaper”. Here are some rules of thumb to help you tell:
- When most people tell you it’s finally good enough – it still probably isn’t. If you quit here, you’re quitting too early.
- If you are more focused on getting it to do “more” over doing it “better”, you’re probably missing the point.
- If when people put your product side-by-side with other products they can’t quickly tell the difference, you’re not inspiring them. You have created something forgettable.
Here’s the kicker. If you want to build an inspiring product, you’re going to need a team of not just talented, but inspired people. And who’s going to inspire them? You are. How do you inspire a team? Why, you infect them, of course. You find your own inspiration and people can just feel it. It oozes. It starts with one person. Inspiration is not something you can fake. People see through it. Easily. While you can’t create inspiration, you can find it. Let’s face it. All of us would prefer to be inspired than not. In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s so easy to forget what inspired us in the first place, or to lose it somewhere along the way. It’s well worth taking the time to stop and find it again before you proceed. It’s infectious. So is the lack of it.
Go forth and inspire!
