Timbuktu
We’re ramping up toward a new major release for SlideShowPro Director. It’s a time for polishing and bug-fixing, and also a time that some of our customers are realizing that their pet-feature request hasn’t made it into the new version.
With each major release of Director, we try to focus on a single, highly useful core feature that we can hang our hat on when it comes time to release. The reasoning is simple. We are a business. Features are an investment (sometimes a significant investment time-wise, depending on the complexity) and that investment must produce a return in order for the business to continue to invest, return, etc. If that new core feature hits the sweet spot for a large number of new or existing customers, then we’ve done our job. If it doesn’t, then we have just wasted months. It isn’t a decision we take lightly.
The problem comes when some of our customers don’t see eye-to-eye with us on what that core feature should be. We try to be diplomatic and keep our options open, all the while being very clear that the feature they would like is not on the immediate roadmap. Ultimately, it comes to this (paraphrasing some posts/emails I have been getting lately):
It’s time for you to develop this feature. Nothing else is as important as this feature, and if you don’t develop it soon I will have no choice but to move on to another solution.
And there it is, spades have been broken. Surely when faced with the option of a customer revolt, we’ll drop whatever we are doing and start work on this obviously important feature. Of course, this doesn’t work (at least with me) and here’s why. When a customer decides to use some other solution, it is usually for one of two reasons. Either they are unhappy with your service and support or they are unhappy with the features your product provides. The former is cause for concern, the latter is not.
Here’s an example. Acme Airlines has forged a successful business flying to specific, popular destinations. They are sensitive to the feedback they receive from passengers and try to correct flaws in the operations as best they can, and as such have built a loyal customer base. However, they’ve recently been getting requests for daily service to Timbuktu. After evaluating the demand among existing customers and the potential for new customers should they start service to Timbuktu, they decide that the costs far outweigh any potential revenue. They politely respond that there are no plans for daily service to Timbuktu. The customers threaten to stop using Acme altogether and find a different airline.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Acme Air should wish them the best of luck in their future travels and if they ever need service to locations that Acme serves, they are more than willing to help them get there. Software development is the same way. If our feature set isn’t tracking with what you need, then by all means find something that does. But don’t act like you have a gun to my head, because the chamber’s empty, pal.
Well Said! I’m an avid user of SSP Director (and API). It’s one of the best web apps I’ve ever used. It’s just missing this one feature…. ha.
Keep of the good work.
Comment left on April 24th, 2010 at 11:38 am Link