(Updates at bottom)
Guerilla Product Marketing Principles from Charlie Wood’s Moonwatcher (via Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed):
“Version 1 of a product should crawl. This means it should do the bare minimum to be recognizable as what it’s intended to be. If it’s supposed to be a foo, and someone could look at version 1 and say, “That’s a foo,” you’re done. Ship it.
Version 2 should walk. This is where you add enough functionality that the product is useful in day-to-day life. This is not the time for polish. Basically, it’s just adding the things that most people insisted should have been in version 1, because without them, they said, the product is completely useless. They were wrong then, but they’re right now.
Version 3 should run. This is where the product hits its stride. What it does it should do well. It should be comfortable to use. It should be strong, polished, and effective.
Version 4 should fly. This is where the, “Oh man, wouldn’t it be awesome if…” features get added. This is where you start implementing things that aren’t necessarily useful now, but have a lot of possibility. “
I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it. The product, that is. Having been in cash-strapped startups myself, I understand the need to hit the market fast, and start generating revenue… but I am a Customer, too, and as such am sick of non-working products. It’s frustrating to waste time installing, learning the damn thing when it’s really just a Beta! Give it to someone who signed up as Beta-tester, not to me, a Customer.
“Give me what I want or I am out of here” – says Seth Godin. In our case it means: Uninstall, don’t look back until 2 releases later. Quite a way to build a happy customer base.
Update (8/31): “When a Beta Isn’t Enough” by David Beisel is worth reading.
Update (11/20) : “Web 2.0: Web of Beta”
Tags: Software, Product Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Disservice, Software Testing, Beta
In fact we often take such conveniences for granted, assuming they are “industry standard” … not quite.
Fast forward to last year, when I flew to Boston for an interview – the company’s standard agency was Avis, so they booked me there … fine .. or so I thought.
After a horribly delayed flight I arrived at the Avis lot around 4am, trying to get directions to my hotel in Suburbia, a good 30 miles away. Wow, no Kiosk!!! (???). Well, you’d think the clerk can help you (like they do at Hertz). Apparently they are not supposed to, for liability reasons (???) – or so they say.
Oh, well, GPS will help – except the system I reserved was not in the car; the crew at the station had trouble first finding the key to the locker where they keep the GPS units ( a lousy Motorola phone), then they had no clue how to operate it. We ended up reading the user manual together, and I was faster in deciphering it than they were.
After this it should have come as no surprise when I was caught at the gate – apparently the paperwork and the car did not match, they parked the wrong car in the assigned lot. (Need I say this was the car the station manager and I spent 30 minutes in, trying to get the GPS installed?) Well, back to the office, station manager trying to call the gate, they don’t answer… he ended up running to the gate and order the guard to let me (finally) leave, saying he’ll fix the paperwork afterwards…
All in all, I spent 50 minutes at the Avis lot, despite being the only customer there.