Re:This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details
by mmahemoff on Monday May 07, 2012 @07:45AM
(#3938581)
The product in the early phase was called a Dancing Bear in the book, "The Inmates are Running the Asylum". You don't need the bear to move like a professional dancer because "look at that, it's a bear ... and it's dancing!". The details start to matter when more dancing bears come on the scene.
Re:This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details
by astral303 on Monday May 07, 2012 @11:13AM
(#3939301)
+1. "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum" is an excellent book and a must must must read for anyone in software engineering. It will open your mind and give you a new perspective on software.
The dancing bear analogy is on the money. It's like early computers: "OMG, word processing! I can "delete" my typos! I can reformat my paragraph!" Today's computers: "it's hard for me to figure out how to reformat the paragraph. Next app!" Also, early computers: "the computer crashed, I should've saved!" Today's computers: "the damn computer should not have lost my data no matter what happened."
Re:This Is All Your App Is: A Collection Of Tiny Details
by nthj on Monday May 07, 2012 @08:18AM
(#3938666)
Related is 37signals' "Ignore Details Early On" [1]
So shipping is a feature, but continual improvement once you've shipped is necessary, too.
[1] http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Ignore_Details_Early_O...
In a new market with no competitors what matters is that someone created an automatic cat feeder at all.
In a more mature market with several competitors those small details matter more.
In a very mature market maybe several competitors get the tiny details right, so maybe building a brand matters a lot...