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When customers request a feature, what they most want is a commitment: Yes, we'll do that! And that's the most tempting thing in the world to offer them. But you're better off saying THANK YOU and meaning it, without binding yourself to a specific solution.

DHH

709,604 subscribers

133,339 views • 1 year ago •via X (Twitter)

Science & Technology Education Comedy

Anya Rossi• Live Now

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10 Comments

DHH1 year ago

Full podcast episode here:

Tanmay Das1 year ago

Most people cannot resist this temptation because of this mindset: “Oh shit, if I don’t make a commitment, one of the 50 competitors will and I will lose my customer.” …without realizing the fact that doing this will slow down the development of other top-priority features for which 10 customers are waiting.

Niko E.1 year ago

I have worked in customer request mode. It genuinely produces shitty software because of multiple reasons. Most prominent among them, customer knows nothing about designing good user interfaces let alone good software.

Rodrigo Rojo1 year ago

I'm all in about this. The user has a pain, but its the dev decision what is the best answer (if any). When i have a pain, i call a doctor. Automedication is never the answer. BUT It would be amazing in hey that i can clic the mail of a contact and automagically copy it :)

Jeff Hansen1 year ago

@jasonfried “We have to work on our customers’ behalf and not their requests” — good hell that is amazingly put. Thanks

devtails1 year ago

Would you change your approach earlier on in the process? e.g. say you have only one pilot customer.

Nixon Flax1 year ago

Hey customers, Go away! chad move

Ayla Croft1 year ago

I hear this from almost every successful developer & have decided to lock it in my mental vault.

Nathan Wailes 🇺🇦🇹🇼1 year ago

Why not just have the UI able to allow the user to specify the toggles that should be visible? Like, that's how Chrome extensions work: you download and enable the extensions you want. IMO a better rationale for not building it is that it isn't a common enough problem.

The Canaanite1 year ago

Well said! But by doing so, they paint the path of climbing the mountain of product market fit. Up to us to choose how to best climb it in the most optimal fashion at that moment.

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.Mollie to Republicans dealing with the legacy media — understand your opponent for who they really are: “If you understand that you're not just having a debate with an opponent, but your most hostile and most rabid opponent; if you understand that they are propaganda and then you go into it, I think that's one thing." "If you're just treating them like you still have this 1960s view of what the media are, that's when you're going to get in trouble." A-men.

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Andy Reid shares the 4 things that players crave the most - and it's not what you think. "They want consistency. So I try to make it as consistent as possible." "But most of all, in your relationship with them, they don't want you to tell them a lie. They want the truth." "Sometimes the truth is good. And sometimes it's not so good. But they want that." You can't build a strong relationship without consistency and honesty. "I've found over the years that's the best way - as tough as it is for a coach - to tell somebody that's giving you their all every day, and they're making a living at this, that listen... you're not going to make it here." The hardest conversations are often the most important ones. "I try to give them the whys." Don't just deliver the news. Explain it. Help them understand. People want to be respected and they want to trust you. Give them: 1. Direction 2. Consistency 3. The Truth 4. The Why's By doing this, you build connection, trust, and a strong relationship as a result. (🎥 HeadCoachU with Bronco Mendenhall)

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To be a successful founder, you have to believe that what you're working on is going to work — despite knowing it probably won't! That sounds like an oxymoron, but it's really not. Believing that what you're building is going to work is an essential component of coming to work with the energy, fortitude, and determination it's going to require to even have a shot. Knowing it probably won't is accepting the odds of that shot. It's simply the reality that most things in business don't work out. At least not in the long run. Most businesses fail. If not right away, then eventually. Yet the world economy is full of entrepreneurs who try anyway. Not because they don't know the odds, but because they've chosen to believe they're special. The best way to balance these opposing points — the conviction that you'll make it work, the knowledge that it probably won't — is to do all your work in a manner that'll make you proud either way. If it doesn't work, you still made something you wouldn't be ashamed to put your name on. And if it does work, you'll beam with pride from making it on the basis of something solid. The deep regret from trying and failing only truly hits when you look in the mirror and see Dostoevsky staring back at you with this punch to the gut: "Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing." Oof. Believe it's going to work. Build it in a way that makes you proud to sign it. Base your worth on a human on something greater than a business outcome.

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Sarang Sood

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🚨 BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: "Thank you to the President of the United States for helping re-establish this presidential fitness test. It's been something that we've been looking forward to doing for a long time—since 2013!" (To the kids): "Can you guys do pull-ups? No?! Well, we'll help you." 🤣 "But that's a part of the the presidential fitness test: aspiring to help these kids become a better version of themselves, and that's why I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it." "Lastly, I just want to say to the kids, most important thing you can do is always get 1% better a day. That's the most important thing I can give you guys. Try to be a better version of yourself every day, because one day you could be up here as well." 🇺🇸

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