12 reasons why products fail, enterprise edition

30 October 2013, 17:56

Part three of the mini‐series I am running at the moment on the usual social channels—twitter, g+, linkedin and xing—called wishful thinking breeds failed products. It distils what I have witnessed and heard during 20 years in the (mobile) software industry.

For this instalment I compiled a synergetic set of enterprise‐grade wishful thinking. By request, they are listed below for future reference. I am curious if you recognise some of these:

‘Better play it safe, because it has not been done before.’
‘Better play it safe, so it won’t cause all these extra rounds of meetings.’
‘Better play it safe, because the first feedback was rather reserved.’
‘Better play it safe, so we get the OK.’
‘Better play it safe, because the engineers say it cannot be done.’
‘Better play it safe, because that code base is spaghetti.’
‘Better play it safe, so we all can go home at five—and on 14:30 (D) / to the pub (GB) on friday.’
‘Better play it safe, because the blame will fall on us.’
‘Better play it safe, so we have time for more features.’
‘Better play it safe, to pass the usability test.’
‘Better play it safe, to pass the regression test.’
‘Better play it safe, to not jeopardise my promotion.’

ask not what this blog can do for you…

Now, what can you do? First of all, you can spread the word; share this blog post. Second, the series continues, so I invite you to connect via twitter, g+, linkedin, or xing, and get a fresh example of wishful thinking every workday.

And third, if you recognise that some of the wishful thinking is practiced at your software project and you can and want to do something about it, then email or call us. We will treat your case in total confidence.

ps: you can check out part two if you missed it.

Labels: ,

PS logo

0 comments · post a comment

If you like to ask Peter one burning question and talk about it for ten minutes, then check out his available officehours.

portrait of Peter  Peter Sikking is an experienced
interaction architect. He unabashedly puts shipping great products at the centre of his design practice. He is known for his work for Google, Nokia, the Metapolator & GIMP open source projects, and startups.

Peter teaches, mentors, lectures and publishes. He enjoys working with small teams in an international setting, but also the fact that his work can be found on half a billion mobiles and creates billion‐dollar revenues.

What is Peter up to? See his /now page.

get in touch: email · twitter · g+ · linkedin · xing