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by AlunAlun 1936 days ago
> If I develop something, I am the owner.

Funnily enough, it's precisely this attitude which has led to the creation of the product owner role, and Scrum in general.

Most developers I know are emphatically NOT good product people (despite what they may think).

A good product owner is quite difficult to find, as they need to combine: i) a user-centric view of what the product needs to be, ii) a business-centric view of what needs to be released, and when, iii) a developer-centric view to make the 'best' product, from a programming perspective, and looking towards the long-term.

> That means we are beating the product into submission until its good, even if it means rewriting the thing three times and missing deadlines

This is all well and good until a competitor launches before you (with an inferior product), takes all your market share, and when you eventually launch you're having to play catch-up trying to steal clients. Meanwhile the competitor is reinvesting their initial revenue in making their product better to match yours, which means they keep their clients, keep getting revenue, investment etc.

You may have a better product, but you'll end up going bust.

2 comments

+1 to your third point especially. I'll even add that Agile development can be a big bonus in any market that has the potential for rapidly changing needs. Even if you don't lose out to your faster competition you may still end up releasing to a market that's no longer looking for the solution that you "perfected". Agile development allowing you to release a functional product as soon as possible, and adding to it as resources allow means you can pivot your development to meet new demands instead of bogging yourself down trying to produce the perfect solution to a problem that continues to evolve.
I think it's possible to have rapid releases without all the typical trappings of scrum. See: Facebook, who are decidedly not bust.

Maybe the answer is just 'hire better engineers'. Where better means they're good at the product decisions too.