[Quarrelsome]

I find this an interesting reflection of an org I used to work for. Originally successful product allowed to stagnate over the course of decades with all the energy being sucked up by new shiny bolt-ons while the core business need and core product is never re-imagined to fit in with modern industry trends.

On reflection it always looks kinda daft that this can end up happening but I think (at least in my case) its easy for orgs to lose sight of their product's failings which can be compacted by the need to always hype up their product in public and this bleeds into private and into strategy.

[foobarian]

How would you design the org to avoid this? You basically need to disband the team once the product is done. How do game studios manage it?

[Kye]

They hire a bunch of people leading up to release, fire them, and start the cycle over on the next one. Same with the VFX industry: it's not unheard of for them to produce a record-breaking movie and shut down between then and the awards shows. I don't think most tech workers would tolerate it.

[Quarrelsome]

> How would you design the org to avoid this?

I don't know but it feels like a relatively common theme and perhaps there are factors that control its prevalence. I would tentatively suggest that refreshing decision making structures from time to time might help mitigate against complacency but you might also be rolling a dice if you're force-replacing to keep fresh.

Perhaps its more to do with how a business will diversify strategically without diversifying organisationally? I feel like there should be some form of conflict when resource is split from core product into diversification products (e.g. like Evernote food or Evernote market) and perhaps the absence of that conflict is a contributing factor to the speed at which the rot can set in.

Also maybe there's something to say about having a clear roadmap and never thinking the core product is done. Some of the most successful products I've seen seem to have some sort of force that is always seeking to iteratively improve it.