SXSW 2017: How Good Engineers Make Bad Business Decisions

Almost every engineer we know has a few good ideas stored away about making an innovative product or service. Unfortunately, those who set out to build a business from a product rarely succeed. Why is that? We aim to find out in this episode of The New Stack Makers podcast, recorded live at SXSW 2017.

One of the most popular talks at SXSW this year was “Why Engineers Suck at Building Great Products,” given by Vinit Patil — co-founder of Skue, a wholesale marketplace for indie designers — and Weidong Yang, CEO at Kineviz, a pioneer at 3-D visualizations. Both have much experience in bringing new technologies to market. All too often, engineers focus too much on making a perfect product, the two advise us in an interview following the talk, rather than getting it out the door, or pivoting to make the technology more applicable for users.

Topics

3:41: What’s up with engineers who have great ideas but fail at productizing them.
6:03: why starting with the need first doesn’t always happen.
7:00: Ways of getting around perfectionism.
8:12: All about minimum viable product.
9:40: Whether or not to worry about scalability.
13:06: When to bring on additional people.

Sponsor Note

Capital One is reimagining the way people use money and creating new ways for people to use credit wisely, save and invest for the future and through digital and mobile, we are making transactions simpler and managing money easier so our customers can focus on what matters to them.

Capital One sponsored this podcast.

The post SXSW 2017: How Good Engineers Make Bad Business Decisions appeared first on The New Stack.