SXSW 2017: How Good Engineers Make Bad Business Decisions

Mar 30th, 2017 3:00pm by Joab Jackson

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.

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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.

Check out some highlights from Capital One House for #SXSW Thanks to sponsor @CapitalOne #API #opensource https://t.co/NHLCqt4Tz2

— The New Stack (@thenewstack) March 13, 2017

Capital One sponsored this podcast.

Joab Jackson is a senior editor for The New Stack, covering cloud native computing and system operations. He has reported on IT infrastructure and development for over 25 years, including stints at IDG and Government Computer News. Before that, he...