Secrecy

/in /by

I am going to argue that as a group, product development professionals have a bias toward excessive secrecy.

By nature, PD requires some degree of secrecy. It is obviously a poor idea to disclose all the details of your company’s strategy.
Top Secret
Inventors by instinct keep their best ideas under wraps. After all, you are only as good as your last idea. I have had customers with cubicles within yards of one another working on projects with us, but they never share the information with their co-workers. There are also the dark cautionary tales about people who disclosed confidential information through carelessness or negligence.

Simply put — in most organizations you can get in trouble for sharing too much.

Here’s the dilemma: by definition, product development relies on an exchange of ideas. New products do not occur in a vacuum.

Of course, as practitioners we will never be criticized for excessive secrecy, but our organizations will pay the price over time through a failure to innovate.

I have seen very few ideas lost or stolen, but thousands that have failed because of poor execution.

This brings me to another of my favorite aphorisms: “Every time I think I see conspiracy, in the end all I find is ignorance or sloth.”

Just One More Feature – Please!

/in /by

Very often, when we are in the final stages of wrapping up a new product, we become so close to the task that we miss the big picture. The temptation to add one more feature or improvement is almost irresistible.

This can also have huge negative consequences.

256px-10th_mountain_division_ssi-svg

During World War II my father served in the Quartermasters Corps of the U. S. Army. His stories of the war tended to center around cocktail parties in Washington, but a few cautionary tales survived the rigor of wartime in the capital.

One was about the pitons used by the mountain troops. Apparently the piton manufacturer and the Army were quite proud of the work done behind enemy lines by troops using these pitons. They agreed to stamp “US” on each piton.

Tragically, the pitons began failing in the field. Eventually they discovered that the stamping compromised the piton.

Repeat after me – “Perfection is the enemy of good.”

Luck

/in /by

When Napoleon was asked what kind of general he preferred, he said, “Just give me a lucky general”.

406px-Jacques_Louis_David_-_Bonaparte_franchissant_le_Grand_Saint-Bernard,_20_mai_1800_-_Google_Art_Project

While I am not a big believer in luck per se, this blog makes many references to luck. It is understood that invention is all about the unexpected occurrence. Having the insight to recognize these events and to run and seize opportunity could be considered making your own luck.

In “The Black Swan” Taleb argues that the inventor in Manhattan has a huge advantage over the inventor living on a mountain top. The Manhattan inventor gets invited to cocktail parties. At cocktail parties he meets investors, and investors are what you need to be a successful inventor.