I just realized why I like Steve Blank's writing so much. It's because he writes about sales and marketing as if it were engineering. And I have a feeling it's not just how he writes about it, but also how he approaches it.
Well said. Engineers shouldn't be afraid of sales or marketing, and can often do it as well or better than "business types". Treating it as a separate world sets up an unhealthy dynamic.
In my experience, this dynamic is more often than not created by the "business types" who tend to think that if you can do engineering, you can't do sales & marketing.
But I agree, the engineers who can do it are often many times more effective than those without an engineering background. It all depends on the person.
tend to think that if you can do engineering, you can't do sales & marketing.
No, they know you can and are protecting their turf. That's a warning sign that they aren't very good at what they do. Just as an engineer who blindly disparages marketing is foolish - without those guys being on the ball your chances of getting paid goes way down.
I got the book at the recommendation of someone else on HN. It's really good.
Basically, his idea is that the traditional product development process doesn't work well for startup companies. He advocates a customer development process where you continuously evaluate your market, instead of just building something and burning through money before you realize there's nobody to buy your product.
it is called social engineering. "Business" types enforce the split, because "managing" engineers gives social power far easier than sweating yourself through the actual process of creating something for real.
The only catch is, you need to remember to give ribbons away and to make sure that your mushrooms are exchangeable/disposable: otherwise you get locked in and loose leverage.
This reminds me about what I once heard about McDonalds and Burger King. McDonalds was spend millions in finding the perfect spot for a new location. Burger King would then open one up across the street.
I don't know how true this is, but a good little tidbit of possibly true knowledge.
We spend far too much time trying to learn from market leaders. Places 2-n would be a great success for many of us and often different strategies are more effective when this is your goal.
This is why I am never upset to see something stupid/controversial from 37Signals make the rounds. If nothing else they are a rare voice from a company that is aiming for midsize.
Places 2-n would be a great success for many of us
But there are markets where natural monopolies are ... natural. What that means is that the winner will eat all the pie, and it will be difficult to survive, nevertheless prosper, as number 2. The desktop OS market comes to mind. There isn't and there will never be a second place commercial OS. The market is structured like that. Note that Mac OS, even if superficially a desktop OS, is actually in a different market segment, where it is actually well protected and the segment leader. Conflating it with Windows is based on technological similarity, not market similarity.
I'm pretty sure this is true of wal-mart. Where ever wal-mart builds a store, it doesn't take long for an Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's or some other family-type chain restaurant to go in.
