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Ryan Wu

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

Taiwan’s developers are good, and not paid like it. That much is obvious, for better or worse.

I read a piece on why marketers exist, and translated it here as a note to myself.

A warning to the half-serious version of me that keeps wandering off the work.

If those marketing people were not around:

  1. Fewer people would know we exist: customers, friends, and whoever follows a trail in from Google.
  2. extends 1 = less spending. (Commonly known as cost down.)
  3. implement 2 = developer salaries can go ++.
  4. No bonuses (also called commission, kickbacks, sales incentives…) NOR the moment I happen to “get an invitation” to join a company with a strong marketing team.
  5. R.I.P. GPWGFTCCW — stop saying a good product with good features can change the world.
    Great product with great functionalities that can change the world.

If there were no community managers (or any community strategy):

  1. No community behind us = we have to test every product “by every means available,” ourselves.
    Take a web CMS. Feature tests, module compatibility, real-user tests, browser compatibility — all on us.
    Hiring a QA team would be faster. It is also expensive. Smile

  2. No community behind us = how do you know what to improve, or what customers actually need?
    If a passionate community is not feeding you a pile of opinions to sort through, and product decisions ride on a handful of customer comments, how is that different from taking outsourcing work?

  3. No community behind us = where does the next product idea come from?
    Startup circles love “meet the user’s needs.” Nobody tells you how. You can ask the sky.

  4. No community behind us = who is going to tell you that you are wrong?
    Pulling back from the cliff, or mending the fence after the sheep are gone, sometimes works. More often you are halfway through washing your hair and decide to commit to the mistake.

  5. No community behind us = who writes the detailed docs, files the bugs, shares the joy of the product, or even cheers you on?

Hey, not bad! I like your product.

The original ends with this:

*I am so sorry, but someone should change the ordered list to start from 0/zero/. Starting from 1 is so lame.

Translation: sorry, but someone should make that list start at 0. Starting at 1 is lame.

Reading that, the obvious take is the old developer joke.

Under it, the line is doing more work: a marketing and community plan belongs in the plan even if you do not fund it on day one.

To sum up:

Stay focused, go to marketing, listen to users, evaluate feedback, keep improving and shipping.