If developers are decision makers, they buy better tools
blog.airbriteinc.com
The rise of developers as decisionsmakers is changing the software industry, fragmenting the enterprise market and changing the way businesses communicate.
blog.airbriteinc.com
I agree with the bit about developers looking at software skeptically. Most of us do indeed think it doesn't work, it's a gimmick, and it could have been built better.
This isn't the first time people have said making developers happy was important... Anyone remember Steve Ballmer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE
For those who didn't see it, it's still on the blog.
"My question was: “OpenWorld is this totally all-about-business conference. The Oracle Develop meeting is just a second-rate sidebar. Where does Oracle go about building developer mindshare?”
"I’ll try to reproduce the answer in full as best as I can remember it:
“You don’t get it. The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship, between an Oracle business expert and a customer business leader. The issues that come up in their conversations are business issues.
“The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation; in fact, they’re apt to be dangerous distractions. ‘Developer mindshare’... what’s that, and why would Oracle care?”
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/08/31/A-Story-of...
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/24/oracle-is-bleeding-at-the-h...
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-20/oracle-losing-gr...
Not only is this an amazingly denigrating statement which implies that non-developers are all irrational and driven solely by emotion, it's completely out of touch with reality. "Non-developers" are the decision-makers in the vast majority of B2B purchases, and because "B2B" is so broad, it's hard to credibly make general statements like this.
That said, I don't know how anybody who has successfully sold a product or service to a non-developer can write that non-developers "don't really pay attention to specs and features." If anything, it's possible to argue that decision-makers often pay too much attention to specs and features and wind up buying more than they need.
> You make statements developers can test and prove to their satisfaction. They are deeply, deeply skeptical.
This is a significant overgeneralization. Are there skeptical developers who will thoroughly test a product or service before making a purchasing decision? Of course. But if you have been in the game long enough, you'll find that there are plenty of technical decision-makers who buy products and services without any real due diligence. There are a variety of reasons for this ranging from laziness to career security (i.e. "Nobody has been fired for using [x]").
I get the whole B2D concept, but a great developer isn't necessarily capable of making great purchasing decisions. A lot of companies, and startups in particular, are buying third-party "tools" that won't be around in five years, aren't well supported, can't scale beyond a certain point, aren't competitively priced, lock them into closed ecosystems and/or represent core functionality that should be built and maintained in-house. What looks "better" today can very well be a nightmare tomorrow.
Now instead of insulting the intelligence of non-developers who make B2B purchasing decisions, you're insulting the intelligence of everybody who is not a developer who makes any purchasing decision.
Do you honestly believe that folks who don't write code for a living never make logical, informed purchasing decisions, and that people who do write code for a living never make purchasing decisions based on feelings, aspirations or relationships?
I know that the SF/Silicon Valley "developers rule the world" mentality is intoxicating, but assuming that non-programmers are basically irrational, lesser beings is a huge mistake for any business.
I'm explaining how marketers need to communicate with developers differently. Those same marketers will probably have models for how a campaign should work. And those models, if they are effective, are brief and do not appeal to logic, because most people don't have the time to wade through lengthy arguments. Marketers have a few seconds to connect with consumers. They do so with images and emotion. The point is too self-evident to belabor.
The post wasn't arguing that developers rule the world. It was arguing that developers, due to several factors, are becoming more powerful in the world, and that new power has consequences.
Have you finished with your straw men?
I also grudgingly pay for one copy of ms office for compatibility reasons.
But generally, for functionality - I agree.
Virtual box just isnt cutting it.
Ive never liked clunky apps VB has always been clunky compared to VMware Fusion or Parallels. I'll pay for speed.
They're worth paying for for a reason.
While looking for something to fill a genuine need (as expressed by the technical development team) the sales and marketing might convince them they have a problem where they don't -- thus leading to purchasing something that nobody really needs, but is required to use because "we spent too much on it to let it go unused".
There's warehouses full of shelfware that got bought that way.
Chrome 29.0.1547.76 m on Win7
But, yes, still adverts.
"D stands for different."
Ok...