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snapetomHNSource author
Business & incomeExperience excerpt · English

I was warned left and right before presentations and meetings, "this customer hates your product …

… I was warned left and right before presentations and meetings, "this customer hates your product because of ...." I started off every meeting with saying, "we're rearchitecting the product, this is how we're doing it, this is the tech we are using." Immediately there was a sense of relief from customers, followed by questions like, "why can't <current product> deliver <feature> that was promised?" I'm completely honest with bad decisions that were made and how it impacted the feature. Sure, there is skepticism on what we are doing, and I tell them they should absolutely be skeptical based on our track record. The result has been customers who have hated my product now offering to work with us on development. I've also been completely forthcoming on configuration, security, resources, and setup issues I am finding, many of them are absolutely freakin' insane. I've flat out told customers it's frankly embarrassing and never let us do something like this in the future. The best feedback on this was, "At least you're telling us something. …

Original discussionRapid growth, lessons learned and improvements at Fly.io455 source comments · at import
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YA
yamrzouHN

I'm not a user of Fly.io. I can't help but notice how remarkable the effect of open communication on potential end users like me. I remember reading about their reliability problems on HN some time ago. That biased my view of the company. After reading this, the open communication and transparency restored my trust in them, and would make them again a potential candidate for future projects. Because now I know that they acknowledge the problem and that they are trying to improve things.

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MR
mrkurtHN

I feel this. I hope you get over the hump and your job gets fun. We've had flashes, at least, but I do think what we're doing (and probably what you're doing) require some irrational behavior.

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zamnosHN

Can you help me in a detailed sense - what did you tell customers? did you literally say there's product is "completely over-engineered by a bunch of intellectual engineers with no focus, no discipline, and no oversight"? That seems a little over-honest to me but of course I wasn't there.

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ndneighborHN

Part of what I hated about Product Management at my last role was the consistent helplessness I felt when I was on calls with our customers. I could tell our product wasn't meeting their needs but all I could do was try my best to give the engineers context on how best to eventually meet them. I remember my first few days on the job just being ripped to shreds by our customers who (understandably) were slighted. Don't miss those days at all.

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claytonjyHN

Your job sure does sound depressing, and it's not one I would succeed at, but if you can power through and turn this product around that's a hell of an accomplishment you'll have to be proud of. I'm curious what you'd like to do next. You could probably have a great career doing these sorts of turnarounds repeatedly across companies, maybe even as a consultant, but would you want to?

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eyelidlessnessHN

When I was in an engineering IC version of this role, I longed for someone like you to have my back in management and have customers’ backs too. If I had a time machine and a magic lamp I’d team up with you. As a future representation of past me, I can tell you: 1. Everything it’s making you feel is valid. 1b. If you’re feeling burnt out, please listen to it. It gets worse if you let it. 2. While I can’t hire you now, I can already tell you’re eminently hireable. If you have any cautious inclination to move, you will probably be better served by greener pastures. 3. Just take care of yourself. 4. When 3 contradicts 2, favor 3.

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joshxyzHN

it is. i do enjoy programming, working with other devs, but as soon as i stepped into a product management role it's a hellishly different set of problems. you're in the middle of the tech, the developers, the problems, and the customers. lots of lessons in there. tiring, but worthwhile.

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anthlaxHN

Could you further elaborate on “intellectual engineers”? What mistakes were made? Esoteric languages? Obfuscating design patterns? Partially so I could learn from mistakes and partially since I’m a sucker for post-mortems :)

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