Many of your loyal customers have been and are being put though a lot of pain and agony due to how the Inspire One release has been handled. I really hope you have learned something from this and will never do it again.
I have been in the high tech business for over 40 years and I would like to share a story. Our company was working on a new and exciting product. We had a meeting where the engineers explained their plans and the schedule for finishing the product. They estimated that it would take four months to finish the product. Immediately a marketing type said that we must finish the product in three months because there was an important world wide show where we must introduce the new product. The engineers objected, but were over ridden and the management said that it must be finished in three months. The product was not compete, but was still introduced at the show. The early products were shipped to customers and it required a lot of support in the field to make them right. Many of our customers were not happy and it hurt the companies reputation.
What was learned? Engineers are always optimistic about their estimates. It usually takes longer that they estimate to finish a job. Add extra time to their estimates and do not subtract time off of their estimates. Do not let your project become driven by some external show or date that has nothing to do with the project.
Now let me guess what happened at another high tech company that we all love. The engineers prepared a schedule for completing the project. It showed that it would be late January before the product was ready for release. Remember you need to add some time on to this schedule. The marketing types said that the product must be introduced by November and be ready for sale by December 1st to sell during the Christmas season. Of course we all know the rest of this story.
What is the moral to this story? Listen to the engineers. Add extra time to their estimates. Don’t release a product before it is ready.
One more thing…my company fired the marketing type who insisted we had to release by the show!
I hope you have learned your lesson and will not do it again.
It would be very nice if you appoligized to your loyal customers and communicated with them your recovery plans at this time.
One of your hurting customers who is still waiting for his extra batteries, props, iOS app, and chargers,
Ray
|